Code reviews run in headless mode

You can run code reviews on Java source files from a command line in a "headless" workbench (with no user interface for the development environment). This can be useful if you want to run code reviews unattended, on a regular basis, or if you want to include them in an Ant script.

A command line interface allows you to specify your workspace and any optional parameters. The command line launches a headless Eclipse environment with only the core features required to run code reviews, and without the user interface features. By default, it then runs a code review on the source code in the workspace using either the rules in the Quick code review, or those that were specified in the UI the last time code review was run.

Before running code reviews in headless mode, you must have a workspace containing a project with Java source files. The development environment does not need to be running.
Note: Because of Windows operating system limitations, the length of the string that is used to run the command line mode (C:\path\java.exe …) must be as short as possible, or the parameters at the end of the string could be cut and lost by the system. Windows users should use the following best practices for optimal results:
  • The PATH variable should include as many paths as possible, for example, the Java path and the path to the JAR files.
  • The path to the workspace should be as short as possible, for example, C:\workspace.
  • The path to the location where reports are generated should also be as short as possible, for example, C:\report.

You cannot run several executions of code review in headless mode on the same workspace at the same time, nor can you use headless mode while an Eclipse graphical user interface has locked the workspace.

Example

The following command line runs code review on a Windows OS from the workspace D:\workspace. An HTML report is produced in D:\workspace\report.
D:\eclipse\jre\bin\java -Xj9 -Dorg.eclipse.swt.browser.internal.flash -Dorg.eclipse.emf.ecore.EPackage.Registry.INSTANCE=org.eclipse.emf.ecore.impl.EPackageRegistryImpl -cp D:\eclipse\startup.jar org.eclipse.core.launcher.Main -application com.ibm.r2a.command.line.mode.CommandLineModeApplication -plugincustomization <pluginCustomizationPath> -data <workspace_dir> -reportDirectory D:\workspace\report -onlyClient CodeReview
Note: You might need to append additional parameters to the commands in this example for it to run, depending on your operating system configuration. The parameters are located in the system configuration details under "System properties" in Help > About > Configuration Details > System properties.
Related tasks
Running code reviews from a command line
Running code reviews from an Ant script
Related reference
Code review headless mode reference
Quick code review
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