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https://github.com/0x6675636b796f75676974687562/awesome-cxx-parsers

An overview of C and C++ parsers available for Kotlin/JVM and Kotlin/MP
https://github.com/0x6675636b796f75676974687562/awesome-cxx-parsers

List: awesome-cxx-parsers

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An overview of C and C++ parsers available for Kotlin/JVM and Kotlin/MP

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# Awesome C++ Parsers

An overview of C and C++ parsers available for Kotlin/JVM and Kotlin/MP



## [Clang](https://clang.llvm.org)



### CLI (`clang`)



 * Kotlin/JVM ✔, Kotlin/MP ✔

 * Available since at least _Clang_ version 11.

 * [_Rust_ bindings](https://github.com/dtolnay/clang-ast)



#### Overview



Getting an AST tree is as easy as



```bash

clang++ -fsyntax-only -Xclang -ast-dump=json file.cc >file.json

```



The AST can also be dumped in binary form, to be later on consumed and parsed by

[`libclang`](#libclang-c-interface-to-clang) ([example](https://bastian.rieck.me/blog/posts/2015/baby_steps_libclang_ast/)):



```bash

# Will produce file.ast

clang++ -emit-ast file.cc

```



#### Example



Here's a [JSON output](Shape.json) for a [sample C++ class](Shape.cc).



Field access on [line 8](Shape.cc#L8) is correctly recognized as a

[`clang::MemberExpr`](Shape.json#L554)

([reference](https://clang.llvm.org/doxygen/classclang_1_1MemberExpr.html)).



Notably, GCC-style mangled C++ symbol names are also stored in the JSON:



```json

{

   "id": "0x8001988b0",

   "kind": "ParmVarDecl",

   "loc": {

      "offset": 36,

      "line": 3,

      "col": 15,

      "tokLen": 11

   },

   "range": {

      "begin": {

         "offset": 32,

         "col": 11,

         "tokLen": 3

      },

      "end": {

         "offset": 36,

         "col": 15,

         "tokLen": 11

      }

   },

   "isUsed": true,

   "name": "shapeHeight",

   "mangledName": "_ZZN5ShapeC1EiE11shapeHeight",

   "type": {

      "qualType": "int"

   }

}

```



Here, `_ZZN5ShapeC1EiE11shapeHeight` is a mangled name which corresponds to

`Shape::Shape(int)::shapeHeight`:



```console

$ echo '_ZZN5ShapeC1EiE11shapeHeight' | c++filt

Shape::Shape(int)::shapeHeight

```



`ParmVarDecl` specifies a JSON-serialized instance of

[`clang::ParmVarDecl`](https://clang.llvm.org/doxygen/classclang_1_1ParmVarDecl.html)

class from the [C++ API](https://clang.llvm.org/doxygen/namespaceclang.html).



### [`clangd`](https://clangd.llvm.org/)



 * Kotlin/JVM ✔, Kotlin/MP ✔

 * Supports [LSP **3.17**](https://microsoft.github.io/language-server-protocol/specifications/lsp/3.17/specification/)

    plus [extensions](https://clangd.llvm.org/extensions)

 * Can provide [`clang::clangd::ParsedAST`](https://clang.llvm.org/extra/doxygen/classclang_1_1clangd_1_1ParsedAST.html),

    which, in turn, can be used to access [`clang::ASTContext`](https://clang.llvm.org/doxygen/classclang_1_1ASTContext.html)

 * [Features](https://clangd.llvm.org/features)



#### Overview



 * Sample response [JSON response](clangd-response.json) from `clangd`.

 * `clangd` tool window in _CLion_:



    ![](images/clion-clangd-tool-window.png) 



#### Used by



 * [_JetBrains CLion_](https://www.jetbrains.com/clion/)



### `libclang`: C Interface to _Clang_



 * Java bindings to _Clang_ version **15** are available via

   [_JavaCPP Presets_](https://github.com/bytedeco/javacpp-presets/tree/master/llvm) (Kotlin/JVM ✔, Kotlin/MP ❌).

 * [API reference](https://clang.llvm.org/doxygen/group__CINDEX.html)



#### Overview



 * `libclang` has its limitations

    and [doesn't expose](https://clang.llvm.org/docs/Tooling.html#libclang) the

    entire AST.

    Read [this](https://www.foonathan.net/2017/04/cppast/) for further details.

 * `libclang` tokens are not preprocessed.



#### Examples



 * [Baby steps with libclang: Walking an abstract syntax tree](https://bastian.rieck.me/blog/posts/2015/baby_steps_libclang_ast/)

 * [Using libclang to Parse C++ (aka libclang 101)](https://shaharmike.com/cpp/libclang/)

 * 



#### Used by



 * [Fraunhofer-AISEC/cpg](https://github.com/Fraunhofer-AISEC/cpg)

 * [0x6675636b796f75676974687562/libclang-example](https://github.com/0x6675636b796f75676974687562/libclang-example)



### `LibTooling`: C++ Interface to _Clang_



 * No Kotlin/JVM ❌, no Kotlin/MP ❌ (unless wrappers are written manually)

 * C++ API



#### Links



 * [LibTooling](https://clang.llvm.org/docs/LibTooling.html)

 * [Tutorial for building tools using LibTooling and LibASTMatchers](https://clang.llvm.org/docs/LibASTMatchersTutorial.html)

 * 



## [tree-sitter](https://github.com/tree-sitter/tree-sitter)



### Overview



 * Kotlin/JVM ✔ available via [Java](https://github.com/serenadeai/java-tree-sitter)

   or [Kotlin](https://github.com/oxisto/kotlintree) bindings

 * Kotlin/MP ✔ possible by wrapping a native platform binary

 * Kotlin/JS ✔ possible by wrapping `tree-sitter.js`

 * Has built-in support for its own [query language](https://neovim.io/doc/user/treesitter.html#treesitter-query)



Initially it was designed by GitHub for their [Atom IDE](https://github.com/atom/) which was sunset to be replaced by CodeHub/VS Code.

Designed to tokenize code with focus on tracking changes in a file.



 * Articles:



   - [Tree-sitter: обзор инкрементального парсера (in Russian)](https://habr.com/ru/post/670140/)

   - [A Comprehensive Introduction to Tree-sitter](https://derek.stride.host/posts/comprehensive-introduction-to-tree-sitter)

   - ["Tree-sitter - a new parsing system for programming tools" by Max Brunsfeld](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jes3bD6P0To)

   - [How to write a linter using tree-sitter in an hour](https://siraben.dev/2022/03/22/tree-sitter-linter.html)

     - [Discussion on Hacker News](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30822544)



 * Activity of the project:

 Project contains two parts: parser (specification) and binding (api).

 Specification are hosted under the main GitHub organization [tree-sitter](https://github.com/tree-sitter) and looks like it's being updated (checked java/cpp).



 But bindings look like a very alpha (checked _Java_ and _Kotlin_).



 According to the [`README.md`](https://github.com/tree-sitter/tree-sitter#readme)

 and articles: looks like `tree-sitter` is targeted at Web:

 `Web Tree-sitter`/`WASM` is part of the main library:

 .



 Additionally, it's used as a plugin in popular editors and actively supported:

 [_Neovim_](https://github.com/nvim-treesitter) and

 [_Emacs_](https://github.com/emacs-tree-sitter)



#### Limitations



The parser of _tree-sitter_ doesn't always track context,

so, using the following C++ source code,



```c++

class Shape {

public:

   Shape(int shapeHeight) {

       height = shapeHeight;

   }



   int getHeight() {

       return height;

   }



private:

   int height;

};

```



—

it incorrectly recognizes field access as an

`identifier` (i.e. local variable) and not a `field_identifier`

(for the code to be parsed correctly,

one should change `height` → `this.height`).

The same problem affects even simpler-to-parse languages,

such as _Java_ and _Kotlin_.



For example,

both field access and local variable access are erroneously recognized as `simple_identifier`:



```kotlin

class Shape(private val height: Int) {

    fun getHeight(): Int {

        return height

    }

}

```



Another example is inability to differentiate between a function call and a

macro call in C and C++:



```c

static void f1() {

    // ...

}



static void f2() {

    // ...

}



#define f1() f2()



void g() {

    // Calls `f2()`, not `f1()`.

    f1();

}

```



### PoC

Tried to create a POC using **tree-sitter**. Run on WSL\Linux.



 * [Java bindings](https://github.com/serenadeai/java-tree-sitter):

   Here is a branch: https://github.com/saveourtool/save-cloud/compare/master...feature/java-tree-sitter

   

   It fails with error in C code:

   ```console

   15:02:06.519 [main] INFO c.s.save.demo.cpg.SaveDemoCpgKt - Started SaveDemoCpgKt in 49.612 seconds (JVM running for 63.49) 

   15:03:04.447 [boundedElastic-1] INFO c.s.s.d.cpg.controller.CpgController - Created a file with sources: demo.java

   #

   # A fatal error has been detected by the Java Runtime Environment:

   #

   #  SIGSEGV (0xb) at pc=0x00007f547c49bd3d, pid=2570, tid=2727

   #

   # JRE version: OpenJDK Runtime Environment (17.0.3+7) (build 17.0.3+7-Ubuntu-0ubuntu0.22.04.1)

   # Java VM: OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM (17.0.3+7-Ubuntu-0ubuntu0.22.04.1, mixed mode, emulated-client, sharing, tiered, compressed oops, compressed class ptrs, g1 gc, linux-amd64)

   # Problematic frame:

   # C  [libjava-tree-sitter.so+0x2bd3d]  ts_tree_root_node+0xd

   #

   # No core dump will be written. Core dumps have been disabled. To enable core dumping, try "ulimit -c unlimited" before starting Java again

   #

   # An error report file with more information is saved as:

   # /mnt/d/projects/save-cloud/hs_err_pid2570.log

   #

   # If you would like to submit a bug report, please visit:

   #   Unknown

   # The crash happened outside the Java Virtual Machine in native code.

   # See problematic frame for where to report the bug.

   #

   Aborted

   ```

 * [Kotlin bindings](https://github.com/oxisto/kotlintree):

   Here is a branch: https://github.com/saveourtool/save-cloud/compare/master...feature/kotlintree



   It does work on Ubuntu: ![](images/kotlintree.gif)

 * [Custom grammar](tree-sitter-boolean/README.md)



### Implementations



 * [C++ Grammar](https://github.com/tree-sitter/tree-sitter-cpp) (45 🍴, 156 ⭐)

   * Portable: can be built with at least `g++` **10** and `clang++` **13**

     (and, probably, earlier versions). 

 * [Kotlin bindings](https://github.com/oxisto/kotlintree) (2 🍴, 28 ⭐)

   * Uses JNA. 

   * The native library has to be manually built first (requires `clang++`).

   * The project wraps `libtree-sitter.{so,dylib}` (**0.20.1**) and

     `libtree-sitter-cpp.{so,dylib}` (**0.19.0**) via JNA.

   * _Linux_ and _Mac OS X_ only.

 * [Java bindings](https://github.com/serenadeai/java-tree-sitter) (19 🍴, 61 ⭐)

   * Uses JNI.

   * The native library has to be manually built first.

   * Be sure to clone with `--recurse-submodules`.

   * Can't be built using JDK 17 due to outdated _Gradle_.

 * [Playground](https://tree-sitter.github.io/tree-sitter/playground) (C, C++ and other languages)

 * [Playground](https://fwcd.dev/tree-sitter-kotlin/) (Kotlin grammar, unofficial)



## [CodeQL](https://codeql.github.com)



 * [CodeQL CLI](https://github.com/github/codeql-cli-binaries) is closed-source ❌

 * [CodeQL libraries and queries](https://github.com/github/codeql) are open-source, MIT-licensed ✔

 * For compiled languages like C++, it's necessary to build the project first in

   order to create a CodeQL database.

 * [C and C++ status](https://codeql.github.com/docs/codeql-overview/supported-languages-and-frameworks):

   * C++20 support is currently in beta. Supported for GCC on Linux only. Modules are _not_ supported.

   * Clang (and `clang-cl`) extensions (up to Clang 12.0)

     * Support for the `clang-cl` compiler is preliminary.

   * GNU extensions (up to GCC 11.1)

   * Microsoft extensions (up to VS 2019)

   * Arm Compiler 5

     * Support for the Arm Compiler (`armcc`) is preliminary.

 * _Visual Studio Code_ [integration](https://codeql.github.com/docs/codeql-for-visual-studio-code/)



### Links



 * [Analyzing your projects](https://codeql.github.com/docs/codeql-for-visual-studio-code/analyzing-your-projects/)

 * [Exploring the structure of your source code](https://codeql.github.com/docs/codeql-for-visual-studio-code/exploring-the-structure-of-your-source-code/)

 * [Exploring data flow with path queries](https://codeql.github.com/docs/codeql-for-visual-studio-code/exploring-data-flow-with-path-queries/)

 * [CodeQL for C and C++](https://codeql.github.com/docs/codeql-language-guides/codeql-for-cpp/)

 * [Writing CodeQL queries](https://codeql.github.com/docs/writing-codeql-queries/)

 * [CodeQL CLI manual](https://codeql.github.com/docs/codeql-cli/manual/)



## Eclipse CDT



 * Kotlin/JVM ✔ only, no Kotlin/MP ❌



### Used by



 * [Fraunhofer-AISEC/cpg](https://github.com/Fraunhofer-AISEC/cpg)

 * [joernio/joern](https://github.com/joernio/joern) 



## [`foonathan/cppast`](https://github.com/foonathan/cppast)



 * 157 🍴, 1.5k ⭐

 * No Kotlin/JVM ❌, no Kotlin/MP ❌ (unless wrappers are written manually)

 * C++ API

 * Was built in response to `libclang` limitations