dart_code_linter 4.3.0

Dart Code Linter is a software analytics tool that helps developers analyse and improve software quality. Dart Code Linter is based on a fork of Dart Code Metrics.

Changelog

4.3.0

• Add opt-in detection of unused public members in type declarations to check-unused-code, enabled via the --analyze-public-members CLI flag or the unused-code.analyze-public-members analysis-options key and disabled by default. It is independent of analyze-private-members, so a large project can keep the cheaper private members check on while leaving this one off. Members that cannot be seen to be used through a reference are skipped instead of reported: members overriding or implementing an inherited member (found by walking allSupertypes, which also covers toString/hashCode/noSuchMethod and overrides written without @override), members carrying an annotation that says they are called from elsewhere (@override, @mustBeOverridden, @visibleForOverriding, @redeclare, @protected, @visibleForTesting, @JS, @pragma('vm:entry-point')), members exported to JavaScript with @JSExport (counted from the enclosing class too, but there only for its instance members, since a class level annotation never wraps statics; a class level @pragma('vm:entry-point') deliberately does not work this way at all, as it only permits allocation from native code and leaves members needing their own pragma), members whose name is invoked or read on a dynamic target anywhere in the program, toJson (called by json.encode rather than by reference), enum constants of an enum whose values is referenced, and unnamed constructors (their invocations carry no identifier to record; named constructors are analyzed).
• Record usages of members reached without an identifier: binary, index, unary and increment operator invocations (a + b, a[b], -a, a++) and implicit call invocations previously marked only the enclosing extension as used, so a class's operators looked unused as soon as member analysis was on. The combiner of a compound assignment (a += b, which reaches operator +) was recorded nowhere at all, so an extension whose operator is used only that way was falsely reported even by the default top-level analysis. Operators and implicit call invocations on a dynamic target resolve to no element and are now recorded by the member name they reach, the same way dynamic method calls and property reads are.
• Fix the legacy analyzer plugin loader silently loading the wrong DCL version. The analysis server copies tools/analyzer_plugin/pubspec.yaml verbatim and resolves it against pub.dev, so its dart_code_linter range (frozen at <4.2.0 since 4.1.7) resolved to 4.1.9 for anyone on 4.2.0 or later: the IDE ran 4.1.9's rules while the CLI ran the installed version, with no error, because a satisfying version always exists. Restored the exact version pin used up to 4.0.1, so each release's loader loads exactly that release.
• Fix a false negative in check-unused-code with analyze-private-members enabled: a used class member no longer marks a dead top-level declaration of the same name as used (a class calling its own dispose used to hide an unused top-level dispose function). The name based fallback that works around dart-lang/sdk#49182 now requires both sides to agree on whether they are members, which cannot introduce false positives because member dispatch never resolves to a library level declaration.
• Document the --analyze-private-members flag and the unused-code.analyze-private-members analysis-options key in the README, including their precedence and known limitations.
• Extend the private members test coverage to mixin, enum and extension type members, static members, and member level // ignore: unused-code suppressions.
• Fix a false negative in avoid-non-configurable-callbacks-in-init-state where a named argument whose label reads widget or a known callback method name (e.g. Options(widget: child)) was mistaken for a real reference to the state's widget getter or to that method, suppressing the warning. Reproducible only on analyzer 10-12, where a named argument's label is a Label-wrapped identifier; analyzer 13+ uses a bare token for it instead.
• Fix a false negative in avoid-non-exhaustive-switch-on-sealed-classes where a parenthesized wildcard case (case (_):) was not recognized as defeating exhaustiveness the same way a bare _ does.

4.2.2

• Fix Analysis Server plugin configuration loading across supported Dart runtimes.

4.2.1

• Fix prefer-dot-shorthands to also flag unnamed constructor calls (suggesting .new(...)) and enum/static member access used as a switch statement/expression case pattern matched against the switch's scrutinee type — both were previously left unflagged.

4.2.0

• Fix Analysis Server plugin rule configuration on Dart 3.13 by keeping plugin diagnostics scalar and loading full options from dart_code_linter.rules.
• Add the avoid-non-configurable-callbacks-in-init-state rule, which flags a State.initState that configures a widget-supplied object (e.g. widget.controller.setNavigationDelegate(...)) with a callback object whose named callbacks never reference the widget's own fields — a sign the behavior is fully hardcoded with no way for callers of the widget to customize it.
• Add the avoid-non-exhaustive-switch-on-sealed-classes rule, which flags a default/wildcard (_) case in a switch statement or expression over a sealed type. Relying on a fallback case defeats the compiler's exhaustiveness checking for sealed hierarchies, so newly added subtypes can silently fall through instead of forcing an explicit decision at each call site.
• Add the prefer-dot-shorthands rule (with auto-fix), which flags enum/static member access, static method calls, and named constructor calls that repeat a type name already inferable from context (a call argument's declared parameter type, or an explicitly typed variable's initializer) — Dart 3.10's dot-shorthand syntax lets these collapse to .value instead of Type.value. The rule only fires on files whose language version is 3.10 or later, since the shorthand syntax does not compile below that.

4.1.9

• Add opt-in detection of unused private members in type declarations (methods, fields, getters, setters and named constructors) to check-unused-code. Private members cannot be referenced from outside the declaring library, which rules out the reflection and cross-library false positives that make public members unreliable to analyze. Mirroring the SDK's unused_element semantics, a sole private constructor is never reported: it is the intentional prevent-instantiation/extension pattern (an entirely unused class is still reported by the class-level check). Enabled via the --analyze-private-members CLI flag or the unused-code.analyze-private-members analysis-options key; disabled by default.

4.1.8

• Raise the analyzer ceiling to <15.0.0, enabling analyzer 14.x support now that dart_style 3.1.11 added compatibility with it. Add 14.0.0 and 14.1.0 rows to the scripts/test_analyzer_compat.py matrix (analyzer_plugin 0.14.13/0.14.14, analysis_server_plugin 0.3.19/0.3.20).

4.1.7

• Replace the deprecated Folder.getChildAssumingFile with ResourceProvider.getFile in the analyzer plugin's UUID bootstrap, resolving the pana static-analysis deprecation warning on analyzer 13.x. The call stays compatible across the full >=10.0.0 <14.0.0 range (Folder.getFile only exists in analyzer 13.3.0+).
• Replace the deprecated MethodDeclaration.isAbstract with a structural ast_compat.isAbstractMethod() helper in avoid-unused-parameters, keeping the call non-deprecated across the full >=10.0.0 <14.0.0 range (isComplete only exists in analyzer 13.2+).

4.1.6

• Add an auto-fix to the prefer-enums-by-name rule that converts Enum.values.firstWhere((e) => e.name == x) to Enum.values.byName(x). The fix is offered only when the call is safely convertible: a single-parameter == name arrow closure, no orElse, and a lookup that does not reference the closure parameter.
• Fix a deprecation warning for ExtensionTypeDeclaration.primaryConstructor (deprecated on analyzer 13.1+ in favor of namePart, which doesn't exist before 13.1) by reading the extension type's name structurally through a new ast_compat helper instead of the version-specific getter.

4.1.5

• Add an auto-fix to the avoid-duplicate-exports rule that deletes the duplicate export directive (the earlier export already covers the same URI, so the removal is behavior-preserving).
• Fix a RangeError crash in the fix command when a file had multiple auto-fixable issues; fixes are now applied from the end of the file towards the start so earlier edits no longer invalidate later offsets.

4.1.4

• Add an auto-fix to the no-blank-line-before-single-return rule that removes the blank line(s) before a single return statement in a block, preserving any comments.
• Fix a false positive in no-blank-line-before-single-return where a trailing comment on the block's opening brace (e.g. { // comment) was reported even without a blank line before the return.

4.1.3

• Add an auto-fix to the avoid-unnecessary-type-casts rule that removes the redundant as cast (e.g. value as String becomes value).

4.1.2

• Remove two self-reported parameter_assignments analyzer warnings in the no-magic-number rule implementation by replacing ++count with count + 1 in the literal-counting callbacks (no behavioral change).

4.1.1

• Add config option prefer-match-file-name.ignore-enums and prefer-match-file-name.ignore-typedefs to suppress reports for enum and typedef declarations whose name doesn't match the file name.

4.1.0

• Add support for analysis_server_plugin (analyzer 13.x).
• Add support for analyzer 13.x via a cross-version AST shim (lib/src/utils/ast_compat.dart) that recognises the reshaped named-argument, record-field, default-parameter and label nodes structurally.
• Widen analyzer constraint to >=10.0.0 <14.0.0.
• Extend make test-analyzer-compat-full to cover analyzer 10.x, 11.x, 12.x and 13.x; skip versions whose Dart SDK constraint is incompatible with the host SDK instead of failing.

4.0.5

• Add ignored-invocations and ignored-targets options to prefer-moving-to-variable rule to suppress reports for specific method/getter names or target receivers.
• Add autofix for newline-before-return with comment-aware, whitespace-preserving behavior and edge-case fixture coverage.

4.0.4

• Honor per-line // ignore: <metric-id> comments for function- and class-level metric violations (both leading and trailing forms). File-level metrics keep their // ignore_for_file: behavior.

4.0.3

• Fix prefer-moving-to-variable rule not detecting duplicate invocations in expression function bodies (=> expr).

4.0.2

• Update packageVersion constant to match pubspec version (was hardcoded as 3.2.0).

4.0.1

• Relax analyzer constraint to >=10.0.0 <13.0.0 to support Flutter stable with meta 1.17.0.
• Relax analyzer_plugin constraint to >=0.14.0 <0.16.0.
• Add support for analyzer 12.x (replace removed LibraryIdentifier with version-agnostic approach).
• Remove dependency_overrides from main and example pubspecs.

4.0.0

• BREAKING: Update minimum Dart SDK to >=3.5.0 (compatible with Flutter 3.24+).
• Update analyzer to >=11.0.0 <12.0.0.
• Update analyzer_plugin to ^0.14.5.
• Fix element comparison for substituted elements in always-remove-listener rule.
• Add Packaged AI Assets for MCP integration (extension/mcp/).

3.2.1

• Update homepage in pubspec.yaml.

3.2.0

• Update analyzer constraint to ^8.2.0. Only works with dart >= 3.9.0.
• Add rule use-design-system-items.
• Add rule only-barrel-import.
• Allow to specify more than one suggestion for each rule.

3.2.0-alpha.2

• Update analyzer constraint to ^8.2.0

3.2.0-alpha.1

• Add rule use-design-system-items.
• Add rule only-barrel-import.
• Allow to specify more than one suggestion for each rule.
• Bump analyzer to ^8.0.0

3.1.1

• Changed prefer-media-query-direct-access to FlutterRule.

3.1.0

• Add rule prefer-media-query-direct-access.
• Add rule prefer-named-record-fields.

3.1.0-beta.3

• Add rule prefer-media-query-direct-access.

3.1.0-beta.2

• Fixed DCL version in analyzer_plugin.

3.1.0-beta.1

• Add rule prefer-named-record-fields.

3.0.0-beta.1

• [Breaking] Update dart sdk constraints to >=3.4.0 <4.0.0.
• Update analyzer to version ^7.4.4

2.0.0

• Update analyzer to version ^6.0.0

1.3.0

• Added fatal-warnings-threshold fatal-performance-threshold and fatal-style-threshold to set the failure threshold for analyze command

1.2.1

• Fixed generating report file when find issues in the report

1.2.0

• Added fix command
• Added prefer single quotes rule
• Added prefer first or null rule
• Added no blank line before single return rule
• Fixed rule avoid dynamic to extensions definition

1.1.5

• Removed deprecated fields in analysis options and collection method
• Fixed changelog URL for update available warning

1.1.4

• Fixed some test
• Reverted analyzer ^6.0.0 to ^5.14.0

1.1.3

• Fixed some test

1.1.2

• Append new presset analysis_options.1.0.0.yaml

1.1.1

• Rename common rules to dart rules

1.1.0

• Added new presets
• Removed Angular framework rules
• Added example

1.0.2

• Fix: report in IDE'S is adjusted

1.0.1

• Automated publishing of packages to pub.dev

1.0.0

• Fork: Dart code metrics 5.7.3