Getting started with Perforce Static Analysis extension for Visual Studio Code

From the Klocwork menu ('kw' icon in the Activity Bar), you can select the Actions view to run analysis, synchronize your project, or authenticate your project to the Klocwork Server.

Run Analysis

To see detected issues within your code, you can choose one of the following options:

• Click Run Klocwork Analysis on the current file to run analysis on the active file only.
• Click Run Klocwork analysis to run analysis on all open files.

When Klocwork detects issues in a file, you see issue markers on the right margins of the editor, as well as a list of issues in your Problems tab.

Synchronize

Selecting Synchronize allows you to manually synchronize the issues found in your local project with the issue found on the Klocwork Server. Note that synchronization runs automatically when running analysis on a connected project. You may want to run it manually if you have been using the extension for an extended period, you cite a defect from the server, or if you want to quickly pull down any recent citing activity.

Authenticate

Selecting Authenticate allows you to verify your authentication settings. Selecting this option prompts you to enter your Klocwork Server URL, user name and password to authenticate your project against the Klocwork Server. This is required to run analysis and cite defects on a connected project.

Continuous analysis provides automatic issue detection and error highlighting while you work in Visual Studio Code. You can enable it by opening File > Preferences > Settings > Extensions > Klocwork and selecting Enable Continuous Analysis. With this setting enabled, Klocwork analyzes your code any time you stop typing for more than two seconds.

When you run Klocwork Analysis, the extension saves all files. When analysis is finished, you can find the results in the Problems tab. See Filter options for more details about this tab.

Defect History allows you to see any previous comments or citing changes made for a selected issue. You can access it as follows:

1. Any issues found during Klocwork analysis are found in the Problems tab. To view this tab, select View > Appearance > Show Panel. Double-click an issue in the list to view it in source code.
2. You can access the quick actions menu (light bulb icon) for an issue, which allows you to:
   • Use Show Klocwork Defect History to see the history of the issue (if previous issue history exists).
   • Access checker help for the issue
   • Set the issue status

   If multiple defects exist within the same range, individual help links are visible for each detected issue.

With the Klocwork extension for Visual Studio Code, you can customize how issues are displayed within your Problems tab.

• filter to show issues with specified status ('analyze' and 'fix' are selected by default)
• filter to show local issues and/or system issues
• filter to show taxonomies
• filter to show severity

After adjusting your filters, select Apply Filters under your Filters Options view to apply the changes.

Within Visual Studio Code, you can configure settings for your Klocwork extension by opening your Klocwork Project Settings, found in the Klocwork menu. You can do the following:

• Under Connection Settings, you can define:
  • the location of your Klocwork server (host, port and secure connection)
  • license host and port (if different from your Klocwork Server's configured license settings)
  • the name of the Klocwork project you want to connect to
  The first time you open this dialog, you must select Initialize Klocwork Project settings to automatically create Klocwork analysis folders for your workspace.
• Under Build Specification Settings, you can:
  • set 'Automatically Update Build Specification' to let the Klocwork extension generate the build specification. Otherwise, it needs to be generated externally to the extension.
  • add your Build Specification Generation Command (for example, kwinject msbuild /t:rebuild cs.sln -p:UseSharedCompilation=false -p:ProduceReferenceAssembly=false)
  • set the Build Specification Location manually (it defaults to the root directory of your current workspace).

To create this command manually, you can use your task.json file as a guide. See Creating a build specification.

        {
            "label": "compile",
            "type": "shell",
            "command": "mvn",      <-- (1) maven project
            "args": [
                "compile"          <-- (2) compilation arguments
            ],
            "group": "build"
        }

The custom commands used for the Klocwork extension for Visual Studio Code can be accessed with key bindings. The extension does not contribute any such key bindings by default, but here are a few examples you can add to customize your work flow.

    {
        "key": "ctrl+k ctrl+a",
        "command": "kwvscodeextension.runAnalysis"
    }

    {
        "key": "alt+shift+k",
        "command": "workbench.view.extension.klocwork-options"
    }

You enable or disable checkers with the Configuration Editor. To find out more about checkers, see C and C++ checker reference, Java checker reference or C# checker reference. Use the Search field to search by checker code, title, reference, category or taxonomy. Your changes don't take effect until the next analysis is triggered.

Note for Visual Studio Code: For connected projects, the VS Code extension uses the Server project checker configurations and automatically synchronizes them. If you would like to enable or disable checkers for your local project, see Using the standalone Configuration Editor.