Linting Without a Plugin

with “eclipse and pc-lint: linticator” i have a plugin to lint my sources in a comfortable way. but i can do this as well without a plugin. for this i use a batch file with a build configuration, plus settings to get the pc-lint messages into the problems view. yes, this does not sound easy, but is very doable and straight forward once i have set it up. it gives me complete control on every little detail. here is how i do it… pc-lint is like any other compiler: it compiles my source files. but, it is not producing object code: it is producing messages. so i need to set up the compiler to compile my sources, and to produce the messages so i can click and jump to the offending source files and lines. to run pc-lint with a project in eclipse means solving three problems:

1. how to set up pc-lint as compiler for my project?
2. how to pass options to the pc-lint compiler?
3. how to configure the messages for the problems view?

i’m using a joint approach with eclipse build configuration , batch file and lint option files . the solution presented here is using the following steps:

1. using a managed make build configuration
2. setting up a batch file to call pc-lint
3. defining the list of files
4. specifying the options
5. defining the message format
6. lint it !

step 1: build configuration

to my existing project i add a managed make build configuration for pc-lint. the build configuration is set up to call a batch file. i select the project and use the menu project > build configuration > manage… and create a new configuration using the new button:

creating new build configuration

for the new configuration, i copy the settings from the existing configuration:

creating new configuration

this new configuration would just use my normal compiler. instead, i want to use the lint compiler. in project > properties > c/c++ build > builder settings , i disable ‘ use default build command ‘ and use instead:

${projdirpath}\lint\do_lint.bat "${projdirpath}" "${mcutoolsbasedir}"

i’m pointing to a do_lint.bat file inside a lint folder of my project which i will create in the next step. additionally i disable ‘ generate makefiles automatically ‘:

builder settings for pc-lint batch file

codewarrior for mcu10.2 uses parallel builds by default. this would add -j6 as option to the command line. in order to disable this, i configure project specific settings in the build behaviour tab:

custom build behaviour

step 2: batch file

to separate the lint files from the rest of my build and project, i create a lint sub-folder inside my project root with a do_lint.bat batch file:

do_lint batch file

the do_lint.bat has following content:

@rem the arguments for this batch file: 
@rem %1: the path to the project folder
@rem %2: the path to the codewarrior installation folder
@rem ------------------------------------------------------
@rem path to my project folder
set proj_path=%1
@rem path to codewarrior installation folder (which is e.g. "c:\freescale\cw mcu v10.2\eclipse\..\mcu")
set cw_path=%2
@rem path to lint-nt.exe
set lint_exe=c:\lint\lint-nt.exe
@rem path to my lint configuration files
set local_lnt_files=c:\freescale\pc-lint\fsl_lnt
@rem path to my local lint folder inside the project
set proj_lint_path=%proj_path%\lint
@rem lint configuration files and includes
set lnt_includes=-i"%local_lnt_files%" "%local_lnt_files%\co-mwhc08.lnt" -i%local_lnt_files%
@rem --------------- run pc-lint ---------------------------
%lint_exe% %lnt_includes% %proj_lint_path%\proj_options.lnt %proj_lint_path%\proj_files.lnt -vf

the batch file is called from eclipse with two arguments (%1 and %2): with the path to the project folder and the path to the codewarrior installation folder. i assign them to local variables (proj_path and cw_path) so i can use them inside the .lnt files. to know where my lint compiler is, i use lint_exe. i store my lint configuration files outside of the pc-lint installation folder, that’s why i have defined a path variable for this: local_lint_files. proj_lint_path contains the project sub-folder with all my batch and lint files for the project. in lnt_includes i specify my compiler lint configuration file, plus where lint shall search for my lint configuration files. finally it calls the lint executable with the lint include files, plus two files: the project options (proj_options.lnt) and the project files (proj_files.lnt) . i explain these files in step 4.

step 3: list of files

i have created a file proj_files.lnt file inside my project:

file listing the files to lint

this file has all my source files listed. and because i have defined environment variables like proj_path, i can use it here:

%proj_path%\sources\main.c 
%proj_path%\sources\events.c

step 4: passing the options

what is missing are the project specific options: i add them to the proj_options.lnt file:

project options file

in this file i add with the -i pc-lint option all the paths where it can find my files:

// include paths used
-i%proj_path%
-i%proj_path%\sources
-i%proj_path%\generated_code
-i%cw_path%\lib\hc08c\include

additionally i specify all the global options, e.g. to inhibit messages:

// inhibit messages for processor expert libraries
-elib(19, 10)
-e766
+libh(events.h, cpu.h)

step 5: defining the message format

last but not least: i need to tell pc-lint how to format the messages so they end up properly in the eclipse problems view. i add them as well to the proj_options.lnt:

// coerce messages for eclipse
-hf1
+ffn
// normally my format is defined as follows:
//-"format=%(\q%f\q %l %c%) %t %n: %m"
// for eclipse-usage, the gcc error format is necessary,
// since we have only the default eclipse error parser available.
-"format=%(%f:%l:%c:%) %t %n: %m"
// enable warning 831 if you are interested.
-frl
// do not break lines
-width(0) 
// and make sure no foreign includes change the format
+flm

step 5: linting in action

time to see how this works! as i have set up a separate build configuration to lint my files, i can run it like any other build configuration:

build my lint configuration

the example below shows several lint errors for main.c. the messages show up in the problems view, and are listed as well in the console view:

linting in action

summary

the approach presented here does not need any other eclipse plugin. it is using a batch file, and uses a brute force approach: it will lint all files regardless if they have changed or not. this could be improved with a make file approach as outlined here . the approach presented here requires some setup, is pretty simple, and routes all lint messages to the problems view. if i want to use more of a plugin approach, then the linticator plugin is the alternative.

thanks to catherine for providing a lot of good ideas used in this article!

happy linting