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  1. Static code analysis
  2. Run inspections

Run inspections

Last modified: 09 November 2021

Although code analysis is performed on-the-fly in all open files, you may want to run it for the whole project or a custom scope and examine the results in a friendly view.

CLion analyses code in the files that are opened in the editor and highlights problematic code as you type. Additionally, you can run the necessary inspection or a set of inspections on the selected scope of files manually. In this case, you will get a comprehensive report of all problems detected in the files.

Instant analysis of the current file

The IDE continuously checks your code and searches for problems. The widget in the top-right corner of the editor displays the number of problems of each severity detected in the current file:

Inspection widget

tip

The widget has a simplified view. To enable it, hover the mouse over the widget, click the More button, and select Compact View.

Click the widget to open the list of problems on the Current File tab of the Problems tool window. You can also access the Problems tool window by selecting View | Tool Windows | Problems or by pressing Alt+6.

For each problem, you can see the suggested quick-fix by pressing Alt+Enter or by clicking Show Quick Fixes. You can also jump to the corresponding line in the editor by pressing F4 or by double-clicking the problem in the tool window.

Alternatively, click Open Editor Preview to be able to view and fix problems in the tool window.

The color stripe in the scrollbar also marks detected code problems and helps you quickly access the corresponding lines without scrolling the file. Hover over a mark on the stripe to see the detected problem in a tooltip. Click a mark to jump to the corresponding line.

On-the-fly code analysis results

Navigate to detected problems

You can jump from one highlighted problem to another within a file by clicking the Next Highlighted Error button the Next Highlighted Error button in the widget or by pressing F2 or Shift+F2 accordingly. By default, the IDE will navigate you to problems according to their severity: errors > warnings > weak warnings > server problems > typos.

You can configure CLion to take you through the problems one by one regardless of their severity. Hover the mouse over the widget in top-right corner of the editor, click the More button, select 'Next Error' Action (F2) Goes Through, and enable All Problems.

Configuring navigation between highlighted lines

Run inspections manually

Some inspections require global code analysis, and that is why they are disabled in the editor. These inspections are listed in Settings/Preferences | Editor | Inspections. Click Filter Inspections and select Show Only Batch-Mode Inspections.

If you want to get a full report of all detected problems, run inspections manually.

Run all inspections

  1. From the main menu, select Code | Inspect Code.

  2. Select the scope of files that you want to analyze. You can also click the Browse button and configure a new scope.

  3. Select the inspection profile that you want to apply. To configure a new profile, click the Browse button in the Inspection profile area.

  4. Click OK to start the analysis.

The Specify Inspection Scope dialog

Run a single inspection

Running a single inspection is useful in case you want to track a specific problem. If you find a warning in a file, you can inspect your entire project, or the necessary scope of files, to ensure that there are no more such warnings in your code base.

  1. From the main menu, select Code | Analyze Code | Run Inspection by Name (Ctrl+Alt+Shift+I).

  2. Type the inspection name in the popup. Use CamelHumps to match camel case words and white spaces with initial letters of the words. The suggestion list will show you inspections that match your search request.

    Run inspection by name

    If you are not sure that you are selecting the correct inspection, you can view its description. To do so, select an inspection in the popup and press Ctrl+Q.

  3. Double-click the necessary inspection to open its settings.

  4. In the dialog that opens, select the scope of files that you want to analyze.

  5. The File Masks(s) option helps you narrow down the number of files that will be inspected.

    Select the checkbox and specify a pattern of characters and wildcards that matches the names of files you want to analyse. Use a comma to separate multiple file masks.

  6. Some inspections might have additional options that you will be prompted to configure.

    These settings will only be applied to this run, and will not affect this inspection's configuration in your current profile.

The IDE will show you the inspection results in the dedicated tool window. There you can examine and fix detected problems.

Analyze code before committing it to Git

If your project is under Git version control, you can configure the IDE to analyze modified files before committing them.

Run inspections offline

In addition to running code inspections from the IDE, you can launch inspections from the command line without actually running CLion. The inspection results will be stored in an XML file. For more information, refer to Run code inspections from the command line.

Change the order of scopes

By default, all enabled code inspections analyze all files in your project. Depending on your needs, you can run the same inspection in more than one scope of files with different settings.

If one file is included in two or more scopes, and you enable an inspection in these scopes, CLion will process them according to their order in the list of scopes — the uppermost scope will have the highest priority, and therefore, it will be analyzed first.

See also

Procedures

Reference

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