-- Getting Started --
There are only a few things you need to do to get up and running using the Checkstyle
plug-in. The first thing is to understand a few basic concepts about how the plug-in
works.
Basic Concepts
The Checkstyle Plug-in uses a project builder to check your project files with
Checkstyle. So whenever you build your project your files will be checked by Checkstyle
as well. This goes so far that even if you edit a single file in your Eclipse
editor this file will immediately get checked by Checkstyle on file save (assuming the
Eclipse auto-build feature is enabled) - giving you immediate feedback about the changes
you made. To use a simple analogy - the Checkstyle Plug-in works very much like a
compiler but instead of producing .class files it produces warnings where your
code violates the Checkstyle rules. The violations Checkstyle finds in your code
are accessible in the Eclipse Problems View and are additionally annotated in the code
editor.
The set of rules used to check your code is not fixed but highly configurable. A
Check Configuration specifies which check rules you want to inspect your code, the
configuration settings for each rule, and the severity level of the message if the rule
finds a problem. Once defined a Check Configuration can be used across multiple
projects. The Checkstyle Plug-in comes with one Check Configuration already defined.
You can create own Check Configurations using the comfortable Check Configuration
Editor that comes with the plug-in or even use an existing Checkstyle Configuration file
from an external location.
Got it, how to go on from here?
To learn how to set up a project to use the
Checkstyle Plug-in read here - how to create your own check configuration read here .
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