Maintenance tools

The Wesnoth source code distribution includes a couple of tools intended to help authors maintain campaigns, faction & unit packs, and other WML resources. These are:

wmlscope

a cross-reference lister, useful for finding unresolved macro and resource-file references.

wmllint

a utility for sanity-checking WML syntax and porting your old WML to the current version of WML.

wmlindent

a utility for reindenting WML to a uniform style.

GUI.pyw

a graphical interface

General Information

You will need a Python 3 interpreter on your system to use these tools. Linux, *BSD, and Mac OS/X should already have Python 3 installed; for Windows it's a free download from http://www.python.org. You will also need to know how to run command-line tools on your system.

If you're working with Debian or Ubuntu you might have to install the package wesnoth-1.14-tools (or the convenient version).

sudo apt install wesnoth-1.14-tools

All three tools will require you to supply a directory list. This is a set of directories containing the WML files you want to work on.

This page is intended as documentation for users.

Note to Windows Users: This means you have to run it from the Command Line. The command line may be reached by hitting Start, then Run, then "cmd" or "command" depending on your version of Windows.

Example uses:

python wmllint path\to\files
python wmlindent path\to\files

Another example:

"C:\Program Files\Python3.7\python.exe" data\tools\wmllint --dryrun data\core data\{multiplayer,themes} data\campaigns 

(You have to specify the full directory path to the executable if you don't have your environment variables set up correctly). The first thing you type is the path to your python executable, followed by a space. The second thing you type is the path to the desired script to run, followed by a space. The third thing you type is the path to the folder (or file) to be processed.

A convenient way of running wmllint on Linux (Debian or Ubuntu) and Windows in comparison, Linux:

Assuming we're working with wesnoth 1.14 or more advanced versions.

python3 /usr/share/games/wesnoth/1.14/data/tools/wmllint --dryrun /usr/share/games/wesnoth/1.14/data/core ~/.local/share/wesnoth/1.14/data/add-ons/A_Simple_Campaign 1>wmllint-run.log 2>wmllint-err.log

I have these commands inside of a file named

wmllint_dryrun_ASC.sh

and execute it by opening a shell (=terminal, console, command window, bash,...), navigating into the directory with that file and typing

bash wmllint_dryrun_ASC.sh

The python3 command should be automatically known on Debian. The path to the script tells the python interpreter what to execute. --dryrun: A wmllint option, see below. The path to the core files is needed to let wmllint know about e.g. defined core units, followed by the path to the add-on that shall be checked; the last two commands cause the result of the wmllint usage to be written into those files in the same directory as the script. Windows, this is logically exactly the same as the Linux shell script above, so if you are on a Mac you can probably conclude how you need to adapt the paths:

E:\Python37\python.exe E:\Programme\Wesnoth_1.14_git\data\tools\wmllint --dryrun E:\Programme\Wesnoth_1.14_git\data\core E:\Programme\Wesnoth_1.14_git\userdata\data\add-ons\A_Simple_Campaign 1>wmllint-run.log 2>wmllint-err.log

This is the content of a .txt file, whose extension I rename to .bat and double-click onto it. Opening a command window is not needed this way. Since Python isn't natively installed on windows and I don't have environment variables set, the full path to python.exe is given. If your directories contain spaces it may help to include the path in quotes:

"C:\Programs\Battle for Wesnoth 1.14\data\tools\wmllint"

Remember that you do not need to enter all of the commands/paths at once. If it doesn't work, start with only "python" or "C:\Python37\python.exe" or the like and interpret the error messages that you get. If you get an "unknown command", python isn't installed or environment variables aren't set correctly. After that, you can add the later commands one by one.

wmlscope

The main use for wmlscope is to find WML macro references without definitions and references to resource files (sounds and images) that don't exist. These are difficult to spot from in-game because they usually result in silence or a missing image rather than actual broken game logic. They may happen because of typos in your WML, or because the name of a macro or the location of a resource file changed between versions of the game.

wmlscope also checks macro invocations for consistency. It will complain if a macro is called with the wrong number of arguments. In most cases it can deduce information about the type of the literal expected to be passed to a given macro argument by looking at the name of the formal.

Type	Meaning	Formals requiring this type	Literals of this type
side	a single side number	SIDE, *_SIDE, SIDE[0-9]	a numeric or "global"
numeric	a numeric integer literal	SIDE, X, Y, RED, GREEN, BLUE, TURN, PROB, LAYER, TIME, *_SIDE, *NUMBER, *AMOUNT, *COST, *RADIUS, *_X, *_Y, *_INCREMENT, *_FACTOR, *_TIME, *_SIZE, DURATION	\-?[0-9]+
percentage	a percentage	*PERCENTAGE	a numeric or 0\.[0-9]+
position	a single x,y coordinate	POSITION, *_POSITION, BASE	-?[0-9]+,-?[0-9]+
span	a set of coordinates or coordinate ranges	*_SPAN	a numeric, position or ([0-9]+\-[0-9]+,?|[0-9]+,?)+
alliance	a set of side numbers	SIDES, *_SIDES	a span, or the empty string
range	an attack range	RANGE	"melee" or "ranged"
alignment	an alignment keyword	ALIGN	"lawful" or "neutral" or "chaotic"
types	a set of unit types	TYPES	a shortname, name, or anything that contains spaces and matches no other type
terrain_pattern	a set of terrain codes to filter	ADJACENT*, TERRAINLIST*, *TERRAIN_PATTERN, RESTRICTING	a terrain_code or name
terrain_code	a single terrain code, perhaps with overlay	TERRAIN*, *TERRAIN	a shortname or (\*|[A-Z][a-z]+)\^([A-Z][a-z\\|/]+\Z)?
shortname	a terrain code or a short, capitalized variable name		[A-Z][a-z][a-z]?
name	a name or identifier	NAME, VAR, IMAGESTEM, ID, FLAG, *_NAME, *_ID, NAMESPACE, BUILDER, *_VAR	anything without spaces that matches no other type
optional_string	a string value (may be empty)	ID_STRING, NAME_STRING, DESCRIPTION, IPF	a string, or the empty string
string	a nonempty string not matching any of the preceding types	STRING, TYPE, TEXT, *_STRING, *_TYPE, *_TEXT	a shortname, a name, a stringliteral, or anything that contains spaces and matches no other type
stringliteral	a string in doublequotes or a translated string		".*" or _.* but not _[a-z].*
image	an image path, perhaps with image path functions	*IMAGE, PROFILE	[A-Za-z0-9{}.][A-Za-z0-9_/+{}.-]*\.(png|jpg)(?=(~.*)?)
sound	a music or sound filename	MUSIC, SOUND	string ending with ".wav" or ".ogg"
filter	WML filter	FILTER	any non-quoted string containing "="
WML	arbitrary WML fragment	WML, *_WML	any non-quoted string containing "=", or the empty string
affix	a prefix, suffix, or infix for a variable name	AFFIX, *AFFIX, POSTFIX, ROTATION	a shortname or name, or the empty string
any	anything	*VALUE, [ARS][0-9]	anything

If the actual argument is a macro call {.*}, then it matches any formal Otherwise, if the formal has an identifiable type, wmlscope will complain if the actual literal does not match it.

The argument type check only works in macro calls that fit on a single line.

wmlscope has many options for changing the reports it generates; the more advanced ones are intended for Wesnoth developers. Invocations for the most commonly useful reports it generates are included in data/tools/Makefile of the source distribution. Here are some of those reports:

make unresolved

Report on unresolved macro calls and resource references; also report macro argument-type mismatches. (This is what you are most likely to want to do).

make all

Report all macro and resource file references, not just unresolved ones.

make collisions

Report on duplicate resource files.

For more advanced users, or those who want to understand what the canned Makefile invocations are doing, here is a summary of wmlscope's options. Some of the more advanced options will require you to understand Python regular expressions.

-h, --help

Emit a help message and quit

-c, --crossreference

Report resolved macro references (implies -w 1)

-C, --collisions

Report duplicate resource files

-d, --deflist

Make definition list. (This one is for campaign server maintainers.)

-e regexp, --exclude regexp

Ignore files matching the specified regular expression.

-f dir, --from dir

Report only on macros defined under dir

-l, --listfiles

List files that will be processed

-r ddd, --refcount=ddd

Report only on macros with references in exactly ddd files.

-u, --unresolved

Report unresolved macro references

-w, --warnlevel

Set to 1 to warn of duplicate macro definitions

--force-used reg

Ignore reference count 0 on names matching regexp

--extracthelp

Extract help from macro definition comments.

wmllint

wmllint is a tool for migrating your WML to the current version. It handles two problems:

• Resource files and macro names may change between versions of the game. wmllint knows about these changes and will tweak your WML to fit where it can.

• Between 1.2.x and 1.3.1 the terrain-coding system used in map files underwent a major change. It changed again in a minor way between 1.3.1 and 1.3.2. If you port such old code, use wmllint-1.4, which is located in the same directory as wmllint. It will translate your maps for you, unless you use custom terrains in which case you will have to do it by hand.

wmllint also performs various sanity-checking operations, reporting:

• unbalanced tags
• strings that need a translation mark and do not have them
• strings that have a translation mark and should not
• translatable strings containing macro references
• filter references by description= (id= in 1.5) not matched by an actual unit
• abilities or traits without matching special notes, or vice-versa
• consistency between recruit= and recruitment_pattern= instances
• double space after punctuation in translatable strings.
• unknown races or movement types in units

wmllint takes a directory-path argument specifying the WML directories to work on. It will modify any cfg and map files under those directories that need to be changed. Here is a summary of its options:

-h, --help

Emit a help message and quit.

-d, --dryrun

List changes but don't perform them.

-v, --verbose

Set verbosity; more details below.

-c, --clean

Clean up -bak files.

-D, --diff

Show diffs between converted and unconverted files.

-r, --revert

Revert the conversion from the -bak files.

-n, --nolift

Suppress lifting, do sanity checks only

The verbosity option works like this:

-v

lists changes.

-v -v

warns of maps already converted.

-v -v -v

names each file before it's processed.

-v -v -v -v

shows verbose parse details (developers only).

The recommended procedure is this:

1. Run it with --dryrun first to see what it will do.
2. If the messages look good, run without --dryrun; the old content will be left in backup files with a -bak extension.
3. Eyeball the changes with the --diff option.
4. Use wmlscope, with a directory path including the Wesnoth mainline WML, to check that you have no unresolved references.
5. Test the conversion.
6. Use either --clean to remove the -bak files or --revert to undo the conversion.

Additionally, wmllint tries to locate a spell checker on your system and spell-checks storyline and message strings. It will work automatically with either aspell, myspell, or ispell provided you have the enchant.py Python library installed.

wmllint supports a number of magic comments to customize its behaviour and avoid false positives. All magic wmllint comments begin with the string wmllint:, followed by some additional keyword and potentially some arguments. In the below explanations, a string of the form [a|b] means you may use either a or b at that location, while a string of the form <arg> indicates free text substitution.

• ignore: Disables checking of terrains and translation marks on the current line only.
• noconvert: Disables conversion of terrains and image/sound filenames on the current line only.
• markcheck [on|off]: Enables or disables translation mark checking from the current (next?) line onward.
• no-icon: Prevents description insertions (what does that mean?)
• recognize <name>: Indicates that the character with the given name exists even though a declaration (ie a [unit] or [side] tag) is not visible.
• whofield <macro> <number>: Indicates that the specified macro declares a character whose name is given by the specified argument to the macro.
• whofield clear <macro>: Removes the whofield definition for the specified macro.
• who <macro> is <name> <name> ...: Indicates that the specified macro declares one or more characters whose names are given as a space-separated list. This can also be used for macros that auto-recall a list of characters, some of which join later or may die at some point. If a definition for the macro already exists, then the specified names are appended to it. If a name is preceded by a double minus (-- <name>) then it is removed from the definition.
• unwho all|<name>: Removes the who definition for the specified macro, or all who definitions.
• usage of "<unit>" is <class>: Declares the usage of the specified unit (the usage= key in the [unit_type] tag). Useful if you are using macros to generate several similar unit types.
• usagetype <class>: Declares a valid usage type for units. usagetypes is also recognized, and a comma-separated list of usage types can be specified.
• validate-[on|off]: Enables or disables stack-based validation checks. Use when you have unbalanced tags in macros.
• unbalanced-[on|off]: Similar to above, the precise difference is unclear.
• no translatables: Suppresses warnings about a missing textdomain declaration in the current file. Make sure the file really does have no translatable strings!
• display [on|off]: Enable or disable warnings about newlines in messages.
• notecheck [on|off]: Enable or disable note consistency checks for unit descriptions.
• deathcheck [on|off]: Enable or disable the check for units speaking in their death events.
• [general|directory|local] spellings <word> <word> ...: Declares the specified space-separated list of words to be valid spellings in the specified context. The context local indicates the current file only, while directory means the current file and any siblings in the same directory or subdirectories. The global context indicates the spellings are valid anywhere.
• no spellcheck: Disables spell checking on the current line.
• skip-side: Indicates that there is a missing side declaration at this location that will be provided by a macro expansion.
• match <string> with <notes_macro>: Indicates that uses of the specified string in a unit definition (usually a macro, including the curly braces) should be matched up with the specified special notes macro (which is also specified as the full macro with curly braces).
• no ellipsecheck: Disables checking of unit ellipses on the current line.

Explanations of wmllint diagnostics

Some wmllint diagnostics may require further explanation for UMC authors to understand; this section will be for providing such explanations, and descriptions of how to solve and/or silence them.

In these, %s will be replaced by a string. When the recommended solution also includes a %s, it's a suggestion to copy the string from the error message into your code.

• nonstandard word-wrap style within message: This message meant there was an unexpected newline character within a [message] tag. However, this check was removed during the 1.15 development cycle. Pre-1.15, add-on developers could silence by putting a # wmllint: display on comment before the string and a # wmllint: display off comment after the string, however, post-1.15, this is no longer necessary.
• %s is not a known unit type (in cases where you'd think the unit type would be known): This means the unit has a type that was never defined in mainline or in the add-on. This is why you're supposed to always add Wesnoth's core directory as the first item to be checked when using wmllint (which is something that the GUI version of it will do automatically for you), so that it can load the mainline unit types.
• unknown speaker '%s' of [message]: use a # wmllint: recognize %s magic comment, or, alternatively, if the speaker is created by a macro, use a magic comment of the form of either # wmllint: who MACRO is SPEAKER or # wmllint: whofield MACRO NUMBER, depending on whether the macro takes an argument for the unit's name or not.
• unknown '%s' referred to by id: use a # wmllint: recognize %s magic comment, or, alternatively, if the unit is created by a macro, use a magic comment of the form of either # wmllint: who MACRO is UNIT or # wmllint: whofield MACRO NUMBER, depending on whether the macro takes an argument for the unit's name or not.
• %s has unknown advancements (in cases where you'd think the advancement would be known): This means the unit has an advancement that was never defined in mainline or in the add-on. This is why you're supposed to always add Wesnoth's core directory as the first item to be checked when using wmllint (which is something that the GUI version of it will do automatically for you), so that it can load mainline units for checking advancements. Note that it's also possible that you just made typo, too, so be sure to check your spelling.
• .description may need hand fixup:
• tag stack nonempty (%s) at end of file.: This means that you have unbalanced tags somewhere in the file, e.g. an opener without a closer, or vice versa. This can often be seen when defining macros for unit abilities. A way to fix this warning is to wrap the section with unbalanced tags with a # wmllint: unbalanced-on magic comment beforehand and a # wmllint: unbalanced-off magic comment afterwards. As having unbalanced tags will also cause issues for other WML maintenance tools, such as wmlindent and wmlgettext, you may also want to add separate magic comments for each of them (see their documentation for the form they take).
• unit declaration without side attribute: the default side for a unit declaration when left implicit is side 1. Specify your unit sides explicitly to solve this.
• no %s units recruitable at difficulty %s (even when there are such units recruitable): This diagnostic has to do with matching the usage key of units recruitable by an AI side with their recruitment_pattern. It means the unit has a usage that was never defined in mainline or in the add-on. This is why you're supposed to always add Wesnoth's core directory as the first item to be checked when using wmllint (which is something that the GUI version of it will do automatically for you), so that it can know which mainline units are recruitable.
• %s has unknown movement type (even when you'd think that that movement type would actually be known): This means the unit has a movetype that was never defined in mainline or in the add-on. This is why you're supposed to always add Wesnoth's core directory as the first item to be checked when using wmllint (which is something that the GUI version of it will do automatically for you), so that it can load the mainline movement types.
• %s has unknown race (even when you'd think that that race would actually be known): This means the unit has a race that was never defined in mainline or in the add-on. This is why you're supposed to always add Wesnoth's core directory as the first item to be checked when using wmllint (which is something that the GUI version of it will do automatically for you), so that it can load the mainline races.
• derivation of %s from %s does not resolve (even when you'd think it would): This means that a unit using the [base_unit] tag specifies a unit ID in that tag that was never defined in mainline or in the add-on. This is why you're supposed to always add Wesnoth's core directory as the first item to be checked when using wmllint (which is something that the GUI version of it will do automatically for you), so that it can load the core units for its derivation checks.

wmlindent

Call with no arguments to filter WML on standard input to reindented WML on standard output. If arguments are specified, they are taken to be files to be re-indented in place; interrupting will be safe, as each reindenting will be done to a copy that is atomically renamed when it's done. This code never modifies anything but blank lines and leading and trailing whitespace on non-blank lines.

The indent unit is four spaces. Absence of an option to change this is deliberate; the purpose of this tool is to prevent style wars, not encourage them.

If you don't apply this tool to your own WML, the mainline-campaign maintainers will do it when and if your code is accepted into the tree.

Note: This tool does not include a parser. It will produce bad results on WML that is syntactically unbalanced. Unbalanced double quotes that aren't part of a multiline literal will also confuse it. You will receive warnings if there's an indent open at end of file or if a closer occurs with indent already zero; these two conditions strongly suggest unbalanced WML.

GUI.pyw

Starting from version 1.11.15 and 1.13.0, a GUI (written in Tkinter, plus the themed widgets ttk) is available in the same directory as the other tools. To use it, you need to have a version of Python equal to or greater than 3.1.0 (the 3.0.x series doesn't include the ttk widgets, and as such is unsuitable for this script).

If you're on Linux, be sure to have installed the python3-tk module, or the application won't run at all. To install it in a Debian-based distro (like Ubuntu), type this line in a Terminal:

sudo apt install python3-tk

To start it, just double click on the GUI.pyw file. The interface is pretty much self-explanatory, and allows you to run wmllint, wmlscope, wmlindent and wmlxgettext, modify their options, select an add-on and save the tools' output as a text file.