Generate Include Dependency Diagram - gidd

Warning: This is currently a quick'n'dirty hack to view dependencies.

The gidd tool will look at c/c++ include file dependencies and generate Graphviz .dot files and PlantUML diagrams to visualize the dependency. It uses the output from gcc/g++'s -H flag to understand the dependencies.

Howto

To enable, add -H to gcc/g++. When using cmake, add this to your CMakeLists.txt:

set(CMAKE_C_FLAGS "${CMAKE_C_FLAGS} -H")
set(CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS "${CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS} -H")

All includes in a cmake project:

mkdir build && cd build
cmake .. && make clean && make -j1 &> input.txt

it is also possible to generate includes for one file in a project:

touch ../src/file.cpp
make -j1 &> input.txt

How to convert the dot file to svg

dot -Tsvg output.dot > doc/examples/output_dot.svg
dot -Tsvg output_no_clusters.dot > doc/examples/output_no_clusters_dot.svg

How to convert the dot files to png

dot -Tpng output.dot > doc/examples/output_dot.png
dot -Tpng output_no_clusters.dot > doc/examples/output_no_clusters_dot.png

How to convert the puml files to svg

plantuml -tsvg output.puml -o doc/examples
plantuml -tsvg output_no_clusters.puml -o doc/examples

How to convert the puml files to png

plantuml -tpng output.puml -o doc/examples
plantuml -tpng output_no_clusters.puml -o doc/examples

Filter include directories

If you are not interested in a set of include folders (normally the system or default), you can add a filter.txt in the same folder as input.txt where you can filter out certain folders. The easiest way of getting a list of include folders is to run gidd once and gidd will print all used folders. Then you can copy/paste from that list into the filter.txt file and run gidd again.

Examples

Here is an example of how a tiny hello world example can look like:

#include <cstdio>

int main() {
    printf("Hello, World!\n");
}

output_no_clusters.dot: output.dot: output_no_clusters.puml: output.puml: