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feat: Per rule autofix configuration #125

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179 changes: 179 additions & 0 deletions designs/2024-per-rule-autofix-configuration/README.md
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- Repo: <https://github.com/eslint/eslint>
- Start Date: 2024-10-22
- RFC PR:
- Authors: [Samuel Therrien](https://github.com/Samuel-Therrien-Beslogic) (aka [@Avasam](https://github.com/Avasam))

# Per-rule autofix configuration

## Summary

<!-- One-paragraph explanation of the feature. -->
This feature aims to make it possible to control autofixes through shareable configuration on a per-rule basis.

## Motivation

<!-- Why are we doing this? What use cases does it support? What is the expected
outcome? -->
Some rules provide autofixing, which is great, but can sometimes be broken or otherwise simply unwanted for various reasons.
Unsafe autofixes should be suggestions, and broken fixes should be reported, *but* ESLint is a large ecosystem where some very useful plugins are not always actively maintained. Even then, wanting to disable an autofix for project-specific or personal reasons could still happen.

## Detailed Design

<!--
This is the bulk of the RFC.

Explain the design with enough detail that someone familiar with ESLint
can implement it by reading this document. Please get into specifics
of your approach, corner cases, and examples of how the change will be
used. Be sure to define any new terms in this section.
Comment on lines +25 to +28
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You're missing details on how this will be implemented. Please take a look at the code and see how you expect this feature to be implemented.

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If I really need to learn about how ESLint is implemented I can, but idk when I'll get to it. I'd be more than happy if an existing contributor is willing to fill in this section for me as I am not personally concerned with implementation details.

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@michaelfaith michaelfaith Oct 24, 2024

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Looking at the code a bit, I would say this is probably a good place to start exploring: https://github.com/eslint/eslint/blob/main/lib/eslint/eslint.js#L386-L394

It's what's being used to determine if a rule should have a fix applied to it, based on a few different conditions. Based on the response from that, a "fixer" is passed back to the linter to use as part of its fix attempt loop.

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@Samuel-Therrien-Beslogic exploring the implementation is part of the RFC process. We can't really evaluate any proposal without it.

-->

Similar to how Ruff (<https://docs.astral.sh/ruff/settings/#lint_unfixable>) does it, a top-level key to specify which rules to not autofix would be in my opinion the least disruptive and forward/backwards compatible. It should be overridable in per-file configurations, and picked up when extending a configuration.
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An alternative could be to expand rule config values to allow objects in which this would be a property. For example:

export default [
    {
        rules: {
            "@eslint-community/eslint-comments/no-unused-disable": {
                severity: "error",
                options: [/* ... */],
                disableAutofixes: true
            }
        }
    }
];

The advantages of this approach are that all the configurations for the rule can be in one place, and it would be easier to add more "meta" options if needed in the future.

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I like it! 👍

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We considered this a while back, even without trying to turn off autofixing. I'm not a fan of forcing rules to have to write out "severity" and "options", which is why we stuck with just an array.

This would also complicate rule configuration merging.

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@aladdin-add aladdin-add Nov 4, 2024

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Given a large number of config in the community are already in array format, I don't think we can drop it; instead, we can support both:

"@eslint-community/eslint-comments/no-unused-disable": ["error", {...}]

// is as the same as:

"@eslint-community/eslint-comments/no-unused-disable": {
    severity: "error",
    options: [/* ... */],
    disableAutofixes: false, // the default
}

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I don't think anyone was suggesting dropping the current format. I just think an object format adds additional complexity when merging rule configurations that isn't necessary. Plus, to modify a rule to disable autofix, you'd first need to convert the array into an object vs. adding a new key elsewhere.

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An alternative could be to expand rule config values to allow objects in which this would be a property. For example:

export default [
    {
        rules: {
            "@eslint-community/eslint-comments/no-unused-disable": {
                severity: "error",
                options: [/* ... */],
                disableAutofixes: true
            }
        }
    }
];

The advantages of this approach are that all the configurations for the rule can be in one place, and it would be easier to add more "meta" options if needed in the future.

Another advantage is that autofixes could be turned off from the CLI (with --rule 'some-rule: { disableAutofixes: true, ...}') or inline with /* eslint */ config comments without introducing additional syntax.

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Changing the rule config format was a considered option (although not too much thoughts was put into what exactly that change would entail).
I like your suggestion too as it would also be backwards compatible and imo feels like a natural place for the config to live. But I went for the approach that reduces maintenance as much as possible.
At the end of the day it's really not my decision and both would satisfy my needs. So I'm leaving this one to the maintainers :)

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@fasttime this is additional syntax, though. Config comments and the command line don't already support this object notation.

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@fasttime this is additional syntax, though. Config comments and the command line don't already support this object notation.

Well, true. I should have written "with the same new syntax". My point is that rules can be configured in multiple ways, but the suggested approach only allows disabling autofixes inside a config.

I think while we are here, we should at least ask the question if it's sensible to disable autofixes from the CLI and in config comments. If the answer is no, we can go with the suggested approach and be assured that we won't have to rethink the design later.


Concretely, it could look like this:

```js
export default [
{
disableAutofixes: {
// We don't want this to autofix, as a rule suddenly not failing should require human attention
"@eslint-community/eslint-comments/no-unused-disable": true,
},
rules: {
'@eslint-community/eslint-comments/no-unused-disable': 'error',
}
},
{
files: ["*.spec.js"],
disableAutofixes: {
// Let's pretend we want this to be autofixed in tests, for the sake of the RFC
"@eslint-community/eslint-comments/no-unused-disable": false,
},
},
]
```

The fix should still exist as a suggestion. Only autofixing (when running `eslint --fix` or editor action on save) should be disabled.
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I'm assuming you mean in all situations when autofixes are applied? That would include using the ESLint.outputFixes() or SourceCodeFixer APIs.

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I am not familiar with ESLint's API or implementation, how would you rephrase this? I wrote this purely from an ESLint user's PoV because, well, that's what I am ^^

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Technically, Linter (or report-translator?) could just create a new object in the suggestions array and move the fix into it. We'd just have to figure out what to set as desc (the text that appears in IDEs as an action to apply the suggestion).

https://eslint.org/docs/latest/integrate/nodejs-api#-lintmessage-type

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I'm surprised that anything with an an autofix available isn't also automatically available as an editor suggestion. Do plugins have to provide both separately? If not, what is the "desc" equivalent to here? Or maybe ESLint just autofills suggestions from the autofix ?
(the example below is an autofixable rule that shows up as an editor suggestion, I just want to disable autofixes w/o removing the ability to manually trigger the fix from this menu)
image
image

If it's the case that they're provided separately, only the entry from LintMessage.fix needs to be dropped.

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That is a good point :-)

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@mdjermanovic mdjermanovic Oct 30, 2024

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"Fix this autofix/prefer-template problem" is a text VS Code generates by itself when there's LintMessage#fix property. On click, VS Code applies the code change described in LintMessage#fix.

For LintMessage#suggestions, VS Code shows suggestion.desc as the text. On click, VS Code applies the code change described in suggestion.fix.

So, IDEs use both LintMessage#fix and LintMessage#suggestions to generate editor suggestions. Rules don't provide the same fix in both LintMessage#fix and LintMessage#suggestions. Furthermore, it probably never makes sense for a rule to provide LintMessage#suggestions when it provides LintMessage#fix.

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I think it makes sense to provide both sometimes - an autofix can be partial, and suggestions can go farther.

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@mdjermanovic Is there no way to provide a non-automatic fix (ie: a suggestion) using a default message ?

Oh yeah, look at that, I can see the implication of your explanation where the editor hint for the fix is completely lost. Using the no-autofix plugin I do loose suggestions (although maybe it's because of how that plugin highjack rules, I don't have a better example with more "vanilla" rules off the top of my head)
image
vs
image

That's a behaviour I'd like to improve as part of this RFC over how the no-autofix plugin works. So I would prefer "promoting" the disabled autofix to a suggestion.

If there's no way to provide a "use default message", can we just manually pass

{
  suggestion: {
    fix: lintMessage.fix,
    // Something like this, with translation support?
	desc: `Fix this ${ruleName} problem`,
    // or
    desc: `Apply the disabled autofix for ${ruleName}`,
  },
  fix: undefined,
}

or maybe allowing an empty desc to fallback to a default "fix this" message should be a requirement for this RFC.

Thoughts on how to handle this? I'm pretty convinced on "promoting" the fix to suggestion, but the description if still an open question.

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@mdjermanovic mdjermanovic Nov 2, 2024

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Maybe just desc: 'Apply autofix'?

desc: 'Apply the disabled autofix' also sounds good to me.

I think there's no need for the rule name in desc as IDEs display the rule name with the suggestion.

or maybe allowing an empty desc to fallback to a default "fix this" message should be a requirement for this RFC.

Suggestions should generally provide a descriptive message, so I think it's better to not implement a fallback.


This means removing the `LintMessage.fix` object into the `LintMessage.suggestions` array ([`LintMessage` API](https://eslint.org/docs/latest/integrate/nodejs-api#-lintmessage-type))

```js
const newSuggestion = {
desc: 'Apply the disabled autofix',
fix: lintMessage.fix,
}
if (!lintMessage.suggestions) {
lintMessage.suggestions = [newSuggestion]
} else {
lintMessage.suggestions.push(newSuggestion)
}
lintMessage.fix = undefined
```

The chosen key name `disableAutofixes` aims to remove the concern about "turning on" an autofix that doesn't exist. Disabling autofixes for a rule that doesn't have any or doesn't exist should be a no-op. Just like turning `off` a rule that doesn't exist. The reasoning being that this allows much more flexible shareable configurations.

## Documentation

<!--
How will this RFC be documented? Does it need a formal announcement
on the ESLint blog to explain the motivation?
-->
I think that "Configuring autofixes" or "Disabling autofixes" could be documented as a subsection of [Configuring Rules](https://eslint.org/docs/latest/use/configure/rules). Or as a section on the same level (between "Configuring Rules" and "Configuring Plugins")
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If a new top-level property like disableAutofixes is added to configuration objects then it should be documented in the eslint repo in docs/src/use/configure/configuration-files.md. Additionally we may want to add a note to docs/src/extend/custom-rules.md to mention that some autofixes will be converted automatically into suggestions when the new feature is used.

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Thank you. I've added that. Any input on whether the main feature's documentation should be a subsection of Configuring Rules or on the same level ?
image

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Any input on whether the main feature's documentation should be a subsection of Configuring Rules or on the same level ?

I think a new section inside the "Configure Rules" page is fine.


As a new top-level property added to configuration objects, `disableAutofixes` should be documented in [Configuration Files > Configuration Objects](https://eslint.org/docs/latest/use/configure/configuration-files#configuration-objects) section. Additionally we may want to add a note to [Custom Rules](https://eslint.org/docs/latest/extend/custom-rulesd) to mention that some autofixes will be converted automatically into suggestions when the new feature is used.

## Drawbacks

<!--
Why should we *not* do this? Consider why adding this into ESLint
might not benefit the project or the community. Attempt to think
about any opposing viewpoints that reviewers might bring up.

Any change has potential downsides, including increased maintenance
burden, incompatibility with other tools, breaking existing user
experience, etc. Try to identify as many potential problems with
implementing this RFC as possible.
-->
A potential drawback I could see is that the configuration for autofixing a rule is not directly related with the rule itself. As a counter, I'd say this is already the case for plenty of rule-related settings, environment and parser configurations, etc. It's also less of a drawback than [Alternatives - Configure in the rule itself](#configure-in-the-rule-itself).

## Backwards Compatibility Analysis

<!--
How does this change affect existing ESLint users? Will any behavior
change for them? If so, how are you going to minimize the disruption
to existing users?
-->
Given that this proposal adds a new optional configuration section, this feature should be fully backwards compatible. Users that don't want to use this feature should stay completely unaffected. (see [Alternatives - Configure in the rule itself](#configure-in-the-rule-itself))

## Alternatives

<!--
What other designs did you consider? Why did you decide against those?

This section should also include prior art, such as whether similar
projects have already implemented a similar feature.
-->

### Configure in the rule itself

Another approach I can think of is to encode that in the rule config itself. Something like `"my-plugin/my-rule": "[{severity: "error", autofix: False}, {...otherConfigs}]"` but it's harder to commit to such a change, and means that any config extension needs to reconfigure the rule correctly just to disable autofixing (which is already an issue when someone wants to set a pre-configured rule as warning for example)

### Use of a 3rd-party plugin

<https://www.npmjs.com/package/eslint-plugin-no-autofix> is a tool that exists to currently work around this limitation of ESLint, but it is not perfect.

1. It is an extra third-party dependency, with its own potential maintenance issues (having to keep up with ESLint, separate dependencies that can fall out of date, obsolete, unsecure, etc.)
2. It may not work in all environments. For example, pre-commit.ci: <https://github.com/aladdin-add/eslint-plugin/issues/98>
3. It may not work correctly with all third-party rules: <https://github.com/eslint-community/eslint-plugin-eslint-comments/issues/234>

## Open Questions

<!--
This section is optional, but is suggested for a first draft.

What parts of this proposal are you unclear about? What do you
need to know before you can finalize this RFC?

List the questions that you'd like reviewers to focus on. When
you've received the answers and updated the design to reflect them,
you can remove this section.
-->
- Where exactly should the documentation go ?
- Where this needs to be implemented in code. Those familiar with ESLint's codebase are welcome to provide this information

## Help Needed

<!--
This section is optional.

Are you able to implement this RFC on your own? If not, what kind
of help would you need from the team?
-->
My knowledge of ESLint's internals isn't that great. Whilst I think it's above the average user due to reading and configuring a lot, I haven't yet even learned how to write a plugin, and haven't migrated any project to ESLint 9 yet.
My free time both at work and personal, is currently also very limited (see how long it too me to just get to writing this RFC).
So I unfortunately don't think I can implement this feature myself, due to both a lack of time, personal motivation (I won't be able to use it for a while, but will push us towards ESLint 9 once implemented), and experience.

## Frequently Asked Questions

<!--
This section is optional but suggested.

Try to anticipate points of clarification that might be needed by
the people reviewing this RFC. Include those questions and answers
in this section.
-->

Q: Could `disableAutofixes` be an array of autofixes to disable?
A: `disableAutofixes` is a record to allow re-enabling autofixes in downstream configurations and on a per-file basis. We could allow a shorthand to `disableAutofixes` to accept an array of rules to disable the autofix for, but that would result in additional complexity on the implementation side with marginal benefits to the user.

## Related Discussions

<!--
This section is optional but suggested.

If there is an issue, pull request, or other URL that provides useful
context for this proposal, please include those links here.
-->
- <https://github.com/eslint/eslint/issues/18696>
- <https://github.com/aladdin-add/eslint-plugin/issues/98>
- <https://github.com/eslint-community/eslint-plugin-eslint-comments/issues/234>