1 <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN" 2 "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/strict.dtd"> 3 <html> 4 <head> 5 <title>Writing Clang Tools</title> 6 <link type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" href="../menu.css"> 7 <link type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" href="../content.css"> 8 </head> 9 <body> 10 11 <!--#include virtual="../menu.html.incl"--> 12 13 <div id="content"> 14 15 <h1>Writing Clang Tools</h1> 16 <p>Clang provides infrastructure to write tools that need syntactic and semantic 17 information about a program. This document will give a short introduction of the 18 different ways to write clang tools, and their pros and cons.</p> 19 20 <!-- ======================================================================= --> 21 <h2 id="libclang"><a href="http://clang.llvm.org/doxygen/group__CINDEX.html">LibClang</a></h2> 22 <!-- ======================================================================= --> 23 24 <p>LibClang is a stable high level C interface to clang. When in doubt LibClang 25 is probably the interface you want to use. Consider the other interfaces only 26 when you have a good reason not to use LibClang.</p> 27 <p>Canonical examples of when to use LibClang:</p> 28 <ul> 29 <li>Xcode</li> 30 <li>Clang Python Bindings</li> 31 </ul> 32 <p>Use LibClang when you...</p> 33 <ul> 34 <li>want to interface with clang from other languages than C++</li> 35 <li>need a stable interface that takes care to be backwards compatible</li> 36 <li>want powerful high-level abstractions, like iterating through an AST 37 with a cursor, and don't want to learn all the nitty gritty details of Clang's 38 AST.</li> 39 </ul> 40 <p>Do not use LibClang when you...</p> 41 <ul> 42 <li>want full control over the Clang AST</li> 43 </ul> 44 45 <!-- ======================================================================= --> 46 <h2 id="clang-plugins"><a href="ClangPlugins.html">Clang Plugins</a></h2> 47 <!-- ======================================================================= --> 48 49 <p>Clang Plugins allow you to run additional actions on the AST as part of 50 a compilation. Plugins are dynamic libraries that are loaded at runtime by 51 the compiler, and they're easy to integrate into your build environment.</p> 52 <p>Canonical examples of when to use Clang Plugins:</p> 53 <ul> 54 <li>special lint-style warnings or errors for your project</li> 55 <li>creating additional build artifacts from a single compile step</li> 56 </ul> 57 <p>Use Clang Plugins when you...</p> 58 <ul> 59 <li>need your tool to rerun if any of the dependencies change</li> 60 <li>want your tool to make or break a build</li> 61 <li>need full control over the Clang AST</li> 62 </ul> 63 <p>Do not use Clang Plugins when you...</p> 64 <ul> 65 <li>want to run tools outside of your build environment</li> 66 <li>want full control on how Clang is set up, including mapping of in-memory 67 virtual files</li> 68 <li>need to run over a specific subset of files in your project which is not 69 necessarily related to any changes which would trigger rebuilds</li> 70 </ul> 71 72 <!-- ======================================================================= --> 73 <h2 id="libtooling"><a href="LibTooling.html">LibTooling</a></h2> 74 <!-- ======================================================================= --> 75 76 <p>LibTooling is a C++ interface aimed at writing standalone tools, as well as 77 integrating into services that run clang tools.</p> 78 <p>Canonical examples of when to use LibTooling:</p> 79 <ul> 80 <li>a simple syntax checker</li> 81 <li>refactoring tools</li> 82 </ul> 83 <p>Use LibTooling when you...</p> 84 <ul> 85 <li>want to run tools over a single file, or a specific subset of files, 86 independently of the build system</li> 87 <li>want full control over the Clang AST</li> 88 <li>want to share code with Clang Plugins</li> 89 </ul> 90 <p>Do not use LibTooling when you...</p> 91 <ul> 92 <li>want to run as part of the build triggered by dependency changes</li> 93 <li>want a stable interface so you don't need to change your code when the 94 AST API changes</li> 95 <li>want high level abstractions like cursors and code completion out of the 96 box</li> 97 <li>do not want to write your tools in C++</li> 98 </ul> 99 100 <!-- ======================================================================= --> 101 <h2 id="clang-tools"><a href="ClangTools.html">Clang Tools</a></h2> 102 <!-- ======================================================================= --> 103 104 <p>These are a collection of specific developer tools built on top of the 105 LibTooling infrastructure as part of the Clang project. They are targeted at 106 automating and improving core development activities of C/C++ developers.</p> 107 <p>Examples of tools we are building or planning as part of the Clang 108 project:</p> 109 <ul> 110 <li>Syntax checking (clang-check)</li> 111 <li>Automatic fixing of compile errors (clangc-fixit)</li> 112 <li>Automatic code formatting</li> 113 <li>Migration tools for new features in new language standards</li> 114 <li>Core refactoring tools</li> 115 </ul> 116 117 </div> 118 </body> 119 </html> 120 121
