Disable a Checkstyle rule from a Gradle `build.gradle` file - gradle

Question

It is possible to run the Checkstyle linter from Gradle, without having to write a configuration .xml file. Here is an example:
/// Checkstyle linter
// Run by `gradle check`, which is run by `gradle build`
apply plugin: 'checkstyle'
ext.checkstyleVersion = '10.5.0'
configurations {
checkstyleConfig
}
dependencies {
checkstyleConfig("com.puppycrawl.tools:checkstyle:${checkstyleVersion}") { transitive = false }
}
checkstyle {
toolVersion "${checkstyleVersion}"
ignoreFailures = false
config = resources.text.fromArchiveEntry(configurations.checkstyleConfig, 'google_checks.xml')
}
However, I do not see how to disable/suppress a particular check, still from the build.gradle file.
I want to disable the LineLength check. None of these works:
checkstyle {
...
configProperties += ['LineLength.max': 140]
configProperties += ['LineLength.enabled': false]
configProperties += ['suppressions.suppress': 'LineLength']
}
What is the right invocation, if there is one?

Answer 1

Your apparent intention is start with a stock Checkstyle configuration and customize it for your projects. Let's write a Gradle script to transform the Checkstyle configuration. The script deletes the LineLength module.
import javax.xml.transform.TransformerFactory
import javax.xml.transform.stream.StreamResult
import javax.xml.transform.stream.StreamSource
def readCheckstyleConfig() {
def xslt = '''
<xsl:transform version="2.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">
<xsl:output
doctype-public="-//Checkstyle//DTD Checkstyle Configuration 1.3//EN"
doctype-system="https://checkstyle.org/dtds/configuration_1_3.dtd"/>
<xsl:template match="node()|#*">
<xsl:copy>
<xsl:apply-templates select="node()|#*"/>
</xsl:copy>
</xsl:template>
<xsl:template match="module[#name='LineLength']">
<!-- Delete this module. -->
</xsl:template>
</xsl:transform>
'''
def transformer = TransformerFactory.newInstance()
.newTransformer(new StreamSource(new StringReader(xslt)))
def xml = resources.text.fromArchiveEntry(
configurations.checkstyleConfig, 'google_checks.xml').asReader()
def stringWriter = new StringWriter()
transformer.transform(new StreamSource(xml), new StreamResult(stringWriter))
return resources.text.fromString(stringWriter.toString())
}
checkstyle {
toolVersion = checkstyleVersion
config = readCheckstyleConfig()
}
The above code merely demonstrates the idea. In practice, you would not copy the code into many build.gradle files, then try to keep the copies in sync. Gradle recommends convention plugins to share build logic across multiple projects.