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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. Currently scan-build
128is known to work with the msys perl port.</p>
129
130<p>scan-build.bat script allows you to launch scan-build in the same way as it described in the Basic Usage section above.
131All you need to be able to invoke scan-build from an arbitrary location is to add the path to scan-build to your PATH environment variable.</p>
132
133<h3 id="scanbuild_otheroptions">Other Options</h3>
134
135<p>As mentioned above, extra options can be passed to <tt>scan-build</tt>. These
136options prefix the build command. For example:</p>
137
138<pre class="code_example">
139 $ scan-build <span class="code_highlight">-k -V</span> make
140 $ scan-build <span class="code_highlight">-k -V</span> xcodebuild
141</pre>
142
143<p>Here is a subset of useful options:</p>
144
145<table class="options">
146<colgroup><col class="option"><col class="description"></colgroup>
147<thead><tr><td>Option</td><td>Description</td></tr></thead>
148
149<tr><td><b>-o</b></td><td>Target directory for HTML report files. Subdirectories
150will be created as needed to represent separate "runs" of the analyzer. If this
151option is not specified, a directory is created in <tt>/tmp</tt> to store the
152reports.</td></tr>
153
154<tr><td><b>-h</b><br><i>(or&nbsp;no&nbsp;arguments)</i></td><td>Display all
155<tt>scan-build</tt> options.</td></tr>
156
157<tr><td><b>-k</b><br><b>--keep-going</b></td><td>Add a "keep on
158going" option to the specified build command. <p>This option currently supports
159<tt>make</tt> and <tt>xcodebuild</tt>.</p> <p>This is a convenience option; one
160can specify this behavior directly using build options.</p></td></tr>
161
162<tr><td><b>-v</b></td><td>Verbose output from scan-build and the analyzer. <b>A
163second and third "-v" increases verbosity</b>, and is useful for filing bug
164reports against the analyzer.</td></tr>
165
166<tr><td><b>-V</b></td><td>View analysis results in a web browser when the build
167command completes.</td></tr>
168
169<tr><td><b>--use-analyzer Xcode</b><br><i>or</i><br>
170<b>--use-analyzer [path to clang]</b></td><td><tt>scan-build</tt> uses the
171'clang' executable relative to itself for static analysis. One can override this
172behavior with this option by using the 'clang' packaged with Xcode (on OS X) or
173from the PATH.</p></td></tr> </table>
174
175<p>A complete list of options can be obtained by running <tt>scan-build</tt>
176with no arguments.</p>
177
178<h3 id="scanbuild_output">Output of scan-build</h3>
179
180<p>
181The output of scan-build is a set of HTML files, each one which represents a
182separate bug report. A single <tt>index.html</tt> file is generated for
183surveying all of the bugs. You can then just open <tt>index.html</tt> in a web
184browser to view the bug reports.
185</p>
186
187<p>
188Where the HTML files are generated is specified with a <b>-o</b> option to
189<tt>scan-build</tt>. If <b>-o</b> isn't specified, a directory in <tt>/tmp</tt>
190is created to store the files (<tt>scan-build</tt> will print a message telling
191you where they are). If you want to view the reports immediately after the build
192completes, pass <b>-V</b> to <tt>scan-build</tt>.
193</p>
194
195
196<h2 id="recommendedguidelines">Recommended Usage Guidelines</h2>
197
198<p>This section describes a few recommendations with running the analyzer.</p>
199
200<h3 id="recommended_debug">ALWAYS analyze a project in its &quot;debug&quot; configuration</h3>
201
202<p>Most projects can be built in a &quot;debug&quot; mode that enables assertions.
203Assertions are picked up by the static analyzer to prune infeasible paths, which
204in some cases can greatly reduce the number of false positives (bogus error
205reports) emitted by the tool.</p>
206
207<h3 id="recommend_verbose">Use verbose output when debugging scan-build</h3>
208
209<p><tt>scan-build</tt> takes a <b>-v</b> option to emit verbose output about
210what it's doing; two <b>-v</b> options emit more information. Redirecting the
211output of <tt>scan-build</tt> to a text file (make sure to redirect standard
212error) is useful for filing bug reports against <tt>scan-build</tt> or the
213analyzer, as we can see the exact options (and files) passed to the analyzer.
214For more comprehensible logs, don't perform a parallel build.</p>
215
216<h3 id="recommended_autoconf">Run './configure' through scan-build</h3>
217
218<p>If an analyzed project uses an autoconf generated <tt>configure</tt> script,
219you will probably need to run <tt>configure</tt> script through
220<tt>scan-build</tt> in order to analyze the project.</p>
221
222<p><b>Example</b></p>
223
224<pre class="code_example">
225$ scan-build ./configure
226$ scan-build make
227</pre>
228
229<p>The reason <tt>configure</tt> also needs to be run through
230<tt>scan-build</tt> is because <tt>scan-build</tt> scans your source files by
231<i>interposing</i> on the compiler. This interposition is currently done by
232<tt>scan-build</tt> temporarily setting the environment variable <tt>CC</tt> to
233<tt>ccc-analyzer</tt>. The program <tt>ccc-analyzer</tt> acts like a fake
234compiler, forwarding its command line arguments over to the compiler to perform
235regular compilation and <tt>clang</tt> to perform static analysis.</p>
236
237<p>Running <tt>configure</tt> typically generates makefiles that have hardwired
238paths to the compiler, and by running <tt>configure</tt> through
239<tt>scan-build</tt> that path is set to <tt>ccc-analyzer</tt>.</p>
240
241<!--
242<h2 id="Debugging">Debugging the Analyzer</h2>
243
244<p>This section provides information on debugging the analyzer, and troubleshooting
245it when you have problems analyzing a particular project.</p>
246
247<h3>How it Works</h3>
248
249<p>To analyze a project, <tt>scan-build</tt> simply sets the environment variable
250<tt>CC</tt> to the full path to <tt>ccc-analyzer</tt>. It also sets a few other
251environment variables to communicate to <tt>ccc-analyzer</tt> where to dump HTML
252report files.</p>
253
254<p>Some Makefiles (or equivalent project files) hardcode the compiler; for such
255projects simply overriding <tt>CC</tt> won't cause <tt>ccc-analyzer</tt> to be
256called. This will cause the compiled code <b>to not be analyzed.</b></p> If you
257find that your code isn't being analyzed, check to see if <tt>CC</tt> is
258hardcoded. If this is the case, you can hardcode it instead to the <b>full
259path</b> to <tt>ccc-analyzer</tt>.</p>
260
261<p>When applicable, you can also run <tt>./configure</tt> for a project through
262<tt>scan-build</tt> so that configure sets up the location of <tt>CC</tt> based
263on the environment passed in from <tt>scan-build</tt>:
264
265<pre>
266  $ scan-build <b>./configure</b>
267</pre>
268
269<p><tt>scan-build</tt> has special knowledge about <tt>configure</tt>, so it in
270most cases will not actually analyze the configure tests run by
271<tt>configure</tt>.</p>
272
273<p>Under the hood, <tt>ccc-analyzer</tt> directly invokes <tt>gcc</tt> to
274compile the actual code in addition to running the analyzer (which occurs by it
275calling <tt>clang</tt>). <tt>ccc-analyzer</tt> tries to correctly forward all
276the arguments over to <tt>gcc</tt>, but this may not work perfectly (please
277report bugs of this kind).
278 -->
279
280<h2 id="iphone">Analyzing iPhone Projects</h2>
281
282<p>Conceptually Xcode projects for iPhone applications are nearly the same as
283their cousins for desktop applications. <b>scan-build</b> can analyze these
284projects as well, but users often encounter problems with just building their
285iPhone projects from the command line because there are a few extra preparative
286steps they need to take (e.g., setup code signing).</p>
287
288<h3>Recommendation: use &quot;Build and Analyze&quot;</h3>
289
290<p>The absolute easiest way to analyze iPhone projects is to use the <a
291href="http://developer.apple.com/mac/library/featuredarticles/StaticAnalysis/index.html"><i>Build
292and Analyze</i> feature in Xcode 3.2</a> (which is based on the Clang Static
293Analyzer). There a user can analyze their project with the click of a button
294without most of the setup described later.</p>
295
296<p><a href="/xcode.html">Instructions are available</a> on this
297website on how to use open source builds of the analyzer as a replacement for
298the one bundled with Xcode.</p>
299
300<h3>Using scan-build directly</h3>
301
302<p>If you wish to use <b>scan-build</b> with your iPhone project, keep the
303following things in mind:</p>
304
305<ul>
306 <li>Analyze your project in the <tt>Debug</tt> configuration, either by setting
307this as your configuration with Xcode or by passing <tt>-configuration
308Debug</tt> to <tt>xcodebuild</tt>.</li>
309 <li>Analyze your project using the <tt>Simulator</tt> as your base SDK. It is
310possible to analyze your code when targeting the device, but this is much
311easier to do when using Xcode's <i>Build and Analyze</i> feature.</li>
312 <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>
313</ul>
314
315<p>Note that you can most of this without actually modifying your project. For
316example, if your application targets iPhoneOS 2.2, you could run
317<b>scan-build</b> in the following manner from the command line:</p>
318
319<pre class="code_example">
320$ scan-build xcodebuild -configuration Debug -sdk iphonesimulator2.2
321</pre>
322
323Alternatively, if your application targets iPhoneOS 3.0:
324
325<pre class="code_example">
326$ scan-build xcodebuild -configuration Debug -sdk iphonesimulator3.0
327</pre>
328
329<h3>Gotcha: using the right compiler</h3>
330
331<p>Recall that <b>scan-build</b> analyzes your project by using a compiler to
332compile the project and <tt>clang</tt> to analyze your project. The script uses
333simple heuristics to determine which compiler should be used (it defaults to
334<tt>clang</tt> on Darwin and <tt>gcc</tt> on other platforms). When analyzing
335iPhone projects, <b>scan-build</b> may pick the wrong compiler than the one
336Xcode would use to build your project. For example, this could be because
337multiple versions of a compiler may be installed on your system, especially if
338you are developing for the iPhone.</p>
339
340<p>When compiling your application to run on the simulator, it is important that <b>scan-build</b>
341finds the correct version of <tt>gcc/clang</tt>. Otherwise, you may see strange build
342errors that only happen when you run <tt>scan-build</tt>.
343
344<p><b>scan-build</b> provides the <tt>--use-cc</tt> and <tt>--use-c++</tt>
345options to hardwire which compiler scan-build should use for building your code.
346Note that although you are chiefly interested in analyzing your project, keep in
347mind that running the analyzer is intimately tied to the build, and not being
348able to compile your code means it won't get fully analyzed (if at all).</p>
349
350<p>If you aren't certain which compiler Xcode uses to build your project, try
351just running <tt>xcodebuild</tt> (without <b>scan-build</b>). You should see the
352full path to the compiler that Xcode is using, and use that as an argument to
353<tt>--use-cc</tt>.</p>
354
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