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