[cfe-dev] Getting started with source code analysis using CLang

[Douglas Gregor]

On Mar 14, 2010, at 2:48 PM, Stefan Seefeld wrote:

> Hello,
> 
> I'm looking at various bits of CLang code, trying to figure out the very 
> first steps needed to:
> 
> 1) parse a source file into an internal representation suitable for 
> static code analysis.
> 2) navigate that representation (via CIndex, as Doug suggested).

CIndex can do both of these. clang_createTranslationUnitFromSourceFile(), part of the CIndex library, makes it easy to parse a source file into an AST.

> Can anyone give me some hints as to what specific API to use for this ?

clang_createTranslationUnitFromSourceFile() is the main entry point; clang_visitChildren() will let you walk the AST. That's most of it!

> Is there some documentation for this that I have overlooked ?

CIndex is documented here:

	http://clang.llvm.org/doxygen/group__CINDEX.html

there's a little c-index-test program in Clang's source tree that shows how to load a source file and walk the AST, printing some information about the entities reached. 

	- Doug