Static Analysis

This GitHub action is designed for C++/Python projects and performs static analysis using:

• cppcheck and clang-tidy for C++
• pylint for Python

It can be triggered by push and pull requests.

For further information and guidance about setup and various inputs, please see sections dedicated to each language (C++ and Python)

Pull Request comment

Created comment will contain code snippets with the issue description. When this action is run for the first time, the comment with the initial result will be created for current Pull Request. Consecutive runs will edit this comment with updated status.

Note that it's possible that the amount of issues detected can make the comment's body to be greater than the GitHub's character limit per PR comment (which is 65536). In that case, the created comment will contain only the issues found up to that point, and the information that the limit of characters was reached.

Output example (C++)

Non Pull Request

For non Pull Requests, the output will be printed to GitHub's output console. This behaviour can also be forced via force_console_print input.

Output example (C++)

C++

While it's recommended that your project is CMake-based, it's not required (see the Inputs section below). We also recommend using a .clang-tidy file in your root directory. If your project requires additional packages to be installed, you can use the apt_pckgs and/or init_script input variables to install them (see the Workflow example or Inputs sections below). If your repository allows contributions from forks, you must use this Action with the pull_request_target trigger event, as the GitHub API won't allow PR comments otherwise.

By default, cppcheck runs with the following flags: --enable=all --suppress=missingIncludeSystem --inline-suppr --inconclusive You can use the cppcheck_args input to set your own flags.

clang-tidy looks for the .clang-tidy file in your repository, but you can also set checks using the clang_tidy_args input.

Workflow example

name: Static analysis

on:
  # Will run on push when merging to 'branches'. The output will be shown in the console
  push:
    branches:
      - develop
      - master
      - main

  # 'pull_request_target' allows this Action to also run on forked repositories
  # The output will be shown in PR comments (unless the 'force_console_print' flag is used)
  pull_request_target:
    branches:
      - "*"

jobs:
  static_analysis:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest

    steps:
    - uses: actions/checkout@v2

    - name: setup init_script
      shell: bash
      run: |
        echo "#!/bin/bash

        # Input args provided by StaticAnalysis action
        root_dir=\${1}
        build_dir=\${2}
        echo \"Hello from the init script! First arg=\${root_dir} second arg=\${build_dir}\"

        add-apt-repository ppa:oibaf/graphics-drivers
        apt update && apt upgrade
        apt install -y libvulkan1 mesa-vulkan-drivers vulkan-utils" > init_script.sh

    - name: Run static analysis
      uses: JacobDomagala/StaticAnalysis@master
      with:
        language: c++

        # Exclude any issues found in ${Project_root_dir}/lib
        exclude_dir: lib

        use_cmake: true

        # Additional apt packages that need to be installed before running Cmake
        apt_pckgs: software-properties-common libglu1-mesa-dev freeglut3-dev mesa-common-dev

        # Additional script that will be run (sourced) AFTER 'apt_pckgs' and before running Cmake
        init_script: init_script.sh

        # (Optional) clang-tidy args
        clang_tidy_args: -checks='*,fuchsia-*,google-*,zircon-*,abseil-*,modernize-use-trailing-return-type'

        # (Optional) cppcheck args
        cppcheck_args: --enable=all --suppress=missingIncludeSystem

Inputs

Name	Description	Default value
github_token	Github token used for Github API requests	${{github.token}}
pr_num	Pull request number for which the comment will be created	${{github.event.pull_request.number}}
comment_title	Title for comment with the raport. This should be an unique name	Static analysis result
exclude_dir	Directory which should be excluded from the raport	<empty>
apt_pckgs	Additional (space separated) packages that need to be installed in order for project to compile	<empty>
init_script	Optional shell script that will be run before configuring project (i.e. running CMake command). This should be used, when the project requires some environmental set-up beforehand. Script will be run with 2 arguments: root_dir(root directory of user's code) and build_dir(build directory created for running SA). Note. apt_pckgs will run before this script, just in case you need some packages installed. Also this script will be run in the root of the project (root_dir)	<empty>
cppcheck_args	Cppcheck (space separated) arguments that will be used	--enable=all --suppress=missingIncludeSystem --inline-suppr --inconclusive
clang_tidy_args	clang-tidy arguments that will be used (example: -checks='*,fuchsia-*,google-*,zircon-*'	<empty>
report_pr_changes_only	Only post the issues found within the changes introduced in this Pull Request. This means that only the issues found within the changed lines will po posted. Any other issues caused by these changes in the repository, won't be reported, so in general you should run static analysis on entire code base	false
use_cmake	Determines wether CMake should be used to generate compile_commands.json file	true
cmake_args	Additional CMake arguments	<empty>
force_console_print	Output the action result to console, instead of creating the comment	false

NOTE: apt_pckgs will run before init_script, just in case you need some packages installed before running the script

Python

Workflow example

name: Static analysis

on:
  push:
    branches:
      - master
  pull_request:

jobs:
  check:
    name: Run Linter
    runs-on: ubuntu-20.04
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v3

      - name: CodeQuality
        uses: JacobDomagala/StaticAnalysis@master
        with:
          language: "Python"
          pylint_args: "--rcfile=.pylintrc --recursive=true"
          python_dirs: "src test"

Inputs

Name	Description	Default value
github_token	Github token used for Github API requests	${{github.token}}
pr_num	Pull request number for which the comment will be created	${{github.event.pull_request.number}}
comment_title	Title for comment with the raport. This should be an unique name	Static analysis result
exclude_dir	Directory which should be excluded from the raport	<empty>
apt_pckgs	Additional (space separated) packages that need to be installed in order for project to compile	<empty>
init_script	Optional shell script that will be run before configuring project (i.e. running CMake command). This should be used, when the project requires some environmental set-up beforehand. Script will be run with 2 arguments: root_dir(root directory of user's code) and build_dir(build directory created for running SA). Note. apt_pckgs will run before this script, just in case you need some packages installed. Also this script will be run in the root of the project (root_dir)	<empty>
pylint_args	Pylint (space separated) arguments that will be used	<empty>
python_dirs	Directories that contain python files to be checked	<empty>
report_pr_changes_only	Only post the issues found within the changes introduced in this Pull Request. This means that only the issues found within the changed lines will po posted. Any other issues caused by these changes in the repository, won't be reported, so in general you should run static analysis on entire code base	false
force_console_print	Output the action result to console, instead of creating the comment	false

NOTE: apt_pckgs will run before init_script, just in case you need some packages installed before running the script