Using advanced exclusion features
This feature is only available in the Enterprise plan.
In very specific situations, you may have to define at the organization level the exclusion of code from the analysis:
- File exclusion based on the file content.
- Exclusion of blocks within files.
- Exclusion of specific files from specific coding rules.
Such an analysis scope adjustment applies to all projects in the organization. However, it can be overridden at the project level in the UI or through analysis parameters set on the CI/CD host.
This feature requires the Administer organization permission.
Excluding files based on file content
You can exclude from the analysis files that contain a block of code matching a given regular expression. You can enter one or more regular expression patterns. Any file containing at least one of the specified patterns will be ignored.
The parameter to be configured is Ignore Issues on Files.
To define the Ignore Issues on Files parameter:
- Retrieve the organization.
- Go to Administration > Analysis scope.
- In Ignore Issues on Files, enter and save a regular expression pattern.
- You can enter a second regular expression pattern and so on.
Example
Let's say you have generated class files in your Java project that you wish to exclude. The files look something like this:
To exclude all such files, you might set this parameter to the following regular expression: @Generated\(".*"\)
Excluding blocks within files
You can exclude from the analysis specific blocks contained in any source file (The rest of the file will be analyzed.). The parameter to be configured is Ignore Issues in Blocks.
Principles governing the use of the Ignore Issues in Blocks parameter
Blocks to be ignored are delimited within the file by start and end strings specified by regular expression patterns:
- If the first regular expression is found but not the second one, the end of the file is considered to be the end of the block.
- Regular expressions are not matched across multiple lines.
Any block - within any file - containing at least one of the specified patterns will be ignored.
Defining the Ignore Issues in Blocks parameter
- Retrieve the organization.
- Go to Administration > Analysis scope.
- In Ignore Issues in Blocks, enter and save a block definition.
- You can enter a second block definition and so on.
Example
You can use block delimiters to specify the block to be excluded as illustrated below. In this example, you want to ignore the code in the method doSomethingElse
below delimited by // BEGIN-NOSCAN
and // END-NOSCAN
.
You could define the block to be excluded with the following regular expressions:
- Start of block:
\s*//\s*START-NOSCAN
- End of block:
\s*//\s*END-NOSCAN
These regular expressions ensure that the start and end block delimiters will be recognized regardless of the number of spaces around the line comment characters (//).
Excluding specific files from specific coding rules
This section explains how to exclude specific files from specific coding rules in your project analysis.
Introduction to coding rules exclusion
To exclude specific files from specific coding rules, you can:
- Exclude specific files from the check against specific coding rules.
To do so, you define exclusion criteria. An exclusion criterion is a combination of:- A coding rule key pattern: specifies the coding rules to be excluded.
- A file path pattern: specifies the files to which the specified coding rules will not be applied.
- Apply the check against specific coding rules to specific files. It means that the other files are excluded from this check.
To do so, you define inclusion criteria. An inclusion criterion is a combination of:- A coding rule key pattern: specifies the coding rules to be applied.
- A file path pattern: specifies the files to which the specified rules will be applied. The specified rules will not be applied to the other files.
Defining coding rule inclusion or exclusion criteria
- Retrieve the organization.
- Go to Administration > Analysis scope.
- In the Ignore Issues on Multiple Criteria parameter (to define an exclusion criterion), or in the Restrict Scope of Coding Rules (to define an inclusion criteria), enter and save a pair consisting of :
- a pattern for coding rule keys: see Defining matching patterns for coding rules below.
- a pattern for file paths: see Wildcard patterns in Analysis scope.
- You can add a second criterion, and so on.
Examples of Ignore Issues on Multiple Criteria values
For information about the pattern definitions, see see Wildcard patterns in Analysis scope.
Example | Inclusion criterion |
---|---|
Check:
|
|
Check:
| Two criteria must be used. Criterion 1:
Criterion 2:
|
Examples of Restrict Scope of Coding Rules values
For information about the pattern definitions, see see Wildcard patterns in Analysis scope.
Example | Exclusion criterion |
---|---|
Ignore:
|
|
Ignore:
|
|
Ignore:
|
|
Ignore:
|
|
Defining matching patterns for coding rules
To define matching patterns for coding rules, use the following syntax:
<ruleRepository>:<searchString>
Where:
- ruleRepository: is the identifier of the rule repository
Examples: SonarQube java (identifier: java) or Security SonarAnalyzer PHP (identifier: phpsecurity), etc.
You can use the wildcard pattern * (any string) to define the rule repository. - searchString: is any search string present in the rule key or in the rule name
The matching pattern means that any rule:
- of the specified repository
- whose name or key contains the specified search string
is a match.
Rule-matching pattern examples
Rule-matching pattern | Description |
---|---|
css:S4655 | Rule ID s4655 in the repository css. |
*:S4655 | Rule ID s4655 in any repository. |
* | All rules. |
Identifying the repository, name, and key of a rule
- Retrieve your organization.
- Go to Rules.
- Use the filter on the left to search for a rule. The search results are displayed in the right panel.
- In the search results, click the rule you want to view. The rule opens and you can see the rule parameters.
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