GitHub formatter

[hazzik]

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.
When running revive within GitHub Actions workflows, there isn't a built-in formatter that directly produces output compatible with GitHub Actions annotations. This means users need to manually parse the output of existing formatters (like default or json) or use external tools/actions to convert the linting results into annotations that appear directly on pull requests or commit diffs. This adds unnecessary complexity to CI/CD pipelines.

Describe the solution you'd like
Introduce a new formatter specifically for GitHub Actions. This formatter, named github, should output each linting failure in the format required by GitHub Actions workflow commands for annotations: ::{{severity}} file={name},line={line},endLine={endLine},title={title}::{message}. This will allow GitHub Actions to automatically create annotations in the UI based on revive's output.

Describe alternatives you've considered

1. Manual Parsing/Conversion: Could pipe the output of an existing formatter (e.g., json) to a script (e.g., using jq or a custom script) that converts it into the GitHub Actions format. This requires extra scripting and maintenance within the workflow.
2. Third-Party Actions: Using existing marketplace GitHub Actions that wrap revive and handle the output formatting (like https://github.com/morphy2k/revive-action). This introduces dependencies on external actions which might have their own limitations or maintenance concerns.

Additional context
N/A

[ccoVeille]

Thanks for your detailed issue, and the related PR

Could pipe the output of an existing formatter (e.g., json) to a script (e.g., using jq or a custom script) that converts it into the GitHub Actions format. This requires extra scripting and maintenance within the workflow.

For documentation purpose, do you have any real life example of project doing this?

I tried to find some, but I didn't

Thanks

[hazzik]

Sorry, I don't have public examples. We use it in private repository. Here's a snippet from our action:

      - name: Run revive
        run: |
          revive -config=revive.toml -formatter=ndjson | \
          jq -r '
            "::\(.Severity) file=\(.Position.Start.Filename),line=\(.Position.Start.Line),endLine=\(.Position.End.Line),title=\(.RuleName)::\(.Failure)"
          '

[alexandear]

Thanks for the suggestion and the detailed proposal! I need some time to think this over.

Third-Party Actions: Using existing marketplace GitHub Actions that wrap revive and handle the output formatting (like morphy2k/revive-action). This introduces dependencies on external actions which might have their own limitations or maintenance concerns.

We should consider introducing an official GitHub Action for revive itself or marking morphy2k/revive-action as "an official".

Note that golangci-lint team deprecated the github-actions format because it's redundant (see golangci/golangci-lint#4726). It might be excessive for revive as well.

[hazzik]

@alexandear thanks for reviewing. What format did you use to get the result? Would it be the default one?

[alexandear]

@alexandear thanks for reviewing. What format did you use to get the result? Would it be the default one?

Sorry, my previous answer was not correct. I need to research it a bit and will answer later.

[hazzik]

@alexandear thanks for the tip. I've checked and there are 2 formatters that work out of the box with actions/setup-go problem matcher: plain and unix. I'll close this issue.

[ccoVeille]

While the issue is now closed, I opened a dedicated issue about this

We should consider introducing an official GitHub Action for revive itself or marking morphy2k/revive-action as "an official".

• revive-action GHA status #1332

Because I feel like it should be addressed