mrtazz/checkmake

---
title: checkmake(1) checkmake User Manuals | checkmake User Manuals
author: Daniel Schauenberg <d@unwiredcouch.com>
date: REPLACE_DATE
---

# NAME
**checkmake** -- experimental linter for Makefiles

# SYNOPSIS

**checkmake** \[options\] makefile ...

# DESCRIPTION
`checkmake` is an experimental linter for Makefiles. It allows for a set of
configurable rules being run against a Makefile or a set of `\*.mk` files.

# OPTIONS

**-h**, **--help**
:    Show a friendly help message.

**--version**
:    Show version.

**--debug**
:    Enable debug mode

**--config=\<configPath\>**
:    Configuration file to read

**--format=\<format\>**
:    Output format as a Golang text/template template

**--list-rules**
:    List registered rules

# CONFIGURATION
By default checkmake looks for a `checkmake.ini` file in the same folder it's
executed in. This can be overridden by passing the `--config=` argument
pointing it to a different configuration file. With the configuration file
the `[default]` section is for checkmake itself while sections named after the
rule names are passed to the rules as their configuration. All keys/values are
hereby treated as strings and passed to the rule in a string/string map.

The following configuration options for checkmake itself are supported within
the `default` section:

**default.format**
:    This enables the custom output formatter with the given template string
as a format


# EXIT STATUS
checkmake exits with the following status:

```
 0:   checkmake ran successfully and found 0 violations
>1:   checkmake found the number of violations reflected by the exit status
```

In addition to checkmake having found 1 violation, exit status 1 is also used
to denote an error in execution happening.

# BUGS
Please file bugs against the issue tracker:
https://github.com/mrtazz/checkmake/issues

# SEE ALSO
make(1)