User guide

This is short overview of how to use Robocop together with links to more extensive documentation.

You can run lint scan on Robot Framework code by simply running:

robocop path/to/file/files

Robocop accepts files or directories as path. You can also specify multiple paths:

robocop file.robot resources/etc test.robot

Including or excluding rules

Rules can be included or excluded from command line. It is also possible to disable rule(s) from Robot Framework source code. More in Including and excluding rules.

Loading configuration from file

You can load arguments for Robocop from file with:

--argumentfile jenkins_args.txt

If no arguments are provided to Robocop it will try to find .robocop file and load it from there. It will start looking from current directory and go up until it founds it or ‘.git’ file is found. .robocop file supports the same syntax as given from cli:

--include rulename
# inline comment
--reports all

If there is no .robocop file present it will try to load pyproject.toml file (if there is toml module installed). Robocop use [tool.robocop] section. Options have the same names as CLI arguments. Example configuration file:

[tool.robocop]
paths = [
    "tests\\atest\\rules\\bad-indent",
    "tests\\atest\\rules\\duplicated-library"
]
include = ['W0504', '*doc*']
exclude = ["0203"]
reports = [
    "rules_by_id",
    "scan_timer"
]
ignore = ["ignore_me.robot"]
ext-rules = ["path_to_external\\dir"]
filetypes = [".txt", ".csv"]
threshold = "E"
format = "{source}:{line}:{col} [{severity}] {rule_id} {desc} (name)"
output = "robocop.log"
configure = [
    "line-too-long:line_length:150",
    "0201:severity:E"
]
no_recursive = true

Listing available rules

To get list of available rules (with enabled/disabled status) use -l / --list option:

robocop --list
Rule - 0201 [W]: missing-doc-keyword: Missing documentation in keyword (enabled)
Rule - 0202 [W]: missing-doc-testcase: Missing documentation in test case (enabled)
Rule - 0203 [W]: missing-doc-suite: Missing documentation in suite (enabled)
(...)

If some of the rules are disabled from CLI it will be reflected in output:

robocop --exclude 02* --list
Rule - 0201 [W]: missing-doc-keyword: Missing documentation in keyword (disabled)
Rule - 0202 [W]: missing-doc-testcase: Missing documentation in test case (disabled)
Rule - 0203 [W]: missing-doc-suite: Missing documentation in suite (enabled)
(...)

Rules list can be filtered out by glob pattern:

robocop --list tag*
Rule - 0601 [W]: tag-with-space: Tags should not contain spaces (enabled)
Rule - 0602 [I]: tag-with-or-and: Tag with reserved word OR/AND. Hint: make sure to include this tag using lowercase name to avoid issues (enabled)
Rule - 0603 [W]: tag-with-reserved: Tag prefixed with reserved word `robot:`. Only allowed tag with this prefix is robot:no-dry-run (enabled)
Rule - 0606 [I]: tag-already-set-in-force-tags: This tag is already set by Force Tags in suite settings (enabled)

Use -lc \ --list-configurables argument to list rules together with available configurable parameters. Optional pattern argument is also supported:

robocop --list-configurables empty-lines-between-section
Rule - 1003 [W]: empty-lines-between-sections: Invalid number of empty lines between sections (%d/%d) (enabled).
    Available configurable(s) for this rule:
        empty_lines

Ignoring file

Path matching glob pattern can be ignored (or skipped during scan). You can pass list of patterns:

robocop --ignore *.robot,resources/* --ignore special_file.txt

Format output message

Format of rules output messages can be redefined. More in messages documentation: Rules.

Configuring rules

Rules are configurable. Severity of every rule message can be changed and also some of the rules have optional parameters. More on this in Rules.

Save output to file

You can redirect output of Robocop to a file by using pipes (> in unix) or by -o / --output argument:

robocop --output robocop.log

Generating reports

You can generate reports after run. Available reports are described in Reports.

Return status

Come quietly or there will be... trouble. - Robocop

Return status of Robocop depends on number of issues reported per given severity level and the quality gates. Quality gates are the number specified for each severity (error, warning, info) that cannot be exceeded. Every violation of quality gates increases the return code by 1 up to maximum of 255. Default levels are following:

quality_gate = {
          'E': 0,
          'W': 0,
          'I': -1
      }

Number -1 means that return status is not affected by number of issues for given message. Default values can be configured by -c/--configure and return_status:quality_gate param:

robocop --configure return_status:quality_gate:E=100:W=100:I=9

Preceding example configuration results in following levels:

quality_gate = {
          'E': 100,
          'W': 100,
          'I': 9
      }