IECQ005: suppression_syntax

Every suppression marker is one the linter reads, and says why.

Category: code_quality · Applies to: eval, helper

What it does

Reads the # inspect-evals-lint: ignore[...] comments in the package's Python files and Dockerfiles (excluded files are skipped) and Compose files, and warns about each marker that suppresses nothing: a comment in the removed # noautolint syntax or a .noautolint file, an ignore or ignore-file without a bracketed rule list, an ignore-file past the first ten lines, and a selector that names no rule. One warning per marker, at its line. The other selectors in the same comment still apply.

Also warns about each comment that suppresses something but gives no reason. The reason follows the rule list after --: # inspect-evals-lint: ignore[sample_ids] -- ids are row numbers. It runs to the end of the line, and markers quoted in it are not read. Another tool's comment straight after --, a second -- and an unfilled <reason> placeholder are not reasons. The suppression applies either way.

A comment cannot suppress this rule's findings, since they are about comments: ignore[IECQ] would otherwise hide its own missing reason. Use per-file-ignores to suppress them for a path.

Why is this bad?

A marker the linter does not read does nothing, silently: the finding it was meant to cover is reported under its own rule while the reader of the code believes it is handled. Earlier releases stopped with a configuration error instead, which lost every other result for the package, so a repository linted by a third party (the register lint service) had no results at all until it migrated.

A suppression without a reason tells the next reader that someone decided the finding was acceptable, but not why, so they cannot tell whether the decision still holds.

Example

from inspect_ai.model._model import thing  # noautolint: private_api_imports

Use instead:

from inspect_ai.model._model import thing  # inspect-evals-lint: ignore[private_api_imports] -- no public equivalent yet

Suppress on a line with # inspect-evals-lint: ignore[IECQ005] -- <reason> or ignore[suppression_syntax] -- <reason>; select or ignore it in configuration by either, or by the prefix IECQ.