locali

A linter for Forma.Framework.Localization. It reads locale files against the runtime's own rules, and every IStringLocale callsite in C#, Visual Basic and Razor against what the runtime will do with it, and reports what would throw, render wrong, or quietly stay in English.

Two things go wrong quietly in a localized codebase, and a build catches neither:

• A lookup throws, or renders the wrong thing. L["Stored {stored} of {total}.", 1] supplies one value for two holes and throws at run time. A Hebrew translation that writes {stord} renders those seven characters literally, in front of a user.
• A string silently stays in English. Adding L["Details columns"] to a component whose he and es files already exist leaves both files behind, and falling back to the key is exactly what the runtime is defined to do, so nothing anywhere complains.

Quick Start

The binary is locali, shipped on nuget.org as the dotnet tool formaui-net.Locali. A repository pins it in its tool manifest and restores it, so every machine runs one version; a preview installs only when it's asked for:

dotnet new tool-manifest
dotnet tool install formaui-net.Locali --prerelease
dotnet locali --path <target>

To run it from source instead:

dotnet run --project src/Forma.Locali -- --path <target>

Lint a whole solution, skipping the test fixtures that are malformed on purpose:

locali --path ../formaui-net/Forma.slnx --exclude "*/Fixtures/*"

Errors are reported by default; --severity warning reads the warnings as well. The examples below use locali for the built binary.

What It Checks Against

The linter never re-derives how a file is found: it runs the runtime's own resolution over the project tree, so it places a file exactly where the application will. One type, Forma.Blazor.Components.Bars.FormaToolbar, and the files that can localize it in he:

src/Forma.Blazor/.locales/he.json                                   { "Components.Bars.FormaToolbar": { "Bold": "מודגש" } }
src/Forma.Blazor/Components/Bars/.locales/he.json                   { "FormaToolbar": { "Bold": "מודגש" } }
src/Forma.Blazor/Components/Bars/.locales/FormaToolbar.he.json      { "Bold": "מודגש" }
src/Forma.Blazor/Strings/.locales/he.json                           { "@.Components.Bars.FormaToolbar": { "Bold": "מודגש" } }

A folder is a namespace; a file is the folder's, named for the culture and sectioned by type, or a type's own, named for the type; a section starting with @. names a type from the assembly's root from anywhere. A host overrides any of them from the .locales folder at its root, a folder for each assembly laid out by the type's name, the file directly in its folder, which an application's build embeds and a project file may copy beside the application instead:

.locales/Forma.Blazor/Components/Bars/he.json                       { "FormaToolbar": { "Bold": "עבה" } }
.locales/Forma.Blazor/Components/Bars/FormaToolbar.he.json          { "Bold": "עבה" }

The rules that read a type's files, LOC0112 and LOC0207 among them, read a project's own embedded files, whatever folder they sit in; a host's folder translates other assemblies' types, so the file rules read it and the type-bound rules do not, whether its files are embedded or copied, and LOC0117 reads its embedded files and its copied ones as two sources, as the runtime does. A locale pack, a project declaring IsLocalePack, is a host's folder that ships as an assembly: its top-level folders name the assemblies it localizes, each laid out by the root namespace that assembly declares. The type-bound rules read a pack's folder for the project it names, so a pack's files are held to that project's types and callsites as its own files are, LOC0117 reads each pack as a source of its own, and LOC0024 reports a folder that names no assembly the solution builds or references. Forma.Framework.Localization's README walks the whole layout; this document covers the linter.

Options

Usage: locali --path <file-or-directory> [--report [<path>]] [--exclude <glob>]
              [--severity <level>] [--property <name>=<value>]

  --path     The file or directory to lint. A directory is searched recursively.
  --report   Write a JSON report. Defaults to localization-report.json in the
             current directory; a path ending in .json names the file, and any
             other path names the directory to write the default name into.
  --exclude  Leave every file whose path matches the glob unread. May be given
             more than once. Matching is case-insensitive against the whole
             path written with forward slashes, and '*' spans separators, so
             '*/Fixtures/*' skips a folder wherever it sits.
  --severity The lowest severity to report: 'error' or 'warning'. 'warning'
             includes both warnings and errors. Defaults to 'error'; omitted
             warnings do not fail the run, and the summary briefs them by rule.
  --property An MSBuild property every project is loaded with, written as
             'Configuration=Release'. May be given more than once. A project
             loads as its default build otherwise, so what it compiles or
             embeds only under another configuration goes unseen.

--path accepts a .json file, a .cs, .vb or .razor file, a .csproj or .vbproj, a .sln/.slnx, or a directory. A directory is searched for .json, .cs, .vb and .razor, skipping bin and obj. Source files are linted through the project that owns them, found by walking up to the nearest .csproj or .vbproj.

--exclude is what makes a test tree lintable: a fixture that is malformed on purpose reports what it exists to prove. A .locali.json file's excludeFiles entry does the same without a flag on every invocation, its ignoreDiagnostics entry leaves a named file out of named rules, and its localeSources entry says where each part of the tree keeps its translations. A run reads one such file, the nearest at or above the path it was given; Rules describes all three entries under the linting configuration.

--severity decides what counts as a finding. An error is something the runtime will get wrong; a warning is something worth changing that still loads.

--property names the build being linted. A project is read as MSBuild evaluates it, and without a property that is its default build, so a locale file embedded only under Release reads as one the project does not embed. --property Configuration=Release loads the compilation and the embedded files alike under that build.

Output

Console output is MSBuild-formatted, so an editor can navigate it:

path(line,col): severity CODE: message

A diagnostic below --severity, or one the linting configuration leaves out, is left out of the console, the JSON report and the exit code alike, but a run still briefs what it left out, so nothing disappears without a trace:

Linted 658 file(s); 6 diagnostic(s).

8 diagnostic(s) not shown:
  - LOC0106 (1)
  - LOC0204 (1), LOC0207 (4), LOC0208 (2)
Pass --severity warning to read them.

The brief names each rule and how many it contributed, a line per family. Its closing line only promises what raising --severity will reveal: where the linting configuration accounts for some or all of what is left out, it says so instead.

Exit code	Meaning
0	Every file linted clean at the reported severity
1	At least one diagnostic was reported
2	The command line was wrong, or a path could not be read

--report writes a JSON report carrying fileCount, diagnosticCount, suppressedCount, ignoredCount — how many of the suppressed diagnostics the linting configuration left out rather than the severity — and a diagnostics array of path, line, column, severity, code, message.

How Callsites Are Found

Callsites are found semantically where the compilation binds IStringLocale, and syntactically otherwise. The semantic path reads the operation tree the compiler binds, which has one shape for every language it compiles, and asks it only about the nodes a lookup can be written as, an element access or a call named Resolve, so a member holding neither is never bound; the syntactic path reads C# or Visual Basic syntax, cannot resolve overloads, and so leaves the rules that count values silent.

Almost every callsite lives in .razor, which reaches Roslyn only through the Razor source generator. The linter runs that generator itself, so nothing has to be emitted to disk and no build property is needed; locali --path MyProject.csproj is enough. LOC0205 covers the case where a project produced no generated Razor all the same. The linter runs on the SDK's own compiler so that the generator always loads, described under Contributing.

Rules

docs/linting-rules.md has an entry per rule: what it reports, why it matters at run time, what fixes it, and where it stays silent on purpose. The linting configuration reports under 100, a file rule in the 100s, and a callsite rule in the 200s.

Code	Severity	Reports
LOC0020	Error	The linting configuration is not readable JSON, does not follow its shape, or names a rule this linter does not define
LOC0021	Warning	An entry in the linting configuration applied to no file the run reached
LOC0022	Error	The runtime's .locale.json is not readable, names a key the runtime does not read, gives a value it would refuse, is one of two for an assembly, sits anywhere but its project's root, or sits in a locale pack
LOC0023	Warning	The root namespace the runtime counts a type's name from holds none of the project's types
LOC0024	Error	A locale pack's folder names an assembly the solution neither builds nor references
LOC0025	Warning	A locale file comes from a source its localeSources line does not allow, a pack's file held to the line over the project it localizes
LOC0026	Warning	A .locali.json sits beneath the path the run was given, other than the one the run reads
LOC0100	Error	The file is not readable JSON
LOC0101	Error	The file carries no $localization entry
LOC0102	Warning	The metadata entry is not the file's first property
LOC0103	Error	The metadata entry does not follow the field grammar
LOC0104	Error	The metadata entry omits a required field
LOC0105	Warning	The metadata entry declares its required fields out of order
LOC0106	Error	The file is written for a schema this build does not define
LOC0107	Warning	The metadata entry declares an unknown field
LOC0108	Error	The file declares a culture its own name does not give it
LOC0109	Error	A translation fills a hole its key does not name
LOC0110	Error	A translation writes text shaped like a hole the runtime cannot read
LOC0111	Error	The file declares the same key more than once
LOC0112	Error	A locale file, or a section of one, names a type that does not exist
LOC0113	Warning	The file translates the same key differently across its sections
LOC0114	Warning	A reserved entry sits after an entry it has to precede
LOC0115	Error	A key or section is shaped like a reserved entry the runtime does not define
LOC0116	Error	The $shared entry is not an object holding translations alone
LOC0117	Warning	Two files of one source stand for one anchor in one culture
LOC0118	Warning	A folder of locale files is named for a type
LOC0119	Warning	A type is translated in one culture family the project's files or packs carry and left out of another
LOC0200	Error	An expression reads a name nothing supplies
LOC0201	Error	The value count does not match the key's distinct holes
LOC0202	Error	An expression naming no argument is given no value
LOC0203	Error	A key carries a malformed expression
LOC0204	Warning	A plural expression omits other
LOC0205	Warning	A project's Razor markup went unchecked
LOC0206	Error	A key writes text shaped like a hole the runtime cannot read
LOC0207	Warning	A key is not answered in a culture its type is translated for
LOC0208	Warning	A lookup writes its key as an expression
LOC0209	Warning	A key carries holes but no words anywhere else
LOC0210	Warning	An expression key carries no words in any field
LOC0211	Error	A lookup writes its key as an interpolated string with holes
LOC0212	Error	A lookup writes a key shaped like a reserved entry
LOC0213	Error	A lookup supplies string.Format's format text

Contributing

Layout

The engine, src/Forma.Locali.Engine, holds everything a run does and registers it through AddLocaliEngine; the tool, src/Forma.Locali, is the locali command around it. Both have the root namespace Forma.Locali, so a folder's namespace is the same in either project.

Project	Folder	Holds
Engine	Cli/	Target resolution, the options a run takes, the shared glob matcher
Engine	Configuration/	Reading .locali.json into the linting configuration a run applies, and .locale.json for the runtime's rule
Engine	Diagnostics/	LintingCode, the LintingCodes catalogue, LintingDiagnostic
Engine	Documents/	The locale format, ILocaleFormat, and its JSON implementation, which reads a locale file into ordered entries with offsets
Engine	Linting/	The services that drive file and schema linting
Engine	Projects/	MSBuild loading
Engine	Rules/	Rule contracts, rule contexts, shared hole-name reading
Engine	Rules/Files/	Rules over a locale file
Engine	Rules/Sources/	Rules over a callsite
Engine	Rules/Projects/	Rules over a project's locale files read whole
Engine	Sources/	Finding callsites, and resolving a project's locale files, and the locale packs carrying files for it, for the project rules
Tool	Cli/	Argument parsing and exit codes
Tool	Projects/	Binding Roslyn to the SDK's copy
Tool	Reporting/	Console and JSON reporters

Adding a Rule

1. Add a LintingCode to Diagnostics/LintingCodes.cs and to its All list, numbered under 100 for the linting configuration, in the 100s for a file rule, or in the 200s for a callsite rule; a project rule is numbered for what it reports about, a config file, a locale file, or a callsite.
2. Implement ILocalizationFileRuleChecker, ICallsiteRuleChecker, or IProjectRuleChecker under Rules/Files/, Rules/Sources/, or Rules/Projects/. Expose the code through Code and report through the context, which owns the position.
3. Register it in AddLocaliEngine, and in the matching test factory under tests/Forma.Locali.Engine.Tests/Support/.
4. Write its entry in docs/linting-rules.md and its row in the table above.

LintCodesTests fails if a rule reports under a code missing from the catalogue, if two codes share an id, if two rules in the same family report under the same code, or if a file or callsite rule reports outside its family's range. The range rule means the same idea checked on both sides of a call needs two codes, one per family, as LOC0110 and LOC0206 show. A rule that needs to report two different things is two rules regardless of family.

HoleNames reads the names a format refers to its values by, and matches the runtime's LocalizedFormat.Names. Use it rather than scanning for braces; a plural expression names its argument in brackets, and escaped braces are literal text. A rule that depends on how values reach the callsite reads context.Site.Arguments and returns when it is Unknown.

Build and Test

dotnet build Forma.Locali.slnx
dotnet test tests/Forma.Locali.Engine.Tests
dotnet test tests/Forma.Locali.Tests
dotnet format Forma.Locali.slnx --verify-no-changes

tests/Forma.Locali.Engine.Tests tests the engine, and tests/Forma.Locali.Tests tests the tool: its command line, its reporters, and the project loads only a run of the built tool can show. build.ps1 runs the build, both test projects and the format check, the fast gate, and -Clean removes every bin, obj and artifacts folder first so they start from nothing. build.ps1 -Full runs the full gate: the fast gate, then it packs the tool and verifies the package, as Versioning sets out.

SourceLinterTestFactory.Lint compiles a class body against the real IStringLocale and returns what the callsite rules report, so a rule is tested against a bound compilation rather than a stub. Run a new rule over the sibling Forma repository before trusting it; it lints clean, so anything a rule reports there is a false positive. It does not cover every shape a callsite can take — nothing there passes a values collection whole — so those belong in unit tests.

Versioning

Locali follows FormaUI/Versioning v1.0.0-preview.1, which sets out how it versions, branches, commits, releases and packages its work, and leaves Locali to state:

• Its public contract is the command line: the options, the console output's format and the exit codes under Output, the JSON report --report writes, and the rule ids in the rules tables, each with what it reports and its severity.
• Its version is declared once, by Version in src/Forma.Locali/Forma.Locali.csproj, and the package, the release's tag and the changelog repeat it.
• Its fast gate is ./build.ps1, which ci.yml runs on every push but main's and on every pull request, with a lint of the sibling Forma's dev. Its full gate is ./build.ps1 -Full, which packs the tool, checks the package against its inventory, installs it from a local feed outside the checkout and runs it over a sample project; full.yml runs it on every push to candidate, with the fast gate on Windows and the lint of Forma, and keeps the verified package as the artifact packages.
• Its package is formaui-net.Locali on nuget.org, a .NET tool for net11.0 whose command is locali, depending on no package. It holds the files package-files.txt lists, with its symbols beside it as a .snupkg; the SDK builds a tool's symbol package from the .pdb files the tool holds, so those stay in the package as well.
• Its release is published by release.yml, as Releasing sets out.
• Its changelog is CHANGELOG.md.

A commit's message follows Versioning's commits.

Releasing

A release follows Versioning's releases: the version and the changelog entry's date are set on dev, candidate fast-forwards to dev's tip so full.yml runs on it, a pull request from candidate into main passes the promotion check and main fast-forwards to it, and a release signer tags main:

git tag -s v1.0.0-preview.11 -m "Locali 1.0.0-preview.11"
git push origin v1.0.0-preview.11

The tag's push runs release.yml, which holds the tag to the release check, attaches the package full.yml verified to the tag's GitHub release with its digest, and publishes it to nuget.org through trusted publishing, as soyeyalon, the account whose policy names this repository and release.yml. A failed publication runs again for the same tag.

Roslyn Is The SDK's Compiler

The Razor generator ships inside the SDK, built against the SDK's own Roslyn, and Roslyn refuses to load a generator built against a newer compiler than its host: it reports ReferencesNewerCompiler and returns no generators at all. The linter therefore ships no Roslyn. It runs on the compiler of the SDK it finds, the one every generator of that SDK is built against, so a newer SDK needs nothing changed here.

SdkCompiler binds to Roslyn/bincore under the SDK, the folder csc and vbc run from, in a [ModuleInitializer], since resolution has to be registered before the first Roslyn type loads, which is earlier than Main. The engine's Microsoft.CodeAnalysis.CSharp and Microsoft.CodeAnalysis.VisualBasic packages carry ExcludeAssets="runtime" so they stay reference-only, and PrivateAssets="all" so they reach neither the tool nor anything else that references the engine, and their version is the oldest Roslyn API the linter is written against: a newer compiler runs code built against an older one, as it does for every analyzer. When no compiler is found the linter stops with exit code 2 and says where it looked.

A project is loaded in one MSBuild design-time build, which runs the project's own targets up to the compiler and hands back what it would have been given, together with the names the build embeds each resource under. CompilerCommandLine turns those arguments into a compilation and runs the generators they name, as the compiler would. The targets run in one build because a second build of the same project instance fails, and every project of a run builds inside one MSBuild session in one project collection, so the SDK's targets are parsed once and what MSBuild resolves for one project, its SDKs and assembly references among it, serves the next. MSBuild builds one project after another on a thread of its own, the compiler turns each built project into a compilation on the cores beside it, several at a time, and a project's callsites are linted as soon as its compilation lands, in whatever order they land; the project rules run once every project is loaded, since a locale pack's folders resolve against the whole run. A referenced project is evaluated only where the assembly it builds is missing, in a tree that was never built, and its compilation stands in for the assembly.

MSBuild itself is loaded from the installed SDK through MSBuildLocator, so the Microsoft.Build packages stay reference-only too.

License

Locali is licensed under the Apache License 2.0. This supersedes any license an earlier release was published under: every release is available under the Apache License 2.0.