Generating a JSON compilation database

CMake

Use the CMAKE_EXPORT_COMPILE_COMMANDS flag. You can either run

or add the following line to your CMakeLists.txt script:

The compile_commands.json file will be put into the build directory.

Clang (version 5.0 and later)

The -MJ option writes a compilation entry per input file. You can use it for each file in the project, and then merge the outputs into a JSON-formatted compilation database (refer to the procedure example).

Ninja (version 1.2 and later)

To get a compilation database, use the -t compdb option. Note that it requires rule names as arguments: -t compdb rule1 rule2... The list of rules is provided in the Ninja build file (default name build.ninja), for example:

To generate a compilation database for one rule named cc, specify the following:

But for multiple rules, you need to get their exact names from the build file and pass them to compdb (refer to one of the possible solutions).

Make-based projects

The compiledb-generator tool creates compilation databases for make-based build systems.

Bear and intercept-build tools

Bear and intercept-build from scan-build are the tools to help you get a compilation database by intercepting compiler calls during the build.

SourceTrail Visual Studio extension

SourceTrail Extension generates a compilation database for Visual Studio solutions.