1<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN" 2 "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/strict.dtd"> 3<html> 4<head> 5 <title>scan-build: running the analyzer from the command line</title> 6 <link type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" href="content.css"> 7 <link type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" href="menu.css"> 8 <script type="text/javascript" src="scripts/menu.js"></script> 9</head> 10<body> 11 12<div id="page"> 13<!--#include virtual="menu.html.incl"--> 14<div id="content"> 15 16<h1>scan-build: running the analyzer from the command line</h1> 17 18<table style="margin-top:0px" width="100%" cellpadding="0px" cellspacing="0"> 19<tr><td> 20 21<h3>What is it?</h3> 22<p><b>scan-build</b> is a command line utility that enables a user to run the 23static analyzer over their codebase as part of performing a regular build (from 24the command line).</p> 25 26<h3>How does it work?</h3> 27<p>During a project build, as source files are compiled they are also analyzed 28in tandem by the static analyzer.</p> 29 30<p>Upon completion of the build, results are then presented to the user within a 31web browser.</p> 32 33<h3>Will it work with any build system?</h3> 34<p><b>scan-build</b> has little or no knowledge about how you build your code. 35It works by overriding the <tt>CC</tt> and <tt>CXX</tt> environment variables to 36(hopefully) change your build to use a "fake" compiler instead of the 37one that would normally build your project. This fake compiler executes either 38<tt>clang</tt> or <tt>gcc</tt> (depending on the platform) to compile your 39code and then executes the static analyzer to analyze your code.</p> 40 41<p>This "poor man's interposition" works amazingly well in many cases 42and falls down in others. Please consult the information on this page on making 43the best use of <b>scan-build</b>, which includes getting it to work when the 44aforementioned hack fails to work.</p> 45 46</td> 47<td style="padding-left:10px; text-align:center"> 48 <img src="images/scan_build_cmd.png" width="450px" alt="scan-build"><br> 49 <a href="images/analyzer_html.png"><img src="images/analyzer_html.png" width="450px" alt="analyzer in browser"></a> 50<br><b>Viewing static analyzer results in a web browser</b> 51</td></tr></table> 52 53<h2>Contents</h2> 54 55<ul> 56<li><a href="#scanbuild">Getting Started</a> 57 <ul> 58 <li><a href="#scanbuild_basicusage">Basic Usage</a></li> 59 <li><a href="#scanbuild_forwindowsusers">For Windows Users</a></li> 60 <li><a href="#scanbuild_otheroptions">Other Options</a></li> 61 <li><a href="#scanbuild_output">Output of scan-build</a></li> 62 </ul> 63</li> 64<li><a href="#recommendedguidelines">Recommended Usage Guidelines</a> 65 <ul> 66 <li><a href="#recommended_debug">Always Analyze a Project in its "Debug" Configuration</a></li> 67 <li><a href="#recommended_verbose">Use Verbose Output when Debugging scan-build</a></li> 68 <li><a href="#recommended_autoconf">Run './configure' through scan-build</a></li> 69 </ul> 70</li> 71<li><a href="#iphone">Analyzing iPhone Projects</a></li> 72</ul> 73 74<h2 id="scanbuild">Getting Started</h2> 75 76<p>The <tt>scan-build</tt> command can be used to analyze an entire project by 77essentially interposing on a project's build process. This means that to run the 78analyzer using <tt>scan-build</tt>, you will use <tt>scan-build</tt> to analyze 79the source files compiled by <tt>gcc</tt>/<tt>clang</tt> during a project build. 80This means that any files that are not compiled will also not be analyzed.</p> 81 82<h3 id="scanbuild_basicusage">Basic Usage</h3> 83 84<p>Basic usage of <tt>scan-build</tt> is designed to be simple: just place the 85word "scan-build" in front of your build command:</p> 86 87<pre class="code_example"> 88$ <span class="code_highlight">scan-build</span> make 89$ <span class="code_highlight">scan-build</span> xcodebuild 90</pre> 91 92<p>In the first case <tt>scan-build</tt> analyzes the code of a project built 93with <tt>make</tt> and in the second case <tt>scan-build</tt> analyzes a project 94built using <tt>xcodebuild</tt>.<p> 95 96<p>Here is the general format for invoking <tt>scan-build</tt>:</p> 97 98<pre class="code_example"> 99$ <span class="code_highlight">scan-build</span> <i>[scan-build options]</i> <span class="code_highlight"><command></span> <i>[command options]</i> 100</pre> 101 102<p>Operationally, <tt>scan-build</tt> literally runs <command> with all of the 103subsequent options passed to it. For example, one can pass <tt>-j4</tt> to 104<tt>make</tt> get a parallel build over 4 cores:</p> 105 106<pre class="code_example"> 107$ scan-build make <span class="code_highlight">-j4</span> 108</pre> 109 110<p>In almost all cases, <tt>scan-build</tt> makes no effort to interpret the 111options after the build command; it simply passes them through. In general, 112<tt>scan-build</tt> should support parallel builds, but <b>not distributed 113builds</b>.</p> 114 115<p>It is also possible to use <tt>scan-build</tt> to analyze specific 116files:</p> 117 118<pre class="code_example"> 119 $ scan-build gcc -c <span class="code_highlight">t1.c t2.c</span> 120</pre> 121 122<p>This example causes the files <tt>t1.c</tt> and <tt>t2.c</tt> to be analyzed. 123</p> 124 125<h3 id="scanbuild_forwindowsusers">For Windows Users</h3> 126 127<p>Windows users must have Perl installed to use scan-build.</p> 128 129<p><tt>scan-build.bat</tt> script allows you to launch scan-build in the same 130way as it described in the Basic Usage section above. To invoke scan-build from 131an arbitrary location, add the path to the folder containing scan-build.bat to 132your PATH environment variable.</p> 133 134<p>If you have unexpected compilation/make problems when running scan-build 135with MinGW/MSYS the following information may be helpful:</p> 136 137<ul> 138 <li> If getting unexpected <tt>"fatal error: no input files"</tt> while 139building with MSYS make from the Windows cmd, try one of these solutions:</li> 140 <ul> 141 <li> Use MinGW <tt>mingw32-make</tt> instead of MSYS <tt>make</tt> and 142exclude the path to MSYS from PATH to prevent <tt>mingw32-make</tt> from using 143MSYS utils. MSYS utils are dependent on the MSYS runtime and they are not 144intended for being run from the Windows cmd. Specifically, makefile commands 145with backslashed quotes may be heavily corrupted when passed for execution.</li> 146 <li> Run <tt>make</tt> from the sh shell: 147<pre class="code_example"> 148$ <span class="code_highlight">scan-build</span> <i>[scan-build options]</i> sh -c "make <i>[make options]</i>" 149</pre></li> 150 </ul> 151 <li> If getting <tt>"Error : *** target pattern contains no `%'"</tt> while 152using GNU Make 3.81, try to use another version of make.</li> 153</ul> 154 155<h3 id="scanbuild_otheroptions">Other Options</h3> 156 157<p>As mentioned above, extra options can be passed to <tt>scan-build</tt>. These 158options prefix the build command. For example:</p> 159 160<pre class="code_example"> 161 $ scan-build <span class="code_highlight">-k -V</span> make 162 $ scan-build <span class="code_highlight">-k -V</span> xcodebuild 163</pre> 164 165<p>Here is a subset of useful options:</p> 166 167<table class="options"> 168<colgroup><col class="option"><col class="description"></colgroup> 169<thead><tr><td>Option</td><td>Description</td></tr></thead> 170 171<tr><td><b>-o</b></td><td>Target directory for HTML report files. Subdirectories 172will be created as needed to represent separate "runs" of the analyzer. If this 173option is not specified, a directory is created in <tt>/tmp</tt> to store the 174reports.</td></tr> 175 176<tr><td><b>-h</b><br><i>(or no arguments)</i></td><td>Display all 177<tt>scan-build</tt> options.</td></tr> 178 179<tr><td><b>-k</b><br><b>--keep-going</b></td><td>Add a "keep on 180going" option to the specified build command. <p>This option currently supports 181<tt>make</tt> and <tt>xcodebuild</tt>.</p> <p>This is a convenience option; one 182can specify this behavior directly using build options.</p></td></tr> 183 184<tr><td><b>-v</b></td><td>Verbose output from scan-build and the analyzer. <b>A 185second and third "-v" increases verbosity</b>, and is useful for filing bug 186reports against the analyzer.</td></tr> 187 188<tr><td><b>-V</b></td><td>View analysis results in a web browser when the build 189command completes.</td></tr> 190 191<tr><td><b>--use-analyzer Xcode</b><br><i>or</i><br> 192<b>--use-analyzer [path to clang]</b></td><td><tt>scan-build</tt> uses the 193'clang' executable relative to itself for static analysis. One can override this 194behavior with this option by using the 'clang' packaged with Xcode (on OS X) or 195from the PATH.</p></td></tr> </table> 196 197<p>A complete list of options can be obtained by running <tt>scan-build</tt> 198with no arguments.</p> 199 200<h3 id="scanbuild_output">Output of scan-build</h3> 201 202<p> 203The output of scan-build is a set of HTML files, each one which represents a 204separate bug report. A single <tt>index.html</tt> file is generated for 205surveying all of the bugs. You can then just open <tt>index.html</tt> in a web 206browser to view the bug reports. 207</p> 208 209<p> 210Where the HTML files are generated is specified with a <b>-o</b> option to 211<tt>scan-build</tt>. If <b>-o</b> isn't specified, a directory in <tt>/tmp</tt> 212is created to store the files (<tt>scan-build</tt> will print a message telling 213you where they are). If you want to view the reports immediately after the build 214completes, pass <b>-V</b> to <tt>scan-build</tt>. 215</p> 216 217 218<h2 id="recommendedguidelines">Recommended Usage Guidelines</h2> 219 220<p>This section describes a few recommendations with running the analyzer.</p> 221 222<h3 id="recommended_debug">ALWAYS analyze a project in its "debug" configuration</h3> 223 224<p>Most projects can be built in a "debug" mode that enables assertions. 225Assertions are picked up by the static analyzer to prune infeasible paths, which 226in some cases can greatly reduce the number of false positives (bogus error 227reports) emitted by the tool.</p> 228 229<p>Another option is to use <tt>--force-analyze-debug-code</tt> flag of 230<b>scan-build</b> tool which would enable assertions automatically.</p> 231 232<h3 id="recommend_verbose">Use verbose output when debugging scan-build</h3> 233 234<p><tt>scan-build</tt> takes a <b>-v</b> option to emit verbose output about 235what it's doing; two <b>-v</b> options emit more information. Redirecting the 236output of <tt>scan-build</tt> to a text file (make sure to redirect standard 237error) is useful for filing bug reports against <tt>scan-build</tt> or the 238analyzer, as we can see the exact options (and files) passed to the analyzer. 239For more comprehensible logs, don't perform a parallel build.</p> 240 241<h3 id="recommended_autoconf">Run './configure' through scan-build</h3> 242 243<p>If an analyzed project uses an autoconf generated <tt>configure</tt> script, 244you will probably need to run <tt>configure</tt> script through 245<tt>scan-build</tt> in order to analyze the project.</p> 246 247<p><b>Example</b></p> 248 249<pre class="code_example"> 250$ scan-build ./configure 251$ scan-build make 252</pre> 253 254<p>The reason <tt>configure</tt> also needs to be run through 255<tt>scan-build</tt> is because <tt>scan-build</tt> scans your source files by 256<i>interposing</i> on the compiler. This interposition is currently done by 257<tt>scan-build</tt> temporarily setting the environment variable <tt>CC</tt> to 258<tt>ccc-analyzer</tt>. The program <tt>ccc-analyzer</tt> acts like a fake 259compiler, forwarding its command line arguments over to the compiler to perform 260regular compilation and <tt>clang</tt> to perform static analysis.</p> 261 262<p>Running <tt>configure</tt> typically generates makefiles that have hardwired 263paths to the compiler, and by running <tt>configure</tt> through 264<tt>scan-build</tt> that path is set to <tt>ccc-analyzer</tt>.</p> 265 266<!-- 267<h2 id="Debugging">Debugging the Analyzer</h2> 268 269<p>This section provides information on debugging the analyzer, and troubleshooting 270it when you have problems analyzing a particular project.</p> 271 272<h3>How it Works</h3> 273 274<p>To analyze a project, <tt>scan-build</tt> simply sets the environment variable 275<tt>CC</tt> to the full path to <tt>ccc-analyzer</tt>. It also sets a few other 276environment variables to communicate to <tt>ccc-analyzer</tt> where to dump HTML 277report files.</p> 278 279<p>Some Makefiles (or equivalent project files) hardcode the compiler; for such 280projects simply overriding <tt>CC</tt> won't cause <tt>ccc-analyzer</tt> to be 281called. This will cause the compiled code <b>to not be analyzed.</b></p> If you 282find that your code isn't being analyzed, check to see if <tt>CC</tt> is 283hardcoded. If this is the case, you can hardcode it instead to the <b>full 284path</b> to <tt>ccc-analyzer</tt>.</p> 285 286<p>When applicable, you can also run <tt>./configure</tt> for a project through 287<tt>scan-build</tt> so that configure sets up the location of <tt>CC</tt> based 288on the environment passed in from <tt>scan-build</tt>: 289 290<pre> 291 $ scan-build <b>./configure</b> 292</pre> 293 294<p><tt>scan-build</tt> has special knowledge about <tt>configure</tt>, so it in 295most cases will not actually analyze the configure tests run by 296<tt>configure</tt>.</p> 297 298<p>Under the hood, <tt>ccc-analyzer</tt> directly invokes <tt>gcc</tt> to 299compile the actual code in addition to running the analyzer (which occurs by it 300calling <tt>clang</tt>). <tt>ccc-analyzer</tt> tries to correctly forward all 301the arguments over to <tt>gcc</tt>, but this may not work perfectly (please 302report bugs of this kind). 303 --> 304 305<h2 id="iphone">Analyzing iPhone Projects</h2> 306 307<p>Conceptually Xcode projects for iPhone applications are nearly the same as 308their cousins for desktop applications. <b>scan-build</b> can analyze these 309projects as well, but users often encounter problems with just building their 310iPhone projects from the command line because there are a few extra preparative 311steps they need to take (e.g., setup code signing).</p> 312 313<h3>Recommendation: use "Build and Analyze"</h3> 314 315<p>The absolute easiest way to analyze iPhone projects is to use the 316<a href="https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/recipes/xcode_help-source_editor/chapters/Analyze.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40009975-CH4-SW1"><i>Analyze</i> 317feature in Xcode</a> (which is based on the Clang Static Analyzer). There a 318user can analyze their project right from a menu without most of the setup 319described later.</p> 320 321<p><a href="/xcode.html">Instructions are available</a> on this 322website on how to use open source builds of the analyzer as a replacement for 323the one bundled with Xcode.</p> 324 325<h3>Using scan-build directly</h3> 326 327<p>If you wish to use <b>scan-build</b> with your iPhone project, keep the 328following things in mind:</p> 329 330<ul> 331 <li>Analyze your project in the <tt>Debug</tt> configuration, either by setting 332this as your configuration with Xcode or by passing <tt>-configuration 333Debug</tt> to <tt>xcodebuild</tt>.</li> 334 <li>Analyze your project using the <tt>Simulator</tt> as your base SDK. It is 335possible to analyze your code when targeting the device, but this is much 336easier to do when using Xcode's <i>Build and Analyze</i> feature.</li> 337 <li>Check that your code signing SDK is set to the simulator SDK as well, and make sure this option is set to <tt>Don't Code Sign</tt>.</li> 338</ul> 339 340<p>Note that you can most of this without actually modifying your project. For 341example, if your application targets iPhoneOS 2.2, you could run 342<b>scan-build</b> in the following manner from the command line:</p> 343 344<pre class="code_example"> 345$ scan-build xcodebuild -configuration Debug -sdk iphonesimulator2.2 346</pre> 347 348Alternatively, if your application targets iPhoneOS 3.0: 349 350<pre class="code_example"> 351$ scan-build xcodebuild -configuration Debug -sdk iphonesimulator3.0 352</pre> 353 354<h3>Gotcha: using the right compiler</h3> 355 356<p>Recall that <b>scan-build</b> analyzes your project by using a compiler to 357compile the project and <tt>clang</tt> to analyze your project. The script uses 358simple heuristics to determine which compiler should be used (it defaults to 359<tt>clang</tt> on Darwin and <tt>gcc</tt> on other platforms). When analyzing 360iPhone projects, <b>scan-build</b> may pick the wrong compiler than the one 361Xcode would use to build your project. For example, this could be because 362multiple versions of a compiler may be installed on your system, especially if 363you are developing for the iPhone.</p> 364 365<p>When compiling your application to run on the simulator, it is important that <b>scan-build</b> 366finds the correct version of <tt>gcc/clang</tt>. Otherwise, you may see strange build 367errors that only happen when you run <tt>scan-build</tt>. 368 369<p><b>scan-build</b> provides the <tt>--use-cc</tt> and <tt>--use-c++</tt> 370options to hardwire which compiler scan-build should use for building your code. 371Note that although you are chiefly interested in analyzing your project, keep in 372mind that running the analyzer is intimately tied to the build, and not being 373able to compile your code means it won't get fully analyzed (if at all).</p> 374 375<p>If you aren't certain which compiler Xcode uses to build your project, try 376just running <tt>xcodebuild</tt> (without <b>scan-build</b>). You should see the 377full path to the compiler that Xcode is using, and use that as an argument to 378<tt>--use-cc</tt>.</p> 379 380</div> 381</div> 382</body> 383</html> 384 385