Advanced Use

Advanced Use

PVRStudio attempts to meet your development needs, whether you are an experienced developer or a newcomer. When you install PVRStudio, the default configuration allows you to start coding, building, running and debugging applications with very little effort.

However, you can easily change or extend the default configuration, by choosing a different build system or integrating external tools.

You can also use special options to start PVRStudio from the command line and use it mainly from the keyboard.

• Supported Platforms

  You can install and run PVRStudio on several operating systems to create applications for multiple desktop and platforms.

• Using Other Build Systems

  PVRStudio is integrated with cross-platform systems for build automation: CMake, and Autotools. In addition, you can import generic projects that do not use those systems, and specify that PVRStudio ignores your build system.

• Using Command Line Options

  You can start PVRStudio and specify some options for running it from the command line.

• Keyboard Shortcuts

  PVRStudio provides various keyboard shortcuts to speed up your development process. You can change the keyboard shortcuts, as well as import and export keyboard shortcut mapping schemes.

• Using External Tools

  You can use external tools directly from PVRStudio. The default text editor for your system, and the sort tool are preconfigured for use. You can change their default configurations and configure new tools.

Related Topics

• Showing Task List Files in Issues Pane

  You can load report files created by code scanning and analysis tools to the Issues output pane. You can navigate to the corresponding source code by clicking the error message or by using keyboard shortcuts.

Supported Platforms

You can install and run PVRStudio on several operating systems to create applications for multiple desktop, embedded, and mobile device platforms.

PVRStudio automatically runs scheduled checks for updates based on the settings specified in Tools > Options Environment > Update.

Development Platforms

PVRStudio is available in binary packages for the following operating systems:

• Windows 7 or later

  Note: Some PVRStudio plugins rely on Direct3D (part of DirectX). You might have to manually enable support for it if you are running Windows in a Virtual Machine. For more information, see Hardware 3D acceleration (OpenGL and Direct3D 8/9) and Prepare the Host System to Use DirectX 9 Accelerated Graphics.

• (K)Ubuntu Linux 16.04 (64-bit) or later

  To build applications using PVRStudio on Linux, you usually need the following:

  • g++

  • make

  • libglib2.0-dev

  • libSM-dev

  • libxrender-dev

  • libfontconfig1-dev

  • libxext-dev

  • libfreetype6-dev

  • libx11-dev

  • libxcursor-dev

  • libxfixes-dev

  • libxft-dev

  • libxi-dev

  • libxrandr-dev

  • libgl-dev and libglu-dev if you use OpenGL

• macOS 10.12 or later with the following:

  • Xcode tools for your macOS version available on the Mac App Store.

Compiling from Source

To build PVRStudio from the source, see the requirements and instructions in the readme file that is located in the source repository.

Target Platforms

You can develop applications for the following platforms:

• Desktop

• Android

• Embedded

• Generic remote Linux

• QNX

• Universal Windows Platform (UWP)

Mobile Devices

The following table summarizes operating system support for developing applications for mobile device platforms.

Target Platform	Development Platform
	Linux	macOS	Windows
Android
Generic Remote Linux
QNX
UWP

* See Running on QNX Devices for limitations.

Using Other Build Systems

Most PVRStudio project wizards enable you to choose the build system to use for building the project. CMake is the default system and it is installed and configured when you install PVRStudio. To use one of the other supported build systems, you need to set it up, as described in the the following sections:

• Setting Up an Autotools Project

  PVRStudio can open projects that use the Autotools build system. You can build and run the projects directly from PVRStudio.

• Setting Up a Generic Project

  PVRStudio supports generic projects, so you can import existing projects that do not use CMake. This enables you to use PVRStudio as a code editor and to fully control the steps and commands used to build the project.

Setting Up CMake

CMake automates the configuration of build systems. It controls the software compilation process by using simple configuration files, called CMakeLists.txt files. CMake generates native build configurations and workspaces that you can use in the compiler environment of your choice.

You can use CMake from PVRStudio to build applications for the desktop and Android devices. You can also build single files to test your changes.

PVRStudio automatically detects the CMake executable specified in the PATH. You can add paths to other CMake executables and use them in different build and run kits.

PVRStudio automatically runs CMake to refresh project information when you edit a CMakeLists.txt configuration file in a project. Project information is also automatically refreshed when you build the project.

Adding CMake Tools

PVRStudio supports CMake version 3.0, or later. For best results you should use CMake version 3.7.2 with server-mode support, or later. Earlier versions provide less information to the code model, which will then fail to resolve includes and defines.

To specify paths to CMake executables:

1. Select Tools > Options > Kits > CMake > Add.

   

2. In the Name field, specify a name for the tool.

3. In the Path field, specify the path to the CMake executable.

4. Select the Auto-create build directories check box to automatically create build directories for CMake projects.

5. Select Apply to save your changes.

Note: When the Autorun CMake check box is enabled, PVRStudio automatically runs CMake when you make changes to CMakeLists.txt files. We recommend that you do not disable this check box, because that would eventually make PVRStudio and the project disagree on what the project information is.

Select the Kits tab to add the CMake tool to a build and run kit. The kit also specifies the CMake generator that is used for producing project files for PVRStudio and the configuration variables that are used:

For more information, see Adding Kits.

Editing CMake Configuration Files

To open a CMakeLists.txt file for editing, right-click it in the Projects view and select Open with > CMake Editor.

The following features are supported:

• Pressing F2 when the cursor is on a filename to open the file

• Keyword completion

• Code completion

• Path completion

• Auto-indentation

• Matching parentheses and quotes

Adding External Libraries to CMake Projects

Through external libraries, PVRStudio can support code completion and syntax highlighting as if they were part of the current project.

PVRStudio detects the external libraries using the FIND_PACKAGE() macro. Some libraries come with the CMake installation. You can find those in the Modules directory of your CMake installation.

Note: If you provide your own libraries, you also need to provide your own FindXXX.cmake file. For more information, see Writing FindXXX.cmake files.

Syntax completion and highlighting work once your project successfully builds and links against the external library.

Related Topics

• Opening Projects

• Specifying Build Settings

• Specifying Run Settings

• Deploying CMake Projects to Embedded Linux Devices

Setting Up an Autotools Project

The AutotoolsProjectManager is a plugin for autotools support. It is disabled by default. To enable the plugin, select Help > About Plugins > Build Systems > AutotoolsProjectManager.

To use the plugin, restart PVRStudio.

To work with your Autotools project in PVRStudio:

1. Select File > Open File or Project.

2. Select the Makefile.am file from your project. This is the only way you can use the autotools plugin.

3. Select the build directory. Only in-source building is currently supported.

4. Select Finish. PVRStudio displays the project tree structure. The root node displays the project name. All project files are listed below it and you can open them from the list.

   

5. Select Run to build and run the application. The predefined build steps (autogen.sh or autoreconf, configure, and make) are executed.

   The first time you run the application you must choose the executable.

6. To check and edit autotools build steps, select Projects > Build Settings.

   You can add parameters to the predefined autotools build steps.

   

Setting Up a Generic Project

Generic project support allows you to use PVRStudio as a code editor. You can change the way your project is built by modifying the make command in the Projects mode under Build Settings.

When you import a project, PVRStudio creates the following files that allow you to specify which files belong to your project and which include directories or defines you want to pass to your compiler: .files, .includes, and .config.

Importing a Generic Project

To import an existing generic project:

1. Select File > New File or Project > Import Project > Import Existing Project.

2. In Import Existing Project, enter the project name and select the location of the project file you want to import.

   PVRStudio automatically generates the following files in the project directory:

   • .files .includes <Setting Up a Generic Project>

   • .config

   • .creator

   • .cflags .cxxflags <Setting Up a Generic Project>

When the project is successfully imported, PVRStudio creates the project tree in the sidebar.

After importing a generic project into PVRStudio, open it by selecting the .creator file.

Working with Generic Project Files

For a generic project, you have to manually specify which files belong to your project and which include directories or defines you want to pass to your compiler.

Specifying Files

The list of files for a generic project is specified in the .files file. When you first create a generic project, PVRStudio adds any files it recognizes to your project.

To add or remove files, edit the .files file in PVRStudio. PVRStudio recreates your project tree when you save the .files file. Alternatively, you can add and remove files using the context menu in the project tree.

If you frequently need to update the .files file, you can do so efficiently by using a script that updates the file for you. If the file is modified externally, you have to restart PVRStudio for the changes to take effect.

To update the .files on the Git repository use the following script:

git ls-files "*.cpp" "*.h" > MyProject.files

Specifying Include Paths

The include paths are specified in the .includes file, one include path per line. The paths can be either absolute or relative to the .includes file.

Specifying Defines

The defines are specified in the .config file. The .config file is a regular C++ file, prepended to all your source files when they are parsed. Only use the .config file to add lines as in the example below:

#define NAME value

Forwarding Flags to Clang Code Model

The .cxxflags and .cflags files contain command line flags for the Clang code model on a single line.

For example, specify the -std=c++11 to set the language version for parsing as C++11.

Providing Deployment Information

If you want to run your application on an embedded Linux device, you first need to deploy your executable and possibly other files. PVRStudio does that for you automatically if you provide the necessary information. This works the same way as explained for CMake here, except that you also need to include your application binary in the list.

Creating a Run Configuration

PVRStudio cannot automatically determine which executable to run.

In the Projects mode under Run Settings, define the executable file to run:

1. Click Add and select Custom Executable.

2. Define the configuration name, the location of the executable, any additional arguments and the working directory.

Using Command Line Options

You can start PVRStudio and specify some options from the command line. For example, you can open a file to any line and column.

To specify command line options, enter the following command in the PVRStudio installation or build directory:

pvrstudio [option] [filename[:line_number[:column_number]]]

Note: You can use either a colon (:) or a plus sign (+) as a separator between the filename and line number and the line number and the column number. You can also use a space between the separator and the line number.

For example, on Windows:

• C:\pvrstudio\bin>pvrstudio -help - C:\pvrstudio\bin>pvrstudio C:\TextFinder\textfinder.cpp:100:2

• C:\pvrstudio\bin>pvrstudio C:\TextFinder\textfinder.cpp +100+2

On macOS:

• PVRStudio.app/Contents/MacOS/PVRStudio -help

To open a project that is located in a particular folder, you can pass on the folder name as a command line argument. PVRStudio looks for a session that matches the folder name and loads it. Or it looks for a project file in the folder and opens it. For example:

pvrstudio .

The following table summarizes the available options:

Option	Description
-help	Display help on command line options.
-version	Display PVRStudio version.
-client	Attempt to connect to an already running instance of PVRStudio.
-pid	Attempt to connect to an already running instance of PVRStudio with the specified process ID.
-block	Open files in editors in a running PVRStudio instance and block the command line until the first editor is closed.
-load <plugin>	Enable the specified plugin and all plugins that it depends on. You can combine -load and -noload options and specify both options multiple times to enable and disable several plugins. The actions are executed in the specified order.
-load all	Enables all plugins.
-noload <plugin>	Disable the specified plugin and all plugins that depend on it.
-noload all	Disables all plugins.
-profile	Output plugin start up and shut down profiling data.
-pluginpath <path>	Add a path where PVRStudio looks for plugins. To specify several paths, add the -pluginpath option for each path.
-settingspath <path>	Override the default path where user settings are stored.
-installsettingspath <path>	Override the default path from where user-independent settings are read (for example written by the installer).
-temporarycleansettings	Use clean settings for debug or testing reasons. The settings will be deleted when PVRStudio exits.
-color <color>	Core plugin: override the selected UI color.
-presentationMode	Core plugin: display keyboard shortcuts as popups when you press them. Mostly useful when presenting PVRStudio to someone else.
-theme <default | dark>	Core plugin: apply a dark color theme to PVRStudio, without using stylesheets.
-notour	Welcome plugin: Skip the UI tour on startup.
-debug <pid>	Debugger plugin: attach to the process with the given process ID.
-debug <executable>[,kit=<kit>]	Debugger plugin: launch and debug the executable with the name executable. A kit can be specified by ID or name to point to non-default debuggers and sysroots.
-debug [executa ble,]core=<corefile>[,kit=<kit>]	Debugger plugin: load the core file named corefile. The parameter executable specifies the executable that produced the core file. If this parameter is omitted, PVRStudio will attempt to reconstruct it from the core file itself. This will fail for paths with more than about 80 characters. In such cases the executable parameter is mandatory. A kit can be specified by ID or name to point to non-default debuggers and sysroots.
-debug <executable>, server=<server:port>[,kit=<kit>]	Debugger plugin: attach to a debug server running on the port port on the server server. The parameter executable specifies a local copy of the executable the remote debug server is manipulating. A kit can be specified by ID or name to point to non-default debuggers and sysroots.
-wincrashevent <event-handle:pid>	Debugger plugin: Attach to crashed processes by using the specified event handle and process ID.
-customwizard-verbose	ProjectExplorer plugin: display additional information when loading custom wizards. For more information about custom wizards, see Adding New Custom Wizards
-lastsession	ProjectExplorer plugin: load the last session when PVRStudio starts. Open the projects and files that were open when you last exited PVRStudio. For more information about managing sessions, see Managing Sessions.
<session>	ProjectExplorer plugin: load the given session when PVRStudio starts. Open the projects and files that were open when you last exited PVRStudio. For more information about managing sessions, see Managing Sessions.

Using Custom Styles

PVRStudio is a Qt application, and therefore, it accepts the command line options that all Qt applications accept. For example, you can use the -style and -stylesheet options to apply custom styles and stylesheets. The styling is only applied during the current session.

Exercise caution when applying styles, as overriding the existing styling may make some items difficult to see. Also, setting a stylesheet may affect the text editor color scheme and the styling of the integrated Qt Designer.

You can also switch to a dark theme to customize the appearance of widgets, colors, and icons without using stylesheets.

Keyboard Shortcuts

PVRStudio provides various keyboard shortcuts to speed up your development process. In addition, you can specify your own keyboard shortcuts for some functions that can be easily performed with a mouse, and therefore do not appear in menus or have default keyboard shortcuts. For example, selecting and deleting words or lines in an editor.

To view all functions available in PVRStudio and the keyboard shortcuts defined for them, select Tools > Options > Environment > Keyboard. The shortcuts are listed by category. To find a keyboard shortcut in the list, enter a function name or shortcut in the Filter field.

The shortcuts that are displayed in red color are associated with several functions. PVRStudio executes the function that is available in the current context. If several functions are available for the same shortcut at a time, there is a conflict and PVRStudio cannot execute any function.

A keyboard shortcut might also conflict with a shortcut that a Window manager uses for its own purposes. In that case, PVRStudio shortcuts do not work. Typically, you can configure the shortcuts in the window manager, but if that is not allowed, you can change the PVRStudio shortcuts. For example, Unity on Ubuntu 11.10 uses F10 in its window manager, and therefore the default PVRStudio keyboard shortcut F10 (Step Over) does not work on that system.

Configuring Keyboard Shortcuts

To customize a keyboard shortcut:

1. Select Tools > Options > Environment > Keyboard.

2. Select a command from the list.

3. In the Key Sequence field, you have the following options:

   • Enter the shortcut key you want to associate with the selected command.

   • Select Record, press the keys to use as the keyboard shortcut, and select Stop Recording when you are done.

4. To revert to the default shortcut, select Reset.

PVRStudio allows you to use different keyboard shortcut mapping schemes:

• To import a keyboard shortcut mapping scheme, click Import and select the .kms file containing the keyboard shortcut mapping scheme you want to import.

• To export the current keyboard shortcut mapping scheme, click Export and select the location where you want to save the exported .kms file.

Default Keyboard Shortcuts

The following tables list the default keyboard shortcuts. They are categorized by actions.

General Keyboard Shortcuts

Action	Keyboard shortcut
Open file or project	Ctrl+O
New file or project	Ctrl+N
Open in external editor	Alt+V, Alt+I
Select all	Ctrl+A
Delete	Del
Cut	Ctrl+X
Copy	Ctrl+C
Paste	Ctrl+V
Redo	Ctrl+Y
Print	Ctrl+P
Save	Ctrl+S
Save all	Ctrl+Shift+S
Close window	Ctrl+W
Close all	Ctrl+Shift+W
Close current file	Ctrl+F4
Go back	Alt+Left
Go forward	Alt+Right
Go to line	Ctrl+L
Next open document in history	Ctrl+Shift+Tab
Go to other split	Ctrl+E, O
Previous open document in history	Ctrl+Tab
Activate Locator	Ctrl+K
Switch to Welcome mode	Ctrl+1
Switch to Edit mode	Ctrl+2
Switch to Design mode	Ctrl+3
Switch to Debug mode	Ctrl+4
Switch to Projects mode	Ctrl+5
Switch to Help mode	Ctrl+6
Toggle Issues pane	Alt+1 (Cmd+1 on macOS)
Toggle Search Results pane	Alt+2 (Cmd+2 on macOS)
Toggle Application Output pane	Alt+3 (Cmd+3 on macOS)
Toggle Compile Output pane	Alt+4 (Cmd+4 on macOS)
Toggle other output panes	Alt+number (Cmd+number on macOS) Where the number is the number of the output pane.
Activate Bookmarks pane	Alt+M
Activate File System pane	Alt+Y
Activate Open Documents pane	Alt+O
Maximize output panes	Alt+9
Move to next item in output panes	F6
Move to previous item in output panes	Shift+F6
Activate Projects pane	Alt+X
Full screen	Ctrl+Shift+F11
Toggle the sidebar	Alt+0 (Cmd+0 on macOS)
Undo	Ctrl+Z
Move to Edit mode In Edit mode: The first press moves focus to the editor The second press closes secondary windows	Esc
Exit PVRStudio	Ctrl+Q

Editing Keyboard Shortcuts

Action	Keyboard shortcut
Auto-indent selection	Ctrl+I
Collapse	Ctrl+<
Expand	Ctrl+>
Trigger a completion in this scope	Ctrl+Space
Copy line	Ctrl+Ins
Copy line down	Ctrl+Alt+Down
Copy line up	Ctrl+Alt+Up
Paste from the clipboard history	Ctrl+Shift+V Subsequent presses move you back in the history
Cut line	Shift+Del
Join lines	Ctrl+J
Insert line above current line	Ctrl+Shift+Enter
Insert line below current line	Ctrl+Enter
Decrease font size	Ctrl+- (Ctrl+Roll mouse wheel down)
Increase font size	Ctrl++ (Ctrl+Roll mouse wheel up)
Reset font size	Ctrl+0
Toggle Vim-style editing	Alt+V, Alt+V
Split	Ctrl+E, 2
Split side by side	Ctrl+E, 3
Remove all splits	Ctrl+E, 1
Remove current split	Ctrl+E, 0
Select all	Ctrl+A
Go to block end	Ctrl+]
Go to block start	Ctrl+[
Go to block end and select the lines between the current cursor position and the end of the block	Ctrl+Shift+]
Go to block start and select the lines between the current cursor position and the beginning of the block	Ctrl+Shift+[
Select the current block The second press extends the selection to the parent block. To enable this behavior, select Tools > Options > Text Editor > Behavior > Enable smart selection changing.	Ctrl+U
Undo the latest smart block selection	Ctrl+Alt+Shift+U
Move current line down	Ctrl+Shift+Down
Move current line up	Ctrl+Shift+Up
Trigger a refactoring action in this scope	Alt+Enter
Rewrap paragraph	Ctrl+E, R
Enable text wrapping	Ctrl+E, Ctrl+W
Toggle comment for selection	Ctrl+/
Visualize whitespace	Ctrl+E, Ctrl+V
Adjust size	Ctrl+J
Lay out in a grid	Ctrl+G
Lay out horizontally	Ctrl+H
Lay out vertically	Ctrl+L
Preview	Alt+Shift+R
Edit signals and slots	F4
Toggle bookmark	Ctrl+M
Go to next bookmark	Ctrl+.
Go to previous bookmark	Ctrl+,
Fetch snippet	Alt+C, Alt+F
Paste snippet	Alt+C, Alt+P
Find references to symbol under cursor	Ctrl+Shift+U
Follow symbol under cursor Works with namespaces, classes, functions, variables, include statements and macros	F2
Rename symbol under cursor	Ctrl+Shift+R
Switch between function declaration and definition	Shift+F2
Open type hierarchy	Ctrl+Shift+T
Switch between header and source file	F4
Turn selected text into lowercase	Alt+U
Turn selected text into uppercase	Alt+Shift+U
Run static checks on JavaScript code to find common problems	Ctrl+Shift+C
Find and replace	Ctrl+F
Find next	F3
Find previous	Shift+F3
Find next occurrence of selected text	Ctrl+F3
Find previous occurrence of selected text	Ctrl+Shift+F3
Replace next	Ctrl+=
Open advanced find	Ctrl+Shift+F
Record a text-editing macro	Alt+(
Stop recording a macro	Alt+)
Play last macro	Alt+R
Execute user actions in FakeVim mode	Alt+V, n, where n is the number of the user action, from 1 to 9

Emacs Shortcuts

You can specify shortcuts for executing actions in a way that is familiar to Emacs editor users. The actions are not bound to any key combinations by default. The following actions are available:

• Copy

• Cut

• Delete Character

• Exchange Cursor and Mark

• Go to File End

• Go to File Start

• Go to Line End

• Go to Line Start

• Go to Next Character

• Go to Next Line

• Go to Next Word

• Go to Previous Character

• Go to Previous Line

• Go to Previous Word

• Insert Line and Indent

• Kill Line

• Kill Word

• Mark

• Scroll Half Screen Down

• Scroll Half Screen Up

• Yank

Image Viewer Shortcuts

Action	Keyboard shortcut
Switch to background	Ctrl+[
Switch to outline	Ctrl+]
Zoom in	Ctrl++
Zoom out	Ctrl+-
Fit to screen	Ctrl+=
Original size	Ctrl+0

Debugging Keyboard Shortcuts

Action	Keyboard shortcut
Start or continue debugging	F5
Exit debugger	Shift+F5
Step over	F10
Step into	F11
Step out	Shift+F11
Toggle breakpoint	F9
Run to selected function	Ctrl+F6
Run to line	Ctrl+F10
Reverse direction	F12

Project Keyboard Shortcuts

Action	Keyboard shortcut
Build project	Ctrl+B
Build all	Ctrl+Shift+B
New project	Ctrl+Shift+N
Open project	Ctrl+Shift+O
Select the kit to build and run your project with	Ctrl+T
Run	Ctrl+R

Help Keyboard Shortcuts

Action	Keyboard shortcut
View context-sensitive help	F1
Activate contents in Help mode	Ctrl+T
Add bookmark in Help mode	Ctrl+M
Activate index in Help mode	Ctrl+I
Reset font size	Ctrl+0
Activate search in Help mode	Ctrl+S

Version Control Keyboard Shortcuts

Action	Version control system
	Bazaar	CVS	Git	Me rcurial	P erforce	Sub version
Add		Alt+C, Alt+A	Alt+G, Alt+A		Alt+P, Alt+A	Alt+S, Alt+A
Commit /Submit	Alt+Z, Alt+C	Alt+C, Alt+C	Alt+G, Alt+C	Alt+G, Alt+C	Alt+P, Alt+S	Alt+S, Alt+C
Diff	Alt+Z, Alt+D	Alt+C, Alt+D	Alt+G, Alt+D	Alt+G, Alt+D		Alt+S, Alt+D
Diff project			Alt+G, Alt+ Shift+D		Alt+P, Alt+D
Blame/A nnotate			Alt+G, Alt+B
Log/ Filelog	Alt+Z, Alt+L		Alt+G, Alt+L	Alt+G, Alt+L	Alt+P, Alt+F
Log project			Alt+G, Alt+K
Status	Alt+Z, Alt+S			Alt+G, Alt+S
Undo changes /Revert			Alt+G, Alt+U		Alt+P, Alt+R
Edit					Alt+P, Alt+E
Opened					Alt+P, Alt+O

Using External Tools

You can use external tools directly from PVRStudio. For example, the text editor for your system is preconfigured for use. You can change their default configurations and configure new tools.

To run the tools, select Tools > External, or use the x filter in the locator.

Configuring External Tools

You can change the configuration of preconfigured tools and configure additional tools in PVRStudio Options.

To configure external tools:

1. Select Tools > External > Configure.

2. Select Add > Add Tool to add a new tool. You can also select Add Category to add a new category.

3. In the Executable field, specify the executable to run. If the executable is found in your system PATH variable, do not specify the path to it.

4. In the Arguments field, specify optional arguments for running the executable.

5. In the Working directory field, specify the path to the working directory.

6. In the Output field, select how to handle output from the tool. You can ignore the output, view it in the General Messages output pane, or replace the selected text with the output in the code editor.

7. In the Error output field, select how to handle error messages from the tool.

8. In the Base environment field, select whether to run the tool in the system environment or the build environment or run environment of the active project. Select the build or run environment if the system environment does not contain the necessary PATH settings to find the tool chain, for example.

9. In the Environment field, select Change to modify environment variable values for build and run environments in the Edit Environment Changes dialog. For more information about how to add and remove variable values, see Batch Editing.

10. Select the Modifies current document check box to make sure that if the current document is modified by the tool, it is saved before the tool is run and reloaded after the tool finishes.

11. In the Input field, specify text that is passed as standard input to the tool.

The category and tool are added to the Tools > External menu.

If you change the configuration of preconfigured tools, you can later revert the changes by selecting the Reset button.

The tool configurations that you add and modify are stored in XML format in the user configuration folder. For example, ~/config/QtProject/qtcreator/externaltools on Linux and macOS and C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\QtProject\qtcreator\externaltools in Windows. To share a configuration with other users, copy an XML configuration file to the folder.

Showing Task List Files in Issues Pane

You can use code scanning and analysis tools to examine source code. These tools report issues for you to fix. PVRStudio enables you to load lists of issues into the Issues pane for easier navigation.

PVRStudio expects tasks to be defined in a simple line-based file format that is easy to generate using scripts. The scripts can either convert reports from other tools or create lists of issues in the task list format from code. For an example of a script that checks new lines of code and matches them against regular expressions to generate a task list, see scripts\mytasks.pl in the PVRStudio repository.

Managing Task List Entries

To open task list files in the Issues pane, choose File > Open. Right-click a task list entry to open a context menu that contains commands for managing the entry. You can copy or remove task list entries or navigate to the corresponding source code.

PVRStudio monitors the loaded files and displays the changes in the Issues pane. To keep the current entries in a task list, but stop checking for changes, select Stop Monitoring.

Task List File Format

The filename extension must be .tasks for PVRStudio to recognize a file as a task list file.

Each line in a task list file is treated as a tab-separated list of strings with \t, \n, and \\ used as escape characters. The strings are used to create one task per line. The lines can have one of the following formats:

• description - type\tdescription

• file\ttype\tdescription - file\tline\ttype\tdescription

The task type can have one of the following values:

• A string starting with err, which displays the error icon in the beginning of the line

• A string starting with warn, which displays the warning icon

• Any other value, which sets the task type to Unknown and does not display an icon

The values are not case sensitive.

Lines starting with the hash mark character (#) in the first column are ignored.

If the file path is given as a relative path, it is based on the parent directory of the task list file.

Using the Help Mode

PVRStudio comes fully integrated with documentation and examples using the Help plugin.

• To view documentation, switch to Help mode.

• To select and configure how the documentation is displayed in the Help mode, select Tools > Options > Help.

If the help HTML file does not use a style sheet, you can change the font family, style, and size in Tools > Options > Help > General.

By default, you can use the mouse scroll wheel to zoom help pages. To disable this feature, deselect the Enable scroll wheel zooming check box.

To switch to the editor context when you close the last help page, select the Return to editor on closing the last page check box.

Viewing Function Tooltips

To hide function tooltips by default, select Tools > Options > Text Editor > Behavior > Show help tooltips using the mouse > On Shift+Mouseover. You can still view the tooltips by pressing and holding down the Shift key.

To use a keyboard shortcut for viewing help tooltips, select Show help tooltips using keyboard shortcut (Alt).

Finding Information in Documentation

PVRStudio, and other 3rd party deliverables contain documentation as .qch files. All the documentation is accessible in the Help mode.

To find information in the documentation, select:

• Bookmarks to view a list of pages on which you have added bookmarks.

• Contents to see all the documentation installed on the development PC and to browse the documentation contents.

• Index to find information based on a list of keywords in all the installed documents.

• Open Pages to view a list of currently open documentation pages.

• Search to search from all the installed documents.

Adding Bookmarks to Help Pages

You can add bookmarks to useful help pages to easily find them later in the Bookmarks view. You can either use the page title as the bookmark or change it to any text. You can organize the bookmarks in folders in the view.

To add a bookmark to an open help page:

1. Click the image:: images/bookmark.png (Add Bookmark) button on the toolbar.

2. In the Add Bookmark dialog, click OK to save the page title as a bookmark in the selected folder.

To import and export bookmarks, select Tools > Options > Help > General > Import Bookmarks or Export Bookmarks.

Full-text Search

In the Search pane, you can use full-text search for finding a particular word in all the installed documents. Enter the term you are looking for, and select the Search button. All documents that contain the specified term are listed. The list is sorted by document version and the number of search hits that the documents contain. Select a document in the list to open it.

The following are examples of common search patterns:

• deep lists all the documents that contain the word deep. The search is not case sensitive.

• deep* lists all the documents that contain a word beginning with deep

• deep copy lists all documents that contain both deep and copy

• "deep copy" lists all documents that contain the phrase deep copy

Full-text search is based on indexing all the installed documents the first time when you open the Search pane. If you add or remove documents, PVRStudio recreates the index.

If you cannot find words that you know are there, indexing might not have been completed for some reason. To regenerate the index, click image:: images/reload_gray.png (Regenerate Index).

Punctuation is not included in indexed terms. To find terms that contain punctuation, such as domain names, use the asterisk as a wild card. For example, to find Pastebin.Com, enter the search term Pastebin*.

Adding External Documentation

You can display external documentation in the Help mode. To augment or replace the documentation that ships with PVRStudio:

1. Create a .qch file from your documentation.

   For information on how to prepare your documentation and create a .qch file, see The Qt Help Framework.

2. To add the .qch file to PVRStudio, select Tools > Options > Help > Documentation > Add.

Detaching the Help Window

By default, context-sensitive help is opened in a window next to the code editor when you press F1. If there is not enough vertical space, the help opens in the full-screen help mode.

You can specify that the help always opens in full-screen mode or is detached to an external window. Select Tools > Options > Help > General and specify settings for displaying context-sensitive help in the On context help field. To detach the help window, select Always Show in External Window.

Selecting the Start Page

You can select the page to display when you open the Help mode in the Tools > Options > Help > General > On help start field. To display the page and help panes that were open when you exited the mode, select the Show My Tabs from Last Session option. However, Web pages are not opened, because loading them would slow down opening the Help mode.

To display a particular page, select Show My Home Page, and specify the page in the Home Page field.

To display a blank page, select the Show a Blank Page option. You can also select the Use Blank Page button to set a blank page as your home page.

Using Documentation Filters

You can filter the documents displayed in the Help mode to find relevant information faster. Select a filter from a list of filters. The contents of the Index and Contents pane in the sidebar change accordingly.

You can modify the filters to include external documentation, for example, or you can define your own filters. To construct filters, you can use the filter attributes that are specified in the documentation. Each document contains at least one filter attribute. If several documents contain the same filter attribute, such as tools, you can use that attribute to include all those documents.

To add filters:

1. Select Tools > Options > Help > Filters > Add.

2. Enter a name for the filter and press OK.

3. In Attributes, select the documents that you want to include in the filter.

   

4. Click OK.

5. In the Help mode, select the filter in the list of filters to see the filtered documentation in the sidebar.

To modify filters, select a filter in Filters, select the attributes, and then click Apply.

To remove filters, select them in Filters, and click Remove.