basset

A tool that generates a compilation database for clang tooling using ptrace and procfs.

summary

If you are reading this you probably know what compilation database is and what it can be used for. And you are probably unlucky to use a build system that can't generate compile_commands.json for you. Your build system may even be especially non-cooperative defeating tools like bear, clade and compiledb. For example, build system may not respect injected CC and CXX environment variables, may hard-code compiler paths, may use statically linked binaries rendering LD_PRELOAD tricks useless or may not pass make flags recursively making build logs incomplete. There is however a less known compile-db-gen, which uses strace to capture compiler invocations and should work even in these conditions.

This project aims to improve on this idea:

• to reduce overhead ptrace is used directly instead of strace;
• working directory, executable path and arguments are read from procfs reducing code complexity.

disclaimer

It has been developed and tested on Linux. Whether it works on other systems is an open question. Your feedback (both positive and negative) is highly appreciated!

prerequisites

You will need make and C++ compiler.

compile

Simply:

make

It should produce basset executable in the project root directory.

install

Copy basset executable to a desired location or create a symlink.

use

A typical use would be:

basset -- <your-build-command>

Extra options can precede -- if needed.