[clang] [clang][docs] Update CommandLineUsage and UsersManual with some flags (PR #209519)

Ehren Bendler via cfe-commits cfe-commits at lists.llvm.org
Thu Jul 30 07:28:25 PDT 2026 

https://github.com/ebendler updated https://github.com/llvm/llvm-project/pull/209519

>From 6b5a42f1a18432802d2f67b4fbc5f49482fd0684 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Ehren Bendler <ebendler at nvidia.com>
Date: Tue, 14 Jul 2026 11:40:56 -0400
Subject: [PATCH 1/2] docs(clang): add some missing flags The current
 user-manual is missing options that are useful for machine-readable output,
 such as fdiagnostics-format=sarif and fdiagnostics-absolute-paths.

---
 clang/docs/UsersManual.md                     | 39 ++++++++++++++++++-
 .../analyzer/user-docs/CommandLineUsage.rst   | 19 ++++++++-
 2 files changed, 56 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

diff --git a/clang/docs/UsersManual.md b/clang/docs/UsersManual.md
index bce811eed283b..97fcdeccd5479 100644
--- a/clang/docs/UsersManual.md
+++ b/clang/docs/UsersManual.md
@@ -307,7 +307,7 @@ API to output colored diagnostics. This option is only used on Windows and
 defaults to off.
 :::
 
-:::{option} -fdiagnostics-format=clang/msvc/vi
+:::{option} -fdiagnostics-format=clang/msvc/vi/sarif
 
 Changes diagnostic output format to better match IDEs and command line tools.
 
@@ -332,6 +332,27 @@ effect on formatting a simple conversion diagnostic, follow:
   ```
   t.c +3:11: warning: conversion specifies type 'char *' but the argument has type 'int'
   ```
+
+- **sarif**: Emit diagnostics as a [SARIF](https://docs.oasis-open.org/sarif/sarif/v2.1.0/sarif-v2.1.0.html) JSON
+  document. This is useful when diagnostics are consumed by tools, including AI
+  agents. SARIF diagnostics are written to standard error.
+  `-fno-caret-diagnostics` suppresses the final diagnostic summary so that
+  standard error contains a standalone JSON document. Suppress the existing
+  SARIF-stability warning too when capturing a standalone JSON document:
+
+  ```console
+  clang -fdiagnostics-format=sarif -Wno-sarif-format-unstable -fno-caret-diagnostics t.c 2> diagnostics.sarif
+  ```
+
+  The SARIF diagnostic format is currently unstable.
+:::
+
+:::{option} -fdiagnostics-absolute-paths
+
+Print absolute paths in diagnostics.
+
+This option is useful when a diagnostic consumer does not share Clang's current
+working directory. It resolves symbolic links before printing paths.
 :::
 
 (opt_fdiagnostics-show-option)=
@@ -882,6 +903,22 @@ information can be included in the remarks (see
 These are options that report execution time and consumed memory of different
 compilations steps.
 
+:::{option} -ftime-trace[=<path>]
+
+Write a Chrome tracing-format JSON time trace for the compilation.
+Without a path, Clang derives the JSON filename from the compilation output.
+A path names the JSON file or a directory that will contain it.
+
+{option}`-ftime-trace-granularity` sets the minimum recorded duration in
+microseconds (500 by default).
+{option}`-ftime-trace-verbose` records additional event details, including
+source filenames, and can increase the trace size by two to three times.
+
+```console
+$ clang -c foo.c -ftime-trace=compile-trace.json -o foo.o
+```
+:::
+
 :::{option} -fproc-stat-report=
 
 This option requests the driver to print used memory and execution time of each
diff --git a/clang/docs/analyzer/user-docs/CommandLineUsage.rst b/clang/docs/analyzer/user-docs/CommandLineUsage.rst
index 089a8ce68ce0a..b1dd2956c8cbd 100644
--- a/clang/docs/analyzer/user-docs/CommandLineUsage.rst
+++ b/clang/docs/analyzer/user-docs/CommandLineUsage.rst
@@ -7,6 +7,24 @@ Both provide a way of driving the analyzer, detecting compilation flags, and gen
 CodeChecker is more actively maintained, provides heuristics for working with multiple versions of popular compilers and it also comes with a web-based GUI for viewing, filtering, categorizing and suppressing the results.
 Therefore CodeChecker is recommended in case you need any of the above features or just more customizability in general.
 
+Machine-readable output
+-----------------------
+
+For a direct analysis of a source file, the ``clang`` driver can write a SARIF report::
+
+  $ clang --analyze --analyzer-output sarif -o report.sarif source.c
+
+``--analyzer-output`` selects the report format.
+The available formats are ``html``, ``plist``, ``plist-multi-file``, ``plist-html``, ``sarif``, ``sarif-html``, and ``text``.
+``sarif`` writes a SARIF JSON report to the path specified by ``-o``; ``sarif-html`` also creates HTML files for interactive inspection.
+The default format is ``plist``.
+
+This direct form analyzes a translation unit.
+For project-wide analysis, use a tool such as scan-build or CodeChecker to drive the individual compiler invocations.
+``scan-build`` can emit a SARIF report for each analyzed translation unit with its ``-sarif`` option::
+
+  $ scan-build -sarif -o reports make
+
 Comparison of CodeChecker and scan-build
 ----------------------------------------
 
@@ -239,4 +257,3 @@ Detailed Usage
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
 For extended documentation please refer to the `official site of CodeChecker <https://github.com/Ericsson/codechecker/blob/master/docs/usage.md>`_!
-

>From 2e87dee0d2ab22a92145856c9b118f297866a627 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Ehren Bendler <ebendler at nvidia.com>
Date: Thu, 30 Jul 2026 10:27:47 -0400
Subject: [PATCH 2/2] cleanup review comments

---
 clang/docs/UsersManual.md                          | 9 ++++-----
 clang/docs/analyzer/user-docs/CommandLineUsage.rst | 1 +
 2 files changed, 5 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)

diff --git a/clang/docs/UsersManual.md b/clang/docs/UsersManual.md
index 97fcdeccd5479..397a4e9644dcb 100644
--- a/clang/docs/UsersManual.md
+++ b/clang/docs/UsersManual.md
@@ -334,11 +334,10 @@ effect on formatting a simple conversion diagnostic, follow:
   ```
 
 - **sarif**: Emit diagnostics as a [SARIF](https://docs.oasis-open.org/sarif/sarif/v2.1.0/sarif-v2.1.0.html) JSON
-  document. This is useful when diagnostics are consumed by tools, including AI
-  agents. SARIF diagnostics are written to standard error.
-  `-fno-caret-diagnostics` suppresses the final diagnostic summary so that
-  standard error contains a standalone JSON document. Suppress the existing
-  SARIF-stability warning too when capturing a standalone JSON document:
+  document. SARIF diagnostics are written to standard error.
+
+  `-Wno-sarif-format-unstable -fno-caret-diagnostics` can be added to disable extraeneous
+  prints if a standalone JSON file is desired.
 
   ```console
   clang -fdiagnostics-format=sarif -Wno-sarif-format-unstable -fno-caret-diagnostics t.c 2> diagnostics.sarif
diff --git a/clang/docs/analyzer/user-docs/CommandLineUsage.rst b/clang/docs/analyzer/user-docs/CommandLineUsage.rst
index b1dd2956c8cbd..2a119b294c945 100644
--- a/clang/docs/analyzer/user-docs/CommandLineUsage.rst
+++ b/clang/docs/analyzer/user-docs/CommandLineUsage.rst
@@ -257,3 +257,4 @@ Detailed Usage
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
 For extended documentation please refer to the `official site of CodeChecker <https://github.com/Ericsson/codechecker/blob/master/docs/usage.md>`_!
+

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