The Sonar Runner is recommended as the default launcher to analyze a project with Sonar.

Prerequisites

You must have previously installed the Sonar Runner and read Analyzing Code Source.

Usage

Simple Project

Create a configuration file in the root directory of the project: sonar-project.properties

Rune the following command from the project base directory to launch the Sonar analysis:

To help you getting started, a simple project sample is available on github that can be browsed or downloaded: projects/languages/java/sonar-runner/java-sonar-runner-simple

Multi-module Project

There are 2 ways to define a multi-module structure in Sonar :

	Using the given file structure...	... with the given "properties" files
Case 1 Define everything through properties in a single place		"MyProject/sonar-project.properties" file content
Case 2 Split the definition into several places		"MyProject/sonar-project.properties" file content "MyProject/module1/sonar-project.properties" file content "MyProject/module2/sonar-project.properties" file content

Noteworthy:

• Properties are inherited from parent to children 
  They can obviously be overriden:
  
  • By prefixing them with the module identifier (case 1)
  • Simply by defining them in the "sonar-project.properties" file located in the module (case 2)
    
    
• Module base directory can be specified for special cases
  By default, the module base directory is guessed from the module identifier (like in the examples above). But it can be redefined using the "sonar.projectBaseDir" property.
  For instance, here are 2 use cases and the way to redefine the base directory of the modules:
  

  • the folder of a module contains white spaces or special characters:

  • the module is not located directly in the parent folder, but in a deeper directory structure:

To help you getting started, multi-module project samples are available on github that can be browsed or downloaded:

• Modules with the same structure: projects/languages/java/sonar-runner/java-sonar-runner-modules-same-structure
• Modules with different structures: projects/languages/java/sonar-runner/java-sonar-runner-modules-different-structures
• A configuration file for each module: projects/languages/java/sonar-runner/java-sonar-runner-modules-own-configuration-file

Advanced Usage

If a sonar-project.properties file cannot be created in the root directory of the project, there are several alternatives:

• The properties can be specified directly through the command line. Ex:

   

   

• The property 'project.settings' can be used to specify the path to the project configuration file (this option is incompatible with the 'project.home' property). Ex:

  .

The Sonar working directory can be set through the 'sonar.working.directory' property (default is '.sonar').

The root folder of the project to analyze can be set through the 'project.home' property. This folder must contain a sonar-project.properties file if the mandatory properties (like 'sonar.projectKey') are not specified on the command line.

Additional analysis parameters can be defined in this project configuration file or through command-line parameters. 

Troubleshootings

If you get an java.lang.OutOfMemoryError, you can set the SONAR_RUNNER_OPTS environment variable, like this in *nix environments: On Windows environments, avoid the double-quotes, since they get misinterpreted, turning the two parameters into a single one.