use rules by a flag¶

List the objectives of rules MD012, MD022, MD031 and MD032:

mdl -r MD012,MD022,MD031,MD032 -l
    

Scrutinize file example.md only by rules MD012, MD022, MD031 and MD032:

mdl -r MD012,MD022,MD031,MD032 example.md
    

Scrutinize file example.md by all rules available except MD033 and MD034:

mdl -r ~MD033,~MD034 example.md
    

List all rules associated to the tag indentation:

mdl -t indentation -l
    

Scrutinize file example.md by all rules without tag indentation:

mdl -t ~indentation example.md
    

By default, markdownlint reports sort the issues by their rule. With GNU coreutils, your shell may resort the output by the corresponding line number of the file:

mdl example.md | sort -t ":" -k 2 -n
    

use rules by a local style file¶

Recurrent (personalized) check criteria can be saved as a style file, for instance mystyle.rb. The snippet below illustrates the syntax available. Instead of pairs of single quotes, pairs of double quotes may be used, too.

all  # initiate with all rules implemented
rule 'MD013', :line_length => 100, :ignore_code_blocks => true
exclude_rule 'MD014'
# tag :blockquote
exclude_tag :indentation
    

List the rules a local style file activates:

mdl -s mystyle.rb -l
    

A personalized local style then is used by

mdl -s mystyle.rb example.md
    

Local flags are of higher priority than a local style file. Therefore, the next command removes rule MD013 from consideration, regardless of any definition about said rule in mystyle.rb:

mdl -s mystyle.rb -r ~MD013 example.md
    

use rules by a global style file¶

To deploy a markdownlint style all across your computer, set up a style file (e.g., mystyle.rb). Second, add a .mdlrc file to your home directory to indicate the location of said style file by

style "#{File.dirname(__FILE__)}/{your_markdown_rule_file_path}.rb"
    

Subsequently, a call by

mdl example.md
    

then applies the global style set. In similar logic as above, a local style file overrules definitions of a global style, i.e.

mdl example.md -s local_style.rb
    

use rules for a project with continuous integration¶

The setup of a markdownlint style per project equally consists of two files. As an example, define .exclude_example.rb with

# First, include all rules:
all
# Then, exclude MD013 (long lines), with:
exclude_rule 'MD013'
    

as a style file, and a .mdlrc as indicator of its location with

#The custom style file is referenced by .mdlrc as below
style ".exclude_example.rb"
    

at the current root. Again, a call like

mdl example.md
    

then applies the rules defined.