View source for Qt Creator Clang Code Model

[[Category:Tools::QtCreator]]
Documentation: http://doc.qt.io/qtcreator/creator-clang-codemodel.html

== Debugging ==

With the following invocation debugging output will be generated:

Linux/Mac:
 export QT_LOGGING_RULES=qtc.clang*=true
 export LIBCLANG_TIMING=1
 ./qtcreator

Windows (start [https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/debugview.aspx DebugView] in advance to see the output):
 set QT_LOGGING_RULES=qtc.clang*=true
 set LIBCLANG_TIMING=1
 qtcreator.exe

The debugging output contains among others:
* The IPC messages send/received
* Output of libclang while parsing 

=== Internal command line === 
The debugging output from above will contain all the command line options that are passed on to libclang, which is enough for most cases.

However, to see also the resulting internal command line of libclang run:
# Restart Qt Creator with QTC_CLANG_NO_DIAGNOSTIC_CHECK=1 (>= Qt Creator 4.5) 
# Switch to projects mode and there to the "Clang Code Model"
# Copy some warning configuration by clicking on "Copy...", give it a name like "Debug"
# Replace all the options from the copied configuration with "-###"
# Close and re-open the editor document - the new debugging output will contain also the internal command line

Note that libclang/clangbackend will crash afterwards, so do not forget to switch back to a sane warning configuration.
== Related Environment Variables ==
=== Build related ===
* QTC_NO_CLANG_LIBTOOLING - Do not build against Clang's C++ libs; the ClangRefactoring plugin won't be build.

=== Run time related ===
* LIBCLANG_TIMING - Timings from libclang for parse / reparse / preamble generation / completion.
* QTC_CLANG_NO_DIAGNOSTIC_CHECK - Avoid validation of warning configuration (>= Qt Creator 4.5)
* QTC_CLANG_NO_SUPPORTIVE_TRANSLATIONUNIT - Use only one translation unit per document.
* QTC_CLANG_NO_ALIVE_TIMER - Simplifies debugging in certain cases.
* QTC_CLANG_FORCE_VERBOSE_ALIVE - Simplifies debugging in certain cases.

== Libclang ==
libclang is used inside clangbackend to provide code model features

=== Builds ===
Linux and Mac:

libclang is built with the same compilers as Qt Creator ("Clang 7.0 (Apple)" for macOS, and GCC 5.3 from RHEL (which turns on old ABI compatibility with _GLIBCXX_USE_CXX11_ABI=0 by default) on Linux)

Windows:

Currently libclang is built with optimized MinGW compiler for all Qt Creator versions. More information about Windows builds: [[Build libclang on Windows]]

=== Minimal libclang installation that Qt Creator can use ===
The following targets are sufficient for this:
 install-libclang install-libclang-headers install-clang-headers install-llvm-config

== Clang Plugins ==
Clang plugins support is already in QtCreator master branch and will soon appear in the snapshots.

Plugins usage significantly reduces libclang performance so set up your settings (Tools->Options->C++->Code Model->Clang Plugins) wisely:

=== Clazy ===
level1 adds '''50%''' to the parse/re-parse time, level0 adds only '''25%'''

=== Clang Tidy ===
clang-diagnostic-*,llvm-*,misc-* add '''200%''' to the original libclang parse/re-parse times

== Backport candidates for Qt Creator ==
Qt Creator 4.6 will ship with LLVM/Clang 5.

The following changes from LLVMt/Clang trunk might be worthwhile to backport.

'''Crash / Parsing'''

[Sema] Fix crash in unused-lambda-capture warning for VLAs

https://reviews.llvm.org/D41016

'''Crash / Completion'''

Fixed a crash in code completion.

https://reviews.llvm.org/D37382

Fixes crash when requesting completion at e.g. int (*foo(int a))(flo<CURSOR>

'''Crash / Static Analyzer'''

[analyzer] Fix a crash on C++17 AST for non-trivial construction into a trivial brace initializer.

https://reviews.llvm.org/D40841

==== Crash / Reparse,  MSVC 15.5 specific ====
Correctly handle line table entries without filenames during AST serialization

Fixes crash during a reparse.

https://reviews.llvm.org/D40746

'''Minor / AST Access'''

[libclang] Fix cursors for in-class initializer of field declarations

https://reviews.llvm.org/D40027

https://bugs.llvm.org/show_bug.cgi?id=33745

Fixes AST access to initializers of class members. Affects mostly semantic highlighting and highlighting of local uses.

'''Minor / AST Access'''

[libclang] Fix cursors for functions with trailing return type

https://reviews.llvm.org/D40561

'''Minor / AST properties'''

[libclang] Add support for checking abstractness of records

https://reviews.llvm.org/D40072

Would need https://codereview.qt-project.org/#/c/211497/ on Qt Creator side.

'''Improves Tooltips'''

[DeclPrinter] Honor TerseOutput for constructors

https://reviews.llvm.org/D39957

Avoids printing member initialization list and body for constructor.

==== Fix utf8 specific highlighting issues ====
[libclang] Add function to get the buffer for a file

https://reviews.llvm.org/rL319881

Together with https://codereview.qt-project.org/#/c/212972/ fixes highlighting

==== Fix MSVC related highlighting issues ====
[libclang] Only mark CXCursors for explicit attributes with a type

Some classes have totally broken highlighting (like classes inside texteditor.cpp)

https://reviews.llvm.org/D38615