Use latest checkstyle

[delanym]

I have the latest version of checkstyle configured in the checkstyle-idea.xml file

cat .\.idea\checkstyle-idea.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<project version="4">
  <component name="CheckStyle-IDEA" serialisationVersion="2">
    <checkstyleVersion>12.1.0</checkstyleVersion>
...

and even though version 5.112.0 of the plugin doesn't know about this version it picks the latest.

I actually prefer this behaviour, so can there be a "latest" version that picks the latest available version explicitly?

[delanym]

And yes I know 5.114.0 is out

[tsjensen]

I would advise against offering a latest version, because it will automatically become incompatible with your Checkstyle config file. Better to choose one explicit version which fits the config file, and then upgrade consciously as needed, updating both Checkstyle version and config accordingly.

[tsjensen]

(And yes, it would be OK if only the bundled config is used. But consider the user experience when latest can only be chosen with the bundled config ...)

[delanym]

I would advise against offering a latest version, because it will automatically become incompatible with your Checkstyle config file.

My checkstyle config file does not specify a version. If the checkstyle plugin does not support a check in the config file then it will fail regardless of whether it uses "latest" or falls back to the latest transitive checkstyle version available to the plugin.

it would be OK if only the bundled config is used.

i never use a bundled config so our perspectives are aligned

But consider the user experience when latest can only be chosen with the bundled config

I want an extra item in the drop-down list "latest" - not to replace all versions. But since you bring it up, does anyone actually downgrade/hold back their checkstyle version?

Maybe there should rather be a checkbox "Always use latest" which disables the drop-down and also prints what that latest version is.

[jshiell]

I'm split on this one - it would be convenient, but on the other hand I can already see the support requests for "I updated and now I'm getting an exception" whenever there's a breaking change =/

[delanym]

"I updated and now I'm getting an exception" - this is me. Well, checkstyle analysis just stops working.

Remember its the config file that drives the version up. This plugin having a selectable version of checkstyle just adds one more opportunity to fail.

[delanym]

Ok wait - this is true if the version were set to latest and a bundled config is selected, and that config changes from one version of checkstyle to the next, and your project code does not conform to whatever new checks were added. Unlikely, but possible.