Eclipse and Pylint on windows

I've been using eclipse and pydev for python development for a little over a year now.

I've read recently about a tool called 'pylint' that can point out possible errors in you code.
And apparently it can be used with pydev, but is turned off by default.

I decided to try it out, but first I when I just went into the preferences with our reading much and flipped the toggle, I got the following error:

Pylint: Executing command line:' C:\Program Files\eclipse --include-ids=y D:\PROGRAMMING\Workspace\SimpleReview\src\sr_interface.py 'Pylint: The stdout of the command line is: Pylint: The stderr of the command line is: c:\python26\python.exe: can't find '__main__.py' in 'C:\\Program Files\\eclipse'

Reading a little deeper I figured out I needed to actually install pylint and set the path to that file in the eclipse pydev preferences.

So I downloaded pylint, unzipped and ran, "python setup.py install".
http://www.logilab.org/project/pylint/

running install
running build
running build_py
package init file '.\test\__init__.py' not found (or not a regular file)
package init file '.\test\__init__.py' not found (or not a regular file)
running build_scripts
error: file 'bin\epylint.bat' does not exist

Ok, so I wasn't sure what was wrong here, but decided to open the readme. It lists the following dependancies, so let's install those and see what happens:

http://www.logilab.org/projects/astng
http://www.logilab.org/projects/common

Alright, these install ok. Then trying install for pylint I got the same error, "bin/epylint.bat doesn't exist". Ok, a google search turned up this sparse post:

http://shurik.posterous.com/pylint-on-windows

Which basically tells you to create the file yourself and put the following text in it:

epylint.bat

python epylint %*

And then run, "python setup.py install" again, and it worked. Strange.

So, now when I edit a python file and save it pylint runs and I get some output. Not too sure what it means yet, but I'll leave it on for awhile and see if it starts to make sense.

Here's a sample run on a bad file that won't run:

C0301:  8: Line too long (135/80)
C0111:  1: Missing docstring
C0103:  3: Invalid name "strComputer" (should match (([A-Z_][A-Z0-9_]*)|(__.*__))$)
C0103:  4: Invalid name "objWMIService" (should match (([A-Z_][A-Z0-9_]*)|(__.*__))$)
E0602:  4: Undefined variable 'win32com'
C0103:  5: Invalid name "objSWbemServices" (should match (([A-Z_][A-Z0-9_]*)|(__.*__))$)
C0324:  7: Comma not followed by a space
query_str = '''Select * from %s%s''' % (self.win32_perf_base,counter_type)
                                                            ^^
C0103:  7: Invalid name "query_str" (should match (([A-Z_][A-Z0-9_]*)|(__.*__))$)
E0602:  7: Undefined variable 'self'
E0602:  7: Undefined variable 'counter_type'
C0103:  8: Invalid name "colItems" (should match (([A-Z_][A-Z0-9_]*)|(__.*__))$)


Report
======
5 statements analysed.

Raw metrics
-----------

+----------+-------+------+---------+-----------+
|type      |number |%     |previous |difference |
+==========+=======+======+=========+===========+
|code      |5      |55.56 |NC       |NC         |
+----------+-------+------+---------+-----------+
|docstring |0      |0.00  |NC       |NC         |
+----------+-------+------+---------+-----------+
|comment   |0      |0.00  |NC       |NC         |
+----------+-------+------+---------+-----------+
|empty     |4      |44.44 |NC       |NC         |
+----------+-------+------+---------+-----------+

Duplication
-----------

+-------------------------+------+---------+-----------+
|                         |now   |previous |difference |
+=========================+======+=========+===========+
|nb duplicated lines      |0     |NC       |NC         |
+-------------------------+------+---------+-----------+
|percent duplicated lines |0.000 |NC       |NC         |
+-------------------------+------+---------+-----------+

Statistics by type
------------------

+---------+-------+-----------+-----------+------------+---------+
|type     |number |old number |difference |%documented |%badname |
+=========+=======+===========+===========+============+=========+
|module   |1      |NC         |NC         |0.00        |0.00     |
+---------+-------+-----------+-----------+------------+---------+
|class    |0      |NC         |NC         |0.00        |0.00     |
+---------+-------+-----------+-----------+------------+---------+
|method   |0      |NC         |NC         |0.00        |0.00     |
+---------+-------+-----------+-----------+------------+---------+
|function |0      |NC         |NC         |0.00        |0.00     |
+---------+-------+-----------+-----------+------------+---------+

Messages by category
--------------------

+-----------+-------+---------+-----------+
|type       |number |previous |difference |
+===========+=======+=========+===========+
|convention |8      |NC       |NC         |
+-----------+-------+---------+-----------+
|refactor   |0      |NC       |NC         |
+-----------+-------+---------+-----------+
|warning    |0      |NC       |NC         |
+-----------+-------+---------+-----------+
|error      |3      |NC       |NC         |
+-----------+-------+---------+-----------+

Messages
--------

+-----------+-----------+
|message id |occurences |
+===========+===========+
|C0103      |5          |
+-----------+-----------+
|E0602      |3          |
+-----------+-----------+
|C0324      |1          |
+-----------+-----------+
|C0301      |1          |
+-----------+-----------+
|C0111      |1          |
+-----------+-----------+

Global evaluation
-----------------
Your code has been rated at -36.00/10

Pylint: The stderr of the command line is: No config file found, using default configuration