Generate Build Options for Polyspace as You Code Analysis in Eclipse

Polyspace^® as You Code checks the source code of the file that is currently active in your Eclipse™ IDE for bugs and coding standards violations.

So that the analysis runs without errors, provide Polyspace as You Code with the specificities of your build configuration, such as data type sizes and compiler macro definitions. To provide your build configuration information, you can:

Configure Polyspace as You Code to extract the build configuration information from your Eclipse project, build command, or JSON compilation database.
Manually specify analysis options that emulate your build configuration in an options file. See Options Files for Polyspace Analysis (Polyspace Bug Finder).
Import the analysis options from a Polyspace desktop product project file.

Configure Polyspace as You Code to Extract Build Configuration

You can configure Polyspace as You Code to extract the build configuration from your Eclipse project, build command, or JSON compilation database. If you extract build configuration from build command, Polyspace executes the command and gathers build information from the executes processes. If you extract build configuration from an Eclipse project or JSON compilation database, Polyspace can simply read the build configuration from the project or JSON database.

Get Build Configuration from Eclipse Project

To extract your build configuration information from your Eclipse project:

Go to Window > Preferences and select the Polyspace as You Code node.
On the Analysis node, select Get from Eclipse C/C++ project from the Build list. See Configure Polyspace as You Code Plugin in Eclipse.

Polyspace automatically extracts the build options from your project toolchain. The Polyspace analysis engine uses those options in the subsequent analysis.

If your workspace contains multiple projects, Polyspace extracts the build options for all the projects and then applies only the relevant options when you analyze a file in a specific project.

To view the details of the toolchain configuration:

Select a project in the Project Explorer and go to Project > Properties.
Under the C/C++ General node, select Paths and symbols and Preprocessor Include Paths, Macros, etc.

Get Build Configuration from Build Command

To extract your build configuration information from your build command:

Go to Window > Preferences and select the Polyspace as You Code node.
On the Analysis node, select Get from build command from the Build list. See Configure Polyspace as You Code Plugin in Eclipse.
The build command that you specify must perform a full build. For example:
gcc -g -o helloworld hello.c main.c
Click in the Configuration view of the Polyspace as You Code perspective.

Polyspace runs your build command, traces the build to extract the configuration information, and generates an options file. The Polyspace as You Code analysis engine uses the generated options file in subsequent analyses.

The generated options file is stored in the .polyspace-configure folder under the workingDirectory/projectName folder or one of its subfolders.

Here, workingDirectory is the Working directory path that you specify on the Polyspace as You Code node and projectName is the name of the project that contains the files you are currently analyzing.

Get Build Configuration from JSON Compilation Database

If your build system supports the generation of a JSON compilation database file, use this workflow. The JSON compilation database contains compiler calls for all the translation units in your project. See JSON compilation database.

To extract your build configuration information from the JSON compilation database:

Generate a JSON compilation database file. For an example of how to generate this file, see Create Polyspace Options File from JSON Compilation Database (Polyspace Bug Finder).
If you use a JSON compilation database that was not generated on your local machine, make sure that the paths listed in the file are accessible from the location where you run Polyspace as You Code.
Go to Window > Preferences and select the Polyspace as You Code node.
On the Analysis node, select Get from JSON Compilation Database file from the Build list and specify the full path to the JSON compilation database file that you generated in step 1. See Configure Polyspace as You Code Plugin in Eclipse.

Polyspace automatically extracts the build configuration information from the compilation database and generates an options file. The Polyspace as You Code analysis engine uses the generated options file in subsequent analyses.

The generated options file is stored in the .polyspace-configure folder under the workingDirectory/projectName folder or one of its subfolders.

Update Generated Build Options File

If you make changes to your build configuration, such as adding a source file to your project or workspace or renaming an existing file, update the generated options file to reflect those changes. Before you update the options file, make sure that your build completes successfully with the new configuration.

To update the options file, click in the Configuration view of the Polyspace as You Code perspective.

If you extract your build information from a JSON compilation database file, regenerate the compilation database before you update the build options file.

Specify Analysis Options Manually

Specify analysis options manually in an options file that you create if:

You know the details of your build system and you want to specify the Polyspace analysis options that emulate your build configuration in an options file. See Options Files for Polyspace Analysis (Polyspace Bug Finder).
For a list of available analysis options, see Complete List of Polyspace Bug Finder Analysis Engine Options (Polyspace Bug Finder).
You reuse a Polyspace options file that you or someone else on your team has configured for your build system.
If you reuse an options file that was not configured or generated on your local machine, make sure that the paths listed in the file are accessible from the location where you run Polyspace as You Code.

To specify an analysis options file:

Go to Window > Preferences and select the Polyspace as You Code node.
On the Analysis node, select Get from Polyspace build options file from the Build list and specify the full path to the options file. See Configure Polyspace as You Code Plugin in Eclipse.

The Polyspace as You Code analysis engine uses the options file that you specify in subsequent analyses.

If you make changes to your build configuration, edit the options file to reflect those changes. See Specify Target Environment and Compiler Behavior (Polyspace Bug Finder).

Import Analysis Options from Polyspace Desktop Project

If you configure an analysis in the Polyspace desktop product, you can use the information from the resulting Polyspace desktop project (.psprj) file to configure your Polyspace as You Code analysis.

To import the analysis options from a .psprj file, open a terminal in Eclipse and enter this command:

ps-migrate-checkers-selection -import-options-from-psprj pathToPsprjFile

The ps-migrate-checkers-selection command is available under the polyspace/bin/arch folder in your Polyspace as You Code installation folder, where arch is one of win64, glnxa64, or maci64. If you did not add this installation folder to your PATH environment variable, include the full path of the binary to execute this command.

The pathToPsprjFile path is the full path of the .psprj file.

Polyspace generates an options file analysis_options.txt and an XML checkers activation file checkers_activation_file.xml. The generated files are stored in the import folder in the same location as the .psprj file.

To complete the configuration of the Polyspace as You Code analysis:

Go to Window > Preferences and select the Polyspace as You Code node.
On the Analysis node, select Get from Polyspace build options file from the Build list. See Configure Polyspace as You Code Plugin in Eclipse.
Specify the path of the generated options file analysis_options.txt in the Other Analysis Options File box.
Specify the path of the generated checkers activation file checkers_activation_file.xml in the Checkers File box.

The Polyspace as You Code analysis engine uses these files in subsequent analyses.

If you make changes to your build configuration, edit the options file to reflect those changes. See Specify Target Environment and Compiler Behavior (Polyspace Bug Finder).