Project Name  0.1.0
A cross-platform C++14 project template
Setting up Continuous Integration

Table of Contents

Setting up continuous integration in a C++ project is a lot easier than would be expected, as CMake handles most of the system level details required get a project building and running on Windows, Linux, and OSX.

This project uses the following CI tools:

In the two CI tools mentioned below, the default behavior is to run the following commands unless specified otherwise:

  • Configure using cmake.
  • Build using cmake --build.
  • Run tests using ctest.

Travis CI

Between Travis CI and Appveyor CI, Travis was much easier to set up than the latter. The current .travis.yml contains build jobs for:

  • Linux Debug (g++-5)
  • Linux Release (g++-5)
  • OSX Debug (Default Clang with XCode9.2)
  • OSX Release (Default Clang with XCode9.2)

If you are fine with these settings, then all you have to do is enable your repository on Travis CI and add the badge for your repository to the README.md!

Appveyor CI

While setting up Appveyor was slightly harder than Travis CI, the overall usage is about the same. The current appveyor.yml contains the following jobs on Visual Studio 2017:

  • Win32 Debug
  • Win32 Release
  • x64 Debug
  • x64 Release

If you are fine with these settings, then all you have to do is enable your repository on Appveyor CI and add the badge for your repository to the README.md!

Codacy

Of all the continuous integration tools, Codacy was the easiest to set up. All you have to do is visit the Codacy website and enable your repository. After running checks using Cppcheck (Beware of false positives), you will get a badge that can be placed in your README.md.

Codecov.io

Codecov is a tool that is used for hosting code coverage. The code coverage in this project is generated using a module cmake/Modules/CodeCoverage.cmake which uses LCOV/Genhtml to create coverage reports. This report is then uploaded to codecov.io at the end of every successful Travis build. In order to get your project on codecov.io, it needs to be enabled on their website and it, along with Travis CI, will take care of all the rest!

Coverity Scan

Setting up Coverity Scan involves creating another branch coverity_scan, which will occasionally be merged into to get a static analysis. The following change also needs to be made to the build matrix of .travis.yml: 

include:
  - os: linux
    compiler: gcc
    before_install:
      - echo -n | openssl s_client -connect https://scan.coverity.com:443 | sed -ne '/-BEGIN CERTIFICATE-/,/-END CERTIFICATE-/p' | sudo tee -a /etc/ssl/certs/ca-
    addons:
      apt:
        sources:
          - ubuntu-toolchain-r-test
        packages:
          - g++-5
          - cmake
      coverity_scan:
        project:
          name: "username/repository"
          description: "Project description"
        notification_email: your_email@website.com
        build_command_prepend: "cov-configure --comptype gcc --compiler g++-5 --template && cmake -DCMAKE_CXX_COMPILER=g++-5 ."
        build_command: "cmake --build ."
        branch_pattern: coverity_scan
    before_script: echo "Coverity Scan"
    script: echo "Coverity Scan"

This addition to the build matrix (copied almost verbatim from the official website) allows the uploading of results to Coverity Scan, which your repository needs to be enabled on.

After setting up the first build, Coverity Scan will run a scan and give you a README badge. After 1-2 business days, Coverity Scan will also verify your affiliation with the project you have enabled, which will allow you to view defects.