Summary of language configuration options and properties

Language properties

Since PMD 7.0.0, languages may be directly configured via properties. The properties can be specified via environment variables or programmatically.

The name of the environment variables follow the following pattern, completely in uppercase:

PMD_<LanguageId>_<PropertyName>

LanguageId is the short name of the language, which is being configured. This is e.g. “JAVA” or “APEX”.

PropertyName is the name of the property converted to SCREAMING_SNAKE_CASE, that is set to a specific value, e.g. “SUPPRESS_MARKER” for “suppressMarker”.

As a convention, properties whose name start with an x are internal and may be removed or changed without notice.

Programmatically, the language properties can be set on PMDConfiguration before using the PmdAnalyzer instance to start the analysis:

PMDConfiguration configuration = new PMDConfiguration();
LanguagePropertyBundle properties = configuration.getLanguageProperties(LanguageRegistry.PMD.getLanguageById("java"));
properties.setProperty(LanguagePropertyBundle.SUPPRESS_MARKER, "PMD");

Common language properties

All languages support the following properties:

  • suppressMarker: A string to detect suppression comments. The default is NOPMD, so e.g. in Java, a comment // NOPMD will suppress warnings on the same line.

    This property can also be set via the CLI option --suppress-marker. The CLI option applies for all languages and overrides any language property.

  • version: The language version PMD should use when parsing source code. If not specified, the default version of the language will be used.

    This property can also be set via the CLI option --use-version.

Java language properties

The Java language can be configured with the following properties:

  • auxClasspath: Classpath on which to find compiled classes for the language

    This property can also be set via the CLI option --aux-classpath.

    Environment variable: PMD_JAVA_AUX_CLASSPATH

  • xTypeInferenceLogging: Verbosity of type inference logging, possible values DISABLED, SIMPLE, VERBOSE.

    Environment variable: PMD_JAVA_X_TYPE_INFERENCE_LOGGING

Apex language properties

  • rootDirectory: With this property the root directory of the Salesforce metadata, where sfdx-project.json resides, is specified. ApexLink can then load all the classes in the project and figure out, whether a method is used or not.

    This property is needed for UnusedMethod.

    Environment variable: PMD_APEX_ROOT_DIRECTORY

VisualForce language properties

  • apexDirectories: Comma separated list of directories for Apex classes. Absolute or relative to the Visualforce directory. Default is ../classes. Specifying an empty string will disable data type resolution for Apex Controller properties.

    Environment variable: PMD_VF_APEX_DIRECTORIES

  • objectsDirectories: Comma separated list of directories for Custom Objects. Absolute or relative to the Visualforce directory. Default is ../objects. Specifying an empty string will disable data type resolution for Custom Object fields.

    Environment variable: PMD_VF_OBJECTS_DIRECTORIES

Tags: languages