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How to: Create or Update Standard Code Analysis Check-in Policies

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Applies to: yesVisual Studio noVisual Studio for Mac

Note

This article applies to Visual Studio 2017. If you're looking for the latest Visual Studio documentation, see Visual Studio documentation. We recommend upgrading to the latest version of Visual Studio. Download it here

You can require that code analysis be run on all code projects in an Azure DevOps project by using the code analysis check-in policy. Requiring code analysis can improve the quality of the code that is checked into the code base.

Note

This feature is available only if you are using Team Foundation Server.

Code analysis check-in policies are set in the project settings and apply to each code project. Code analysis runs are configured for code projects in the project (.xxproj) file for the code project. Code analysis runs are performed on the local computer. When you enable a code analysis check-in policy, files in a code project that are to be checked in must be compiled after their last edit and a code analysis run that contains, at a minimum, the rules in the project settings must be performed on the computer where the changes have been made.

  • For managed code, you set the check-in policy by specifying a rule set that contains a subset of the code analysis rules.

  • For C/C++ code, in Visual Studio 2017 version 15.6 and earlier, the check-in policy requires that all code analysis rules are run. You can add pre-processor directives to disable specific rules for the individual code projects in your Azure DevOps project. In 15.7 and later, you can use /analyze:ruleset to specify which rules to run. For more information, see Using Rule Sets to Specify the C++ Rules to Run.

After you specify a check-in policy for managed code, team members can synchronize their code analysis settings for code projects to the Azure DevOps project policy settings.

To open the check-in policy editor

  1. In Team Explorer, right-click the project name, point to Project Settings, and then click Source Control.

  2. In the Source Control dialog box, select the Check-in Policy tab.

  3. Do one of the following:

    • Click Add to create a new check-in policy.

    • Double-click the existing Code Analysis item in the Policy Type list to change the policy.

To set policy options

Select or clear the following options:

Option Description
Enforce check-in to only contain files that are part of current solution. Code analysis can run only on files specified in solution and project configuration files. This policy guarantees that all code that is part of a solution is analyzed.
Enforce C/C++ Code Analysis (/analyze) Requires that all C or C++ projects be built with the /analyze compiler option to run code analysis before they can be checked in.
Enforce Code Analysis for Managed Code Requires that all managed projects run code analysis and build before they can be checked in.

To specify a managed rule set

From the Run this rule set list, use one of the following methods:

  • Select a Microsoft standard rule set.

  • Select a custom rule set by clicking <Select Rule Set from Source Control...>. Then, type the version control path of the rule set in the source control browser. The syntax of a version control path is:

    $/ TeamProjectName / VersionControlPath

For more information about how to create and implement a custom check-in policy rule set, see Implement Custom Check-in Policies for Managed Code.

See also