feat!: enable position indicator by default

- Change position indicator from ~ (multiple) to ^ (single caret)
- Enable showPosition by default (breaking change)
- Aligns with TypeScript/Rust error formatting
- Keep --show-position flag to allow disabling

BREAKING CHANGE: position indicator is now shown by default.
Output format changed from multiple ~ characters to single ^ caret.
Users can disable with --show-position=false.

Author: escapedcat

@commitlint/cli/src/cli.test.ts

@@ -606,7 +606,7 @@ test("should print help", async () => {
 		  -q, --quiet          toggle console output  [boolean] [default: false]
 		  -t, --to             upper end of the commit range to lint; applies if edit=false  [string]
 		  -V, --verbose        enable verbose output for reports without problems  [boolean]
-		      --show-position  show position of error in output  [boolean]
+		      --show-position  show position of error in output  [boolean] [default: true]
 		  -s, --strict         enable strict mode; result code 2 for warnings, 3 for errors  [boolean]
 		      --options        path to a JSON file or Common.js module containing CLI options
 		  -v, --version        display version information  [boolean]

@commitlint/cli/src/cli.ts

@@ -136,6 +136,7 @@ const cli = yargs(process.argv.slice(2))
 		},
 		"show-position": {
 			type: "boolean",
+			default: true,
 			description: "show position of error in output",
 		},
 		strict: {

@commitlint/format/src/format.test.ts

@@ -328,7 +328,7 @@ test("shows position indicator when showPosition is true and error has position"
 		},
 	);
 
-	expect(actual).toContain("~~~");
+	expect(actual).toContain("^");
 });
 
 test("does not show position indicator when showPosition is false", () => {
@@ -355,10 +355,10 @@ test("does not show position indicator when showPosition is false", () => {
 		},
 	);
 
-	expect(actual).not.toContain("~~~");
+	expect(actual).not.toContain("^");
 });
 
-test("does not show position indicator when showPosition is not provided", () => {
+test("shows position indicator when showPosition is not provided (default)", () => {
 	const actual = format(
 		{
 			results: [
@@ -381,7 +381,7 @@ test("does not show position indicator when showPosition is not provided", () =>
 		},
 	);
 
-	expect(actual).not.toContain("~~~");
+	expect(actual).toContain("^");
 });
 
 test("does not show position indicator when error has no position", () => {
@@ -406,7 +406,7 @@ test("does not show position indicator when error has no position", () => {
 		},
 	);
 
-	expect(actual).not.toContain("~~~");
+	expect(actual).not.toContain("^");
 });
 
 test("shows correct position for subject error", () => {
@@ -434,10 +434,10 @@ test("shows correct position for subject error", () => {
 		},
 	);
 
-	expect(actual).toContain("~~~~~~~~");
+	expect(actual).toContain("^");
 });
 
-test("shows position indicator with multiple tildes for longer errors", () => {
+test("shows position indicator with single caret for longer errors", () => {
 	const actual = format(
 		{
 			results: [
@@ -462,7 +462,5 @@ test("shows position indicator with multiple tildes for longer errors", () => {
 		},
 	);
 
-	expect(actual).toContain(
-		"~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~",
-	);
+	expect(actual).toContain("^");
 });

@commitlint/format/src/format.ts

@@ -38,7 +38,7 @@ function formatInput(
 	result: FormattableResult & WithInput,
 	options: FormatOptions = {},
 ): string[] {
-	const { color: enabled = true, showPosition = false } = options;
+	const { color: enabled = true, showPosition = true } = options;
 	const { errors = [], warnings = [], input = "" } = result;
 
 	if (!input) {
@@ -47,19 +47,20 @@ function formatInput(
 
 	const sign = "⧗";
 	const decoration = enabled ? pc.gray(sign) : sign;
+	const prefix = `${decoration}   input: `;
 
 	const decoratedInput = enabled ? pc.bold(input) : input;
 	const hasProblems = errors.length > 0 || warnings.length > 0;
 
 	if (!hasProblems) {
-		return options.verbose ? [`${decoration}   input: ${decoratedInput}`] : [];
+		return options.verbose ? [`${prefix}${decoratedInput}`] : [];
 	}
 
 	const positionIndicator = showPosition
-		? getPositionIndicator([...errors, ...warnings], input)
+		? getPositionIndicator([...errors, ...warnings], input, prefix.length)
 		: undefined;
 
-	const lines: string[] = [`${decoration}   input: ${decoratedInput}`];
+	const lines: string[] = [`${prefix}${decoratedInput}`];
 
 	if (positionIndicator) {
 		lines.push(positionIndicator);
@@ -71,6 +72,7 @@ function formatInput(
 function getPositionIndicator(
 	problems: FormattableProblem[],
 	input: string,
+	prefixLength: number,
 ): string | undefined {
 	const problemWithPosition = problems.find(
 		(problem) => problem?.start !== undefined && problem?.end !== undefined,
@@ -79,28 +81,21 @@ function getPositionIndicator(
 		return undefined;
 	}
 
-	const { start, end } = problemWithPosition;
-	const padding = "           ";
+	const padding = " ".repeat(prefixLength);
 
-	const tilde = "~";
+	const caret = "^";
 
 	const normalizedInput = input.replace(/\r\n/g, "\n").replace(/\r/g, "\n");
 	const lines = normalizedInput.split("\n");
-	const targetLine = lines[start.line - 1];
+	const targetLine = lines[problemWithPosition.start.line - 1];
 
 	if (!targetLine) {
 		return undefined;
 	}
 
-	const lineLength = targetLine.length;
-	const spacesBefore = Math.max(0, start.column - 1);
-	const tildeLength = Math.max(
-		1,
-		Math.min(end.column - start.column, lineLength - (start.column - 1)),
-	);
+	const spacesBefore = Math.max(0, problemWithPosition.start.column - 1);
 
-	const indicator =
-		padding + " ".repeat(spacesBefore) + tilde.repeat(tildeLength);
+	const indicator = padding + " ".repeat(spacesBefore) + caret;
 
 	return indicator;
 }

@commitlint/lint/src/lint.ts

@@ -107,8 +107,10 @@ function getRulePosition(
 				}
 				return undefined;
 			}
-			const subjectStart = raw.indexOf(parsed.subject);
-			if (subjectStart === -1) return undefined;
+			const typeEnd = parsed.type ? parsed.type.length : 0;
+			const hasScope = parsed.scope ? parsed.scope.length + 3 : 0;
+			const separator = ": ".length;
+			const subjectStart = typeEnd + hasScope + separator;
 			return {
 				start: { line: 1, column: subjectStart + 1, offset: subjectStart },
 				end: {

docs/api/format.md

@@ -62,7 +62,7 @@ type formatOptions = {
   helpUrl: string;
 
   /**
-   * Show position indicator (~~~) for errors in the input line
+   * Show position indicator (^) for errors in the input line
    **/
   showPosition?: boolean;
 }