---
name: "mdl"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "markdownlint"
version: "0.13.0-4"
release: "Debian 13 (Trixie)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/markdownlint"
---

# mdl(1)

Markdown lint tool

Part of [markdownlint(1)](/markdownlint/1.md).

## NAME

markdownlint - Markdown lint tool

## SYNOPSIS

mdl \[ options \] \[FILE.md\|DIR ...\]\

## DESCRIPTION

markdownlint checks an individual markdown file, or a directory of markdown files against a set of rules for syntax consistency.  In its report back to the CLI, the Ruby based implementation reports the line(s) with an issue identified and how to improve it.

## OPTIONS

- \-c, --config FILE

  The configuration file to use

- \-g, --git-recurse

  Only process files known to git when given a directory

- \-i, --\[no\]-ignore-front-matter

  Ignore YAML front matter

- \-j, --json

  JSON output

- \-l, --list-rules

  Don't process any files, just list enabled rules

- \-r, --rules RULE1,RULE2

  Only process these rules

- \-u, --rulesets RULESET1,RULESET2

  Specify additional ruleset files to load

- \-S, --sarif

  SARIF output

- \-a, --\[no\]show-aliases

  Show rule aliases instead of rule ID when viewing rules

- \-w, --\[no\]warnings

  Show kramdown warnings

- \-d, --skip-default-ruleset

  Don't load the default markdownlint ruleset

- \-s, --style STYLE

  Load the given style

- \-t, --tags TAG1,TAG2

  Only process rules with these tags

- \-v, --\[no-\]verbose

  Increase verbosity

- \-h, --help

  Show this message

- \-V, --version

  Show version

## EXAMPLES

List the objectives of rules MD012, MD022, MD031 and MD032:

-

  ```
  mdl -r MD012,MD022,MD031,MD032 -l
  ```

Scrutinize file example.md only by rules MD012, MD022, MD031 and MD032:

-

  ```
  mdl -r MD012,MD022,MD031,MD032 ./example.md
  ```

Scrutinize file example.md by all rules available except MD033 and MD034:

-

  ```
  mdl -r ~MD033,~MD034 ./example.md
  ```

List all rules associated to the tag *indentation*:

-

  ```
  mdl -t indentation -l
  ```

Scrutinize file example.md by all rules without tag *indentation*:

-

  ```
  mdl -t ~indentation ./example.md
  ```

By default, markdownlint reports sort the issues by their rule. With GNU coreutils, your shell may resort the output by the corresponding line number of the file:

-

  ```
  mdl ./example.md | sort -t ":" -k 2 -n
  ```

Recurrent (personalized) check criteria can be saved as a style. Snippet *mystyle.rb* below showcases the keywords for comments, rules, tags, as well as the general syntax available:

-

  ```
  all  # initiate with all rules implemented
  rule 'MD013', :line_length => 100, :ignore_code_blocks => true
  exclude_rule 'MD014'
  # tag :blockquote
  exclude_tag :indentation
  ```

Rules a style file activates can be listed by

-

  ```
  mdl -s ./mystyle.rb -l
  ```

A personalized local style is applied during a check by markdownlint by

-

  ```
  mdl -s ./mystyle.rb ./example.md
  ```

## AUTHOR

Mark Harrison, Ciro Santilli, Making GitHub Delicious, Brandon High, Matt Jankowski, David Anson, Tobias Bengfort, Loic Nageleisen, Will Fleming, Jean-Christophe Gay, sudodoki, David Rodríguez, Garth Braithwaite, Alexander Köplinger, Simon Symeonidis, Jakub Wilk, Eitan Adler, David Rodríguez, Phil Dibowitz, David Somers-Harris, copperwalls, John Trammell, Waylan Limberg, Ash, Paul B, Andrew Janke, Adam Strickland, Naomi Reeves, Olle Jonsson, Lauritz Hilsøe, Andrew Janke Roman Kolesnev, Alex Harvey, Tim Smith, Tim Smith, tsuburin, Mikael Kjaer, Caleb Buxton, Mark E. Schill, Waldir Pimenta, Ben van B, Jose Angel Pardillo Vela, androidseb, jtcarnes, Gene Gotimer, Sami Ahmed Siddiqui, Karol Babioch, Eric Knibbe, Alexander Jaust, orviz, Lennart Jern, Benjamin Quorning, Ting Chen, Kai, adamroyjones, Bengt Lüers, JP Hastings-Spital, nbehrnd, iafelix, ColemanTom, Levente Polyak, Gunes Bayir, Mathieu Rul, Markus Lehtonen

## LICENSE

MIT

## REPORTING BUGS

Report bugs to and suggest improvements on the project page,\
 ⟨https://github.com/markdownlint/markdownlint⟩

## VERSION

This is about markdownlint version 0.13.0 (October 2nd, 2023).