Translation unit selection

In order to improve the speed of the analysis, cov-run-desktop limits the number of files or translation units considered. In this context, a translation unit refers to any primary source file from the intermediate directory, along with any files included by that primary source file. The selection process is defined using various options that affect what code will be analyzed.

There are two methods to select which translation units will be analyzed, and it is required that the user specify one. The first method is to explicitly pass a list of source files to be analyzed at the end of the command line:

cov-run-desktop [OPTIONS] FILE1 [FILE2 [...]]

For C and C++, the files will typically be .c or .cpp source files. If you want to analyze a header file, see Coverity Desktop Analysis: User Guide.

This can also be accomplished by listing your chosen source files in a response file, and then specifying it on the command line with the @@<response_file> syntax.

The second method of translation unit selection is to query your source code management (SCM) system for the set of files that have been modified locally and analyze those. This method is designated with the --analyze-scm-modified option. See --analyze-scm-modified and A note on Git superprojects for more information on this method.

Note: You will receive an error if you attempt to pass more than one of these methods in the same command.