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Checkstyle 5.3
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Last Published: 2010-10-19
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<h5>About</h5>
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<a href="index.html">Checkstyle</a>
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<a href="releasenotes.html">Release Notes</a>
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<h5>Documentation</h5>
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<a href="config.html">Configuration</a>
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<a href="property_types.html">Property Types</a>
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<strong>Command Line</strong>
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<a href="availablechecks.html">Available Checks</a>
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<div class="section"><h2><a name="Description"></a>Description</h2>
<p>
This document describes how to run Checkstyle using the command line
tool. The latest version of Checkstyle can be found at <a href="http://checkstyle.sourceforge.net" class="externalLink">http://checkstyle.sourceforge.net</a>.
This command line tool is included in the Checkstyle distribution.
</p>
</div>
<div class="section"><h2><a name="Installation"></a>Installation</h2>
<p>
The easiest way is to include
<code>checkstyle-5.3-all.jar</code> in the
classpath. Alternatively, you must include the
<code>compile</code> third party dependencies listed in
<a href="dependencies.html">Project Dependencies</a> in the
classpath.
</p>
</div>
<div class="section"><h2><a name="Usage"></a>Usage</h2>
<p>
The command line usage is:
</p>
<div class="source"><pre>
java -D<property>=<value> \
com.puppycrawl.tools.checkstyle.Main \
-c <configurationFile> \
[-f <format>] [-p <propertiesFile>] [-o <file>] \
[-r <dir>] file...
</pre>
</div>
<p>
Checkstyle will process the specified files and by default report
errors to standard out in plain format. Checkstyle requires a <a href="config.html">configuration XML file</a> that configures the
checks to apply. Command line options are:
</p>
<ul><li><code>-f format</code> - specify the output
format. Options are <code> "plain"</code> for the <a href="apidocs/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/DefaultLogger.html">DefaultLogger</a>
and <code>"xml"</code> for the <a href="apidocs/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/XMLLogger.html">XMLLogger</a>.
Defaults to <code>"plain"</code>.
</li>
<li><code>-p propertiesFile</code> - specify a
properties file to use.
</li>
<li><code>-o file</code> - specify the file to output
to.
</li>
<li><code>-r dir</code> - specify the directory to
traverse for Java source files.
</li>
</ul>
<p>
Note that the <code>-n packageNamesFile</code>
option has been dropped for Checkstyle 5.0, because of
significant changes regarding package name file handling. See <a href="config.html#Packages"></a> for details.
</p>
<p>
Set the properties for <a href="config.html#Properties">expanded
property values</a> by either by assigning system properties using the
<code>-D<property>=<value></code> arguments to java or
specifying a property file using the <code>-p</code> option. If a
property file is specified, the system properties are ignored.
</p>
</div>
<div class="section"><h2><a name="Examples"></a>Examples</h2>
<p><b>
Run checkstyle with configuration file
<code>docs/sun_checks.xml</code> on a file
</b></p>
<div class="source"><pre>
java com.puppycrawl.tools.checkstyle.Main -c docs/sun_checks.xml \
Check.java
</pre>
</div>
<p><b>
Run checkstyle with configuration file
<code>docs/sun_checks.xml</code> on all java files in a directory
</b></p>
<div class="source"><pre>
java com.puppycrawl.tools.checkstyle.Main -c docs/sun_checks.xml \
-r src/
</pre>
</div>
<p><b>
Run checkstyle with configuration file
<code>docs/sun_checks.xml</code> on a file and provide a system
property
</b></p>
<div class="source"><pre>
java -Dcheckstyle.cache.file=target/cachefile \
com.puppycrawl.tools.checkstyle.Main -c docs/sun_checks.xml \
Check.java
</pre>
</div>
<p><b>
Run checkstyle with configuration file
<code>docs/sun_checks.xml</code> on a file and use properties in a
file
</b></p>
<div class="source"><pre>
java com.puppycrawl.tools.checkstyle.Main -c docs/sun_checks.xml \
-p myCheckstyle.properties Check.java
</pre>
</div>
<p><b>
Run checkstyle with configuration file
<code>docs/sun_checks.xml</code> on a file and output to a file in
XML format
</b></p>
<div class="source"><pre>
java com.puppycrawl.tools.checkstyle.Main -c docs/sun_checks.xml \
-f xml -o build/checkstyle_errors.xml Check.java
</pre>
</div>
<p><b>
Run checkstyle with configuration file
<code>docs/sun_checks.xml</code> on a file and provide a package
names file
</b></p>
<div class="source"><pre>
java com.puppycrawl.tools.checkstyle.Main -c docs/sun_checks.xml \
-n myPackageNames.xml Check.java
</pre>
</div>
<div class="tip"><h4>Tip</h4>
<p>
It is possible to run Checkstyle directly from the JAR file using
the <code>-jar</code> option. An example would be:
</p>
<div class="source"><pre>
java -jar checkstyle-5.3-all.jar \
-c docs/sun_checks.xml Check.java
</pre>
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