cpplint is a command-line tool that checks C and C++ source files for violations of Google’s C++ style guide. It helps developers maintain consistent coding conventions and identify common style problems before changes are committed.
The software originated at Google, but development of the public version has moved to a community-maintained fork. This fork adds support for modern C++ constructs, additional file extensions and more flexible configuration.
cpplint concentrates on coding conventions rather than comprehensive bug detection. It examines issues such as whitespace, header guards, naming conventions and include ordering, with configurable filters for adapting its checks to different projects.
This is free and open source software.
Key Features
- Checks C and C++ source files against Google’s C++ style guidelines.
- Detects formatting, whitespace, naming and include-related issues.
- Checks header guards and supports pragma once as an alternative.
- Recursive scanning of directories containing source files.
- Configurable file extensions and exclusion patterns.
- Adjustable maximum line length and diagnostic verbosity.
- Enable or disable categories of warnings using filters.
- Suppress individual diagnostics or entire code blocks using NOLINT comments.
- Supports custom configuration files for project-specific rules.
- Output formats suitable for Emacs, Eclipse, Visual Studio and JUnit-compatible tools.
- Generate summaries of violations by category.
- Integration with pre-commit hooks and continuous integration systems.
- Support for modern C++ syntax and common header-file conventions.
Website: github.com/cpplint/cpplint
Support:
Developer: cpplint contributors, based on Google’s original tool
License: BSD 3-Clause “New” or “Revised” License
cpplint is written in Python. Learn Python with our recommended free books and free tutorials.
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| ClangFormat | Code formatting tool |
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| Smatch | Static analysis tool for finding defects in C code |
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