Use PyLint to check Python code

Applies to: Visual Studio Visual Studio for Mac

PyLint, a widely used tool that checks for errors in Python code and encourages good Python coding patterns, is integrated into Visual Studio for Python projects.

Run PyLint

Just right-click a Python project in Solution Explorer and select Python > Run PyLint:

Using this command prompts you to install PyLint into your active environment if it's not already present.

PyLint warnings and errors appear in the Error List window:

Double-clicking an error takes you directly to the source code that generated the issue.

Set PyLint command-line options

The command-line options section of the PyLint documentation describes how to control PyLint's behavior through a .pylintrc configuration file. Such a file can be placed in the root of a Python project in Visual Studio or elsewhere depending on how widely you want those settings applied (see the command-line options for details).

For example, to suppress the "missing docstring" warnings shown in the previous image with a .pylintrc file in a project, do the steps:

1. On the command line, navigate to your project root (which has your .pyproj file) and run the following command to generate a commented configuration file:

   pylint --generate-rcfile > .pylintrc
   

2. In Visual Studio Solution Explorer, right-click your project, select Add > Existing Item, navigate to the new .pylintrc file, select it, and select Add.

3. Open the file for editing, which has several settings you can work with. To disable a warning, locate the [MESSAGES CONTROL] section, then locate the disable setting in that section. There's a long string of specific messages, to which you can append whichever warnings you want. In the example here, append ,missing-docstring (including the delineating comma).

4. Save the .pylintrc file and run PyLint again to see that the warnings are now suppressed.