It's time to upgrade to Ruff

written by Eric J. Ma on 2023-10-09

| tags: python ruff tips and tricks rust pre-commit

Admittedly, I'm a bit late to the party. However, if you're using Python and you care about the cleanliness and consistency of your codebase, I've got news for you: it is time to switch to Ruff!

So, What Exactly is Ruff?

Ruff isn’t just another linter in the market; it's a blazing fast one. What makes it stand out?

• Speed: Ruff can reduce your linting and code style checking times from minutes to mere seconds.
• Crafted in Rust: A fun fact about Ruff is that it's written in Rust, which is renowned for its performance and safety features.
• For Python Projects: If you’re working with Python, this is specifically for you. No need for adjustments or tweaks to make it fit for Python projects – it’s already tailored for it.

Getting Started with Ruff

Ready to integrate Ruff into your workflow? It’s simpler than you might think. Here’s how to do it:

Firstly, install the pre-commit hook into your repository.

Pre-commit hooks are beneficial to ensure that the checks run automatically before your code gets committed, ensuring its quality.

Set it up using the following configuration:

   - repo: https://github.com/astral-sh/ruff-pre-commit
     # Ruff version.
     rev: v0.0.292
     hooks:
       - id: ruff
         args: [--fix] # <-- Note: This is my personal suggestion to automatically fix linting issues where possible!

Then, configure Ruff in pyproject.toml:

Now, to ensure Ruff knows what you want, you'll need to specify some configurations:

[tool.ruff]
# Enable pycodestyle (`E`) and Pyflakes (`F`) codes by default.
select = ["E", "F", "I"] # <-- Note: I suggest including the "I" for additional checks!
ignore = []

# Assuming you're developing for Python 3.10
target-version = "py310" # <-- This is my suggestion based on the latest Python version at the time of writing!

Summary

Linting and code style checking is a crucial step in ensuring the quality of your codebase. With tools like Ruff, this process not only becomes efficient but also lightning-fast. If you haven't tried it yet, give it a go – you might just get hooked!

Happy coding!

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