Ant Task

 Checkstyle Logo

Description

This task runs Checkstyle over specified Java files. The task has been tested using ANT 1.5. The latest version of checkstyle can be found at http://checkstyle.sourceforge.net/. This task is included in the checkstyle distribution.

Installation

The easiest way is to include checkstyle-all-3.5.jar in the classpath. This contains all the classes required to run Checkstyle. Alternatively, you must include the following in the classpath:

  1. checkstyle-3.5.jar
  2. ANTLR 2.7.2 classes. antlr.jar is included in the distribution.
  3. Jakarta Regexp 1.3 classes. jakarta-regexp-1.3.jar is included in the distribution.
  4. Jakarta Commons Beanutils classes. commons-beanutils.jar is included in the distribution.
  5. Jakarta Commons Collections classes. commons-collections.jar is included in the distribution.
  6. Jakarta Commons Logging classes. commons-logging.jar is included in the distribution.
  7. A JAXP compliant XML parser implementation. You already have it on your system if you run ANT or JDK 1.4.

To use the task in a build file, you will need the following taskdef declaration: 

<taskdef resource="checkstyletask.properties"
         classpath="/path/to/checkstyle-all-3.5.jar"/>

Or, assuming that Checkstyle is in the global classpath (not recommended), then you will need the following taskdef declaration: 

<taskdef resource="checkstyletask.properties"/>

Parameters

     
file File to run checkstyle on. One of either file or at least one nested fileset element
config Specifies a file that defines the configuration modules. See here for a description of how to define a configuration. Exactly one of config or configURL
configURL Specifies a URL that defines the configuration modules. See here for a description of how to define a configuration. Exactly one of config or configURL
properties Specifies a file that contains properties for expanded property values of the configuration. Ant properties (like ${basedir}) and nested property elements override the properties in this file. No
packageNamesFile Specifies a file that contains package names for the configuration. No
failOnViolation Specifies whether the build will continue even if there are violations. Defaults to "true". No
failureProperty The name of a property to set in the event of a violation. No
maxErrors The maximum number of errors that are tolerated before breaking the build or setting the failure property. Defaults to "0". No
maxWarnings The maximum number of warnings that are tolerated before breaking the build or setting the failure property. Defaults to "2147483647", i.e. Integer.MAX_VALUE. No
classpath The classpath to use when looking up classes. Defaults to the current classpath. No
classpathref The classpath to use when looking up classes, given as a reference to a path defined elsewhere. No

Nested Elements

This task supports the nested elements <fileset>, <classpath>, <formatter>, and <property>.

The parameters for the <formatter> element are:

     
type

The type of output to generate. The valid values are:

Defaults to "plain".

 No
toFile The file to write output to. Defaults to standard output. Note, there is no way to explicitly specify standard output. No

A <property> element provides a property for expanded property values of the configuration. The parameters for the <property> element are:

     
key   Yes
value The value of the property specified as a string. Either value or file
file The value of the property specified as a file. This is great for specifying file names relative to the ANT build file. Either value or file

Examples

Run checkstyle with configuration file docs/sun_checks.xml on a single file 

<checkstyle config="docs/sun_checks.xml" file="Check.java"/>

Run checkstyle on a set of Java files using site-wide configuration and an expanded property value 

<checkstyle config="/path/to/site/sun_checks.xml">
  <fileset dir="src/checkstyle" includes="**/*.java"/>

  <!-- Location of cache-file. Something that is project specific -->
  <property key="checkstyle.cache.file" file="target/cachefile"/>
</checkstyle>

Run checkstyle on a set of files and output messages to standard output in plain format, and a file in XML format 

<checkstyle config="docs/sun_checks.xml">
  <fileset dir="src/checkstyle" includes="**/*.java"/>
  <formatter type="plain"/>
  <formatter type="xml" toFile="build/checkstyle_errors.xml"/>
</checkstyle>

Run checkstyle with configuration file docs/sun_checks.xml on a file and provide a package names file 

<checkstyle config="docs/sun_checks.xml"
            packageNamesFile="myPackageNames.xml"
            file="Check.java"/>

Run checkstyle in an automated build and send an email report if style violations are detected 

<target name="checkstyle"
        description="Generates a report of code convention violations.">

  <checkstyle config="docs/sun_checks.xml"
              failureProperty="checkstyle.failure"
              failOnViolation="false">
    <formatter type="xml" tofile="checkstyle_report.xml"/>
    <fileset dir="src" includes="**/*.java"/>
  </checkstyle>

  <style in="checkstyle_report.xml" out="checkstyle_report.html" style="checkstyle.xsl"/>

</target>

<!-- run this target as part of automated build -->
<target name="checkstyle-nightly"
        depends="checkstyle"
        if="checkstyle.failure"
        description="Sends email if checkstyle detected code conventions violations.">

  <!-- use your own server and email addresses below. See Ant documentation for details -->

  <mail from="qa@some.domain"
        tolist="someone@some.domain,someoneelse@some.domain"
        mailhost="mailbox.some.domain"
        subject="Checkstyle violation(s) in project ${ant.project.name}"
        files="checkstyle_report.html"/>

</target>
Copyright © 2001-2004, Oliver Burn