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Is anyone aware of command line tools that can validate CSS and/or HTML?

The W3C offers its validators for local installation, with directions to use from the command line, but the installation process is a nightmare for anyone who isn't a seasoned Java developer.

I've searched with Google, but can't find anything.

Ideally I'd like to use a tool (or tools) that I can point at my CSS, and have it report back on any errors. I want it to be local to increase the speed of my debugging cycles.

Ideally, the tools will understand HTML5 and CSS3.

Paul D. Waite
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Robert
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6 Answers6

32

There is tidy for HTML. It's more than a validator: it doesn't only check if your HTML is valid, but also tries to fix it. But you can just look at the errors and warnings and ignore the fix if you want.

I'm not sure how well it works with HTML5, but take a look at Wanted: Command line HTML5 beautifier, there are some parameter suggestions.

For CSS there is CSSTidy (I have never used it though.)

Regarding the W3C validator: if you happen to use debian/ubuntu, the package w3c-markup-validator is in the repositories and very easy to install via package management. Packages for other distos are also available.

And the W3C CSS validator is available as a jar, which is easy to use:

java -jar css-validator.jar http://www.w3.org/.
Dario Seidl
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    `w3c-markup-validator` in Ubuntu seems to have a broken dependency: `w3c-markup-validator : Depends: w3c-sgml-lib but it is not installable` – Kostas Sep 27 '11 at 06:38
  • Under Ubuntu 11.10, I am able to install the package just fine — they might have fixed the dependency problem that vrinek mentions. – Brandon Rhodes Apr 06 '12 at 14:32
  • `css-validator.jar` does not work, it invariably complains `Could not find the main class: org.w3c.css.css.CssValidator`. Something must be broken with it. – Hibou57 Sep 21 '12 at 04:41
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    @Hibou57 no, it works, it's just [a pain to install properly](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1137884). – kojiro Jan 18 '13 at 04:02
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    some updates might be in order http://www.html-tidy.org/ and https://github.com/htacg/tidy-html5 – lab419 Aug 17 '19 at 09:02
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One of the most popular web-based validators is http://validator.nu.

On their About page, they list a command-line script (written in Python) for validation.

Zearin
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    This appears to be its Github repo: https://github.com/mozilla/html5-lint - you can use the `htmlcheck.py` script standalone, but it's not offline. – blueyed Sep 13 '14 at 00:14
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    For command-line use, you can download a release and use the jar file. The current (2017-03) Github repo is https://github.com/validator/validator . – dat Mar 14 '17 at 16:24
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WC3 has the source to their validators here: https://github.com/w3c

Janus Troelsen
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tmkly3
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On Ubuntu, you can install the package w3c-markup-validator. It provides a CGI web interface. But you do not have to use it.

You can use my w3c-validator-runner to run the validator without having a webserver.

If that does not work, consider starting a webserver. You can then use srackham/w3c-validator.

Janus Troelsen
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Not sure if this works but if you have Node & NPM there is: html-validator and html-validator-cli https://github.com/zrrrzzt/html-validator & https://github.com/zrrrzzt/html-validator-cli

Programmerion
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Although not directly a solution to your problem, you could consider using a CSS-extension framework for the validation part. I use SASS extensively in all my web projects and find it indispensible when you get used to it. Besides all the fancy mixins and variables features etc. it will also perform a validation of your CSS/SASS markup and report for errors as it is perfectly backwards compatible with regular CSS3. The nice thing is that it works as a Ruby Gem which means that it runs locally and can be integrated with other workflows through either Ruby or the command line (terminal in unix environment).

Take it for a spin: http://sass-lang.com/docs/yardoc/

Run sass style.scss and see what happens.

laander
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  • Hi Lander. Sass is pretty awesome alright. I gave up using sass a while ago because of problems with emacs on ubuntu. Basically, emacs on ubuntu comes with some outdated packages, including an ancient css-mode that doesn't play well with sass-mode. I kept loosing work as my sass got more complex. I reckon I'll have another shot at integrating sass into my workflow though. – Robert Jul 11 '11 at 09:07
  • SASS is good, and was the first of its kind. But there are better tools now! ☺ http://learnboost.github.com/stylus/ – Zearin May 22 '12 at 16:58