NAME

       Bear - a tool to generate compilation database for Clang tooling.

SYNOPSIS

       bear [options] -- [build command]

DESCRIPTION

       The JSON compilation database <http://clang.llvm.org/docs/JSONCompilationDatabase.html> is
       used in Clang project to provide information how a single compilation unit was  processed.
       When that is available then it is easy to re-run the compilation with different programs.

       Bear  executes  the  original build command and intercept the command executions issued by
       the build tool.  From the log of command executions it  tries  to  identify  the  compiler
       calls and creates the final compilation database.

OPTIONS

       --version
              Print version number.

       --help Print help message.

       --verbose
              Enable verbose logging.

       --output file
              Specify  output  file.   (Default  file  name  provided.)  The  output  is  a  JSON
              compilation database.

       --append
              Use previously generated output file and append the new entries to  it.   This  way
              you can run Bear continuously during work, and it keeps the compilation database up
              to date.  File deletion and addition are both considered.  But build process change
              (compiler flags change) might cause duplicate entries.

       --config file
              Specify  a  configuration  file.   The  configuration  file captures how the output
              should be formatted and which entries it shall contain.

       --force-preload
              Force to use the dynamic linker method of intercept command.

       --force-wrapper
              Force to use the compiler wrapper method of intercept command.

COMMANDS

       bear-intercept(1)
              Intercepts events that happened during the execution of the build command.

       bear-citnames(1)
              Deduce the semantics of the commands captured by bear-intercept(1).

OUTPUT

       The JSON compilation database definition changed over time.  The current version  of  Bear
       generates entries where:

       directory
              has absolute path.

       file   has absolute path.

       output has absolute path.

       arguments
              used instead of command to avoid shell escaping problems.  (Configuration can force
              to emit the command field.) The compiler as the first argument has  absolute  path.
              Some non compilation related flags are filtered out from the final output.

CONFIG FILE

       Read  bear-citnames(1)  man  page  for  the content of this file.  bear is not reading the
       content of this file, but passing the file name to bear citnames command.

EXIT STATUS

       The exit status of the program is the exit status of the build command.  Except  when  the
       program itself crashes, then it sets to non-zero.

TROUBLESHOOTING

       The  potential  problems  you  can  face with are: the build with and without Bear behaves
       differently or the output is empty.

       The most common cause for empty outputs is that the build  command  did  not  execute  any
       commands.   The  reason  for  that  could  be,  because incremental builds not running the
       compilers if everything is up-to-date.  Remember, Bear does not understand the build  file
       (eg.: makefile), but intercepts the executed commands.

       The  other  common  cause for empty output is that the build has a “configure” step, which
       captures the compiler to build the project.  In case of Bear is  using  the  wrapper  mode
       (read  bear-intercept(1)  man page), it needs to run the configure step with Bear too (and
       discard that output), before run the build with Bear.

       There could be many reasons for any of these failures.  It’s better to  consult  with  the
       project wiki page for known problems, before open a bug report.

COPYRIGHT

       Copyright (C) 2012-2024 by László Nagy <https://github.com/rizsotto/Bear>

AUTHORS

       László Nagy.