Run Polyspace as You Code from Command Line and Export Results

You can run Polyspace as You Code on source files directly at the command line.

For IDEs that are not directly supported with a Polyspace as You Code plugin, you can open a terminal within the IDE and run the commands, or create a menu item to run the commands on the file currently open in the IDE. You can even incorporate these commands in a makefile, so that building your code also runs static analysis on the code. See also Integrate Polyspace as You Code in IDEs and Editors Without Plugins.

Add Install Folder to Path

To avoid typing the full path to Polyspace as You Code commands, add the paths to these commands to the PATH environment variable on your operating system.

The paths in the default installation folder are the following:

Windows®	C:\Program Files\Polyspace as You Code\R2024a\polyspace\bin
Linux®	/usr/local/PolyspaceAsYouCode/R2024a/polyspace/bin

After you add the paths, you can enter commands such as the following in a terminal without errors:

polyspace-bug-finder-access -help

Run Analysis and See Results on Console

To run Polyspace as You Code, use the polyspace-bug-finder-access command. Export the results to the console using the polyspace-results-export command.

polyspace-bug-finder-access -sources filename
polyspace-results-export -format console

In this example, the polyspace-bug-finder-access command generates results in the current folder. The polyspace-results-export command reads results from the current folder and exports to the console. The console format is only available for Polyspace as You Code.

The analysis typically takes a few seconds to complete (slightly longer for C++ files). If the analysis fails to complete, further details of the error appear on the console. You can use the option -no-quiet to see a more detailed analysis log on the console.

Store Results in Specific Folder

To use a specific results folder resultsFolder instead of the current folder, change the preceding lines as follows:

polyspace-bug-finder-access -sources filename -results-dir resultsFolder
polyspace-results-export -format console -results-dir resultsFolder

Export Results to JSON Format (SARIF Output)

Instead of displaying analysis results on the console, you can export the results to a JSON file. You can then parse this file using a JSON parser method in any language that you want.

polyspace-bug-finder-access -sources filename.c
polyspace-results-export -format json-sarif -output-name outputFilePath

Here, outputFilePath is the full path to the JSON file.

The JSON format follows the standard notation provided by the OASIS Static Analysis Results Interchange Format (SARIF).

Specify Analysis Options by Using Options Files

To adapt the Polyspace analysis configuration to your development environment and requirements, you have to modify the default configuration through command-line options such as -compiler. Options files are a convenient way to collect multiple options together and reuse them across projects.

Options files are text files with one option per line. For instance, the content of an options file can look like this:

# Options for Polyspace analysis
# Options apply to all projects in Controller module
-compiler visual16.x
-D _WIN32
-checkers-activation-file "Z:\utils\checkers.xml"

Specify an options file using the option -options-file. For instance:

polyspace-bug-finder-access -sources file.c -options-file "Z:\utils\polyspace\options.txt"

See also Options Files for Polyspace Analysis (Polyspace Bug Finder). For all options available with Polyspace as You Code, see Complete List of Polyspace Bug Finder Analysis Engine Options (Polyspace Bug Finder).

Create Options File by Analyzing Build

Instead of entering options by hand in an options file, you can create an options file with all Polyspace options required for compilation by analyzing your build system. For instance, you can trace your build command and save the options in a file buildOptions.txt that you can use for the subsequent analysis.

polyspace-configure -no-sources -output-options-file buildOptions.txt buildCommand
polyspace-bug-finder-access -sources file.c -options-file buildOptions.txt

Here, buildCommand is a build command that performs a full build of your source code, for instance, make -B or make --always-make. For build systems that can output compilation options in the JSON compilation database format, you can obtain the options from the JSON file:

polyspace-configure -no-sources -output-options-file buildOptions.txt -compilation-database jsonFile

Here, jsonFile is the full path to the compilation database JSON file.

You can also append a second options file with options related to the analysis such as checkers. For instance, if the second options file is called checkersOptions.txt, you can run Polyspace as You Code as follows:

polyspace-bug-finder-access -sources file.c -options-file buildOptions.txt -options-file checkersOptions.txt