CCM

Overview

CCM is a tool that analyzes c, c++, c#, javascript, TypeScript and PowerShell code and reports back with cyclomatic complexity metric.

Command line usage

To use CCM.exe, simply use one of the two modes for invocation:

• CCM.exe <path-to-config-file>
• CCM.exe <folder-path-to-analyze> [/xml] [/ignorecases] [/threshold=5] [/nummetrics=10]

Arguments

   <path-to-config-file>    Path to configuration file. See structure of file below. 
                            This option gives the best control over how ccm behaves.
   <folder-path-to-analyze> Path to directory which ccm will analyze.
   /xml                     Output results as XML (this parameter only valid if a config file is not passed in).
   /ignorecases             Don't count each case in switch block as a branching point (only valid if config file is not passed in).
   /threshold=5             Ignore units with metrics lower than assigned value.
   /nummetrics=10           Only report top 10 metrics (see numMetrics element in configuration file)

Configuration file

Below is an example of a configuration file.

 <ccm>
    <exclude>
     <file>myfile.cpp</file>
     <folder>myfolder</folder>
    </exclude>
    <analyze>
      <folder>..\..\code</folder>
   </analyze>
   <recursive>yes</recursive>
   <outputter>XML</outputter>
   <suppressMethodSignatures>yes</suppressMethodSignatures>
   <switchStatementBehavior>IgnoreCases</switchStatementBehavior>
   <numMetrics>30</numMetrics>
   <threshold>6</threshold>
   <fileExtensions>
     <fileExtension>.cxx</fileExtension>
   </fileExtensions>
 </ccm>

• <exclude> element can be used to exclude files and/or folders from analysis.
• <analyze> element specified which folders to analyze. All paths in the <folder> element is relative to the location of the configuration file.
• <recursive> element tells CCM to traverse folders or not.
• <outputter> element tells CCM how to output the data. Valid values are 'XML', 'Tabbed', 'Text', 'CSV'
• <suppressMethodSignatures> set to 'yes' and CCM will only print the name of the method and not the full signature.
• <switchStatementBehavior> set to 'IgnoreCases' and CCM will not count each case statement in switch blocks as a branching point.
• <numMetrics> tells CCM how many metrics that should be reported. Only the top x functions will be reported.
• <threshold> tells CCM to ignore units with a complexity less than configured value.
• <fileExtensions> can be used to add additional file extensions for analysis. Per default, these are included: .h, .cpp, .c, .hpp, .cs, .js, .ts, .psm1 and .ps1

Example output

Below is example output from the Text outputter (can be contolled in the <outputter> element in the config file).

Driver::HandleDirectory(string basePath,string path) : 7 - simple, without much risk (\Driver.cs@line 141)
Driver::IsValidFile(string filename) : 6 - simple, without much risk (\Driver.cs@line 84)
Program::CreateConfigurationFromArgs(string [ ] args) : 6 - simple, without much risk (\Program.cs@line 71)
Driver::PathShouldBeExcluded(string path) : 5 - simple, without much risk (\Driver.cs@line 109)
XmlOutputter::Output(List<ccMetric>metrics,List<ErrorInfo>errors,bool verbose) : 5 - simple, without much risk (\XmlOutputter.cs@line 17)
ConsoleOutputter::Output(List<ccMetric>metrics,List<ErrorInfo>errors,bool verbose) : 4 - simple, without much risk (\ConsoleOutputter.cs@line 12)
Driver::AnalyzeFilestream(object context) : 4 - simple, without much risk (\Driver.cs@line 47)
TabbedOutputter::Output(List<ccMetric>metrics,List<ErrorInfo>errors,bool verbose) : 4 - simple, without much risk (\TabbedOutputter.cs@line 12)
Program::OutputterFactory(string outputType) : 3 - simple, without much risk (\Program.cs@line 60)
Program::ValidateArgs(string [ ] args) : 2 - simple, without much risk (\Program.cs@line 15)
Program::LoadConfiguration(string [ ] args) : 2 - simple, without much risk (\Program.cs@line 97)
Program::Main(string [ ] args) : 2 - simple, without much risk (\Program.cs@line 122)

Platforms

CCM is built in C#, targetting .NET Core 3.1 and as such runs on Windows, Mac and other platform supported by .NET Core.

Building the code

1. Open ccm.sln in Visual Studio 2022
2. Build
3. Run unit tests (optional)

Running the tool on Mac OS X

Different options

1. ./bin/Release/net6.0/ccm (this will display the help)
2. ./bin/Release/net6.0/ccm ./bin/ccm.config (will run based on the ccm.config file)
3. ./bin/Release/net6.0/ccm ./source (run the analyzer for the source folder)

Running the tool on Windows

Different options

1. .\bin\Release\net6.0\CCM.exe (this will display the help)
2. .\bin\Release\net6.0\CCM.exe .\bin\ccm.config (will run based on the ccm.config file)
3. .\bin\Release\net6.0\CCM.exe .\source (run the analyzer for the source folder)

Integration into build pipelines

CCM can easily be integrated into build pipelines by using the xml output option. Example:

$output = ./bin/Release/netcoreapp3.1/ccm <path-to-analyze> /xml /threshold=11
$xml = [xml]($output)
$xml.ccm.metric | %{  
   Write-Error "$($_.unit) has complexity $($_.complexity) and is classified as '$($_.classification)'"
}