@codacy/tools-cppcheck-2

Table of Contents

• Overview
• Updating patterns
• Updating the Cppcheck version
• Development
• Notes for maintainers

Overview

C/C++ static analyzer using the Cppcheck binary. Uses the CLI execution strategy — spawns cppcheck via spawnTool() and parses its XML output.

Updating patterns

# Re-fetch pattern metadata from the Codacy API
pnpm prefetch

# Commit the result
git add src/patterns.json

Pattern IDs follow the format cppcheck_nullPointer, cppcheck_unusedVariable, etc.

Updating the Cppcheck version

1. Update preferredVersion in src/adapter.ts
2. Run pnpm prefetch to check for new/removed rules
3. Run pnpm test to verify compatibility
4. If the major version changes, create a new adapter package (cppcheck-3/)

Development

pnpm build    # Build with tsup
pnpm test     # Run tests (requires cppcheck in PATH)

Cppcheck must be installed manually — the adapter's install() returns NotSupported. Install via your system package manager:

# macOS
brew install cppcheck

# Ubuntu/Debian
apt-get install cppcheck

# Fedora
dnf install cppcheck

Notes for maintainers

• Cppcheck outputs XML to stderr (not stdout). The adapter captures stderr and parses it with fast-xml-parser.
• The --xml flag enables XML output; --enable=all activates all checkers.
• --error-exitcode=0 prevents non-zero exit codes on findings.
• --inline-suppr respects inline suppression comments.
• --force checks all configurations even if #ifdef branches are present.
• unusedFunction is suppressed via --suppress=unusedFunction (too noisy for single-file analysis).
• Automated installation is not supported — Cppcheck doesn't provide pre-built binaries for all platforms on GitHub releases.