Visual Studio: Generate Build Options for Polyspace as You Code

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

To run the analysis without errors, provide Polyspace as You Code with the details of your build configuration, such as data type sizes and compiler macro definitions. To provide your build configuration information, use one of these methods:

Configure Polyspace as You Code to extract the build configuration information from your Visual Studio solution, 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 project file.

Configure Polyspace as You Code to Extract Build Configuration

You can configure Polyspace as You Code to extract build configuration from your build command. In this method, Polyspace runs the build command and gathers the build options from the executed process. Alternatively, you can extract the build configurations from your Visual Studio solution or JSON compilation database. In these methods, Polyspace can read the required build configuration from the solution or the compilation database.

Get Build Configuration from Build Command

To extract your build configuration information from your build command:

Select Tools > Options to open the Options dialog box.
Select Polyspace as You Code > Analysis Options, and then select Get from build command from the Build list.
In the Build Command box, enter a command that performs 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 path specified in Working Directory in Polyspace as You Code > General and projectName is the name of the project that contains the files you are currently analyzing.

Get Build Configuration from Visual Studio Project

To extract your build configuration information from your Visual Studio project:

Select Tools > Options to open the Options dialog box.
Select Polyspace as You Code > Analysis Options, and then select Get from Visual Studio C++ project from the Build list.

Polyspace as You Code 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.

Get Build Configuration from JSON Compilation Database

If your build system supports the generation of a JSON compilation database file, you can configure Polyspace as You Code to extract the build configuration from the JSON compilation database. The file 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.
Select Tools > Options to open the Options dialog box.
Select Polyspace as you Code > Analysis Options and then select Get from JSON Compilation Database file from the Build list. Specify the full path to the JSON compilation database file that you generated in step 1 in the JSON Compilation Database file box.

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. Here, workingDirectory is the path specified in Working directory in Polyspace as You Code > General and projectName is the name of the project that contains the files you are currently analyzing.

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 these 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 Configuration (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:

Select Tools > Options to open the Options dialog box.
Select Polyspace as you Code > Analysis Options and then select Get from Polyspace build options file from the Build menu and specify the full path to the options file. See Visual Studio: Configure Polyspace as You Code Extension.

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 Configure Sources and Build Options in Project for Polyspace Analysis and Testing (Polyspace Bug Finder).

Import Analysis Options from Polyspace Platform Project

If you configure an analysis in the Polyspace Platform user interface, you can use the information from the resulting Polyspace Platform project file (.psprjx) to configure your Polyspace as You Code analysis.

To import the analysis options from a .psprjx file, open a terminal in Visual Studio and enter this command:

polyspace-project -generate-launching-script-for <projectPath> -product bug-finder

In this command, <projectPath> is the relative path of the .psprjx file.

The command polyspace-project is located in the folder polyspaceroot\polyspace\bin. Here, polyspaceroot is the location of the Polyspace installation folder in your development environment. If you did not add this installation folder to your PATH environment variable, include the full path of the binary to execute this command.

Polyspace generates an options file options_command.txt and an XML checkers activation file module_projectName_activation_file.xml. The generated files are stored in the same location as the .psprjx file. Open the options_command.txt file and remove the line for -sources-list-file. This line is unnecessary in a Polyspace as You Code analysis because you already specify the file to analyze as an option of the polyspace-as-you-code command.

For more information on this command, see polyspace-project -generate-launching-script-for (Polyspace Bug Finder).

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

Select Tools > Options to open the Options dialog box.
Select Polyspace as You Code > Analysis Options and then select Get from Polyspace build options file from the Build list. See Visual Studio: Configure Polyspace as You Code Extension.
Specify the path of the generated checkers activation file module_projectName_activation_file.xml in the Checkers File box.
Specify the path of the generated options file options_command.txt in the Other Analysis Options 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 (options_command.txt) to reflect those changes. See Configure Sources and Build Options in Project for Polyspace Analysis and Testing (Polyspace Bug Finder).