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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 &quot;fake&quot; 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 &quot;poor man's interposition&quot; 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 &quot;Debug&quot; 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 &quot;scan-build&quot; 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">&lt;command&gt;</span> <i>[command options]</i>
100</pre>
101
102<p>Operationally, <tt>scan-build</tt> literally runs &lt;command&gt; 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&nbsp;no&nbsp;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 &quot;debug&quot; configuration</h3>
223
224<p>Most projects can be built in a &quot;debug&quot; 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 &quot;Build and Analyze&quot;</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
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