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Getting started

What you need​

  • Go 1.25 or a compatible version accepted by the module
  • A Zsh source file to inspect

Zsh itself is strongly recommended for a native syntax check, but the linter binary is written in Go and does not source or execute the file it analyzes.

Install a reproducible version​

go install github.com/z-shell/zsh-lint/cmd/zsh-lint@v1.1.0

Confirm that your shell can find it:

zsh-lint 2>&1 | head -n 1

Seeing the usage line confirms the binary runs. It exits with status 2 because no input path was supplied. If the command is not found, use:

"$(go env GOPATH)/bin/zsh-lint" 2>&1 | head -n 1

Make a small input​

Save this as hello.zsh:

#!/usr/bin/env zsh

emulate -R zsh
print -r -- "${1:-hello}"

Check native Zsh syntax, then run semantic analysis:

zsh -f -n -- hello.zsh
zsh-lint hello.zsh

No output and exit status 0 means the file parsed and no warning or error was reported. A finding looks like this:

hello.zsh:4:13: [quoting/unquoted-var] Variable expansion should be double-quoted

The bracketed value is the rule ID. Use it to find rule details or write a narrow suppression.

Check more than one file​

zsh-lint bin/build.zsh functions/example-run example.plugin.zsh

Each argument must be a readable file. Zsh Lint does not recurse through a directory or read source from standard input in v1.1.0.

Next, read Choosing files before applying the command to a mixed-language repository.