SublimeLinter-contrib-clang-tidy

This linter plugin for SublimeLinter provides an interface to clang-tidy. It will be used with files that have the C, C++, Objective-C or Objective-C++ syntax.

Installation

SublimeLinter 3 must be installed in order to use this plugin. If SublimeLinter 3 is not installed, please follow the instructions here.

Linter installation

Before using this plugin, you must ensure that clang-tidy is installed on your system. To install clang-tidy, do the following:

1. Install clang-tidy by typing the following in a terminal:

   $ brew install llvm  # OSX
   

or:

```bash
$ sudo apt install clang-tidy  # Ubuntu 16.04

```

This plugin is untested on Windows.

1. Make sure you have a compilation database for your project (see the section Settings)

2. Make sure you have a .clang-tidy configuration file for your project. The .clang-tidy file should live at the root of your project. Please read this blog post to learn how to create a .clang-tidy file.

Note: This plugin requires clang-tidy 1.0 or later.

Linter configuration

In order for clang-tidy to be executed by SublimeLinter, you must ensure that its path is available to SublimeLinter. Before going any further, please read and follow the steps in “Finding a linter executable” through “Validating your PATH” in the documentation.

Once you have installed and configured clang-tidy, you can proceed to install the SublimeLinter-contrib-clang-tidy plugin if it is not yet installed.

Plugin installation

Please use Package Control to install the linter plugin. This will ensure that the plugin will be updated when new versions are available. If you want to install from source so you can modify the source code, you probably know what you are doing so we won’t cover that here.

To install via Package Control, do the following:

1. Within Sublime Text, bring up the Command Palette and type install. Among the commands you should see Package Control: Install Package. If that command is not highlighted, use the keyboard or mouse to select it. There will be a pause of a few seconds while Package Control fetches the list of available plugins.

2. When the plugin list appears, type clang-tidy. Among the entries you should see SublimeLinter-contrib-clang-tidy. If that entry is not highlighted, use the keyboard or mouse to select it.

Settings

For general information on how SublimeLinter works with settings, please see Settings. For information on generic linter settings, please see Linter Settings.

In order for linting to work, you need a compilation database. This is a JSON file with the name compile_commands.json. It can be generated by CMake by specifying -DCMAKE_EXPORT_COMPILE_COMMANDS=ON on the command-line when you invoke cmake.

In order to let this plugin know where the compilation database is, add the following entry to your .sublime-project:

{
    "folders":
    [
        // ...
    ],
    "settings":
    {
        // ...
        "SublimeLinter.linters.clangtidy.compile_commands": "${project_path}/PATH/TO/YOUR/BUILD/DIR"
        // ...
    }
}

The plugin will not work if this setting is not present.

Remember: header files are never compiled. Therefore, header files are not in the compilation database (by default). So, clang-tidy will not work with header files. You may try to use this python package to enhance your existing compile_commands.json with additional header files.

Usage

Upon opening a suitable file, and given that the compilation database as well as the .clang-tidy file are present in the right locations, SublimeLinter will run the clang-tidy linter. Note that this means that the source file is being compiled by clang-tidy. So it may take a while before messages start to show up. Since clang-tidy works on source files, the clang-tidy linter will only run when you open a source file or when you save a source file. The clang-tidy linter will not lint when you edit the file. It will only lint during load and save.

Recommended Other Plugins

• Clang Format

Contributing

If you would like to contribute enhancements or fixes, please do the following:

1. Fork the plugin repository.
2. Hack on a separate topic branch created from the latest master.
3. Commit and push the topic branch.
4. Make a pull request.
5. Be patient. ;-)

Please note that modifications should follow these coding guidelines:

• Indent is 4 spaces.
• Code should pass flake8 and pep257 linters.
• Vertical whitespace helps readability, don’t be afraid to use it.
• Please use descriptive variable names, no abbreviations unless they are very well known.

Thank you for helping out!