How to generate compile_commands.json for a C++ Bazel project

Question

In a C++ Bazel project, I want to use tools like Clang Tools or RTags, etc.

For that I need to generate a compile_commands.json file.

The solution is trivial for CMake with the CMAKE_EXPORT_COMPILE_COMMANDS.

For simple Makefiles you can still use the Bear tool.

However AFAIK there is no built-in solution for C++ Bazel projects.

Answer 1

Extra information:

• Bear is currently not working with Bazel: this issue
• a good documentation concerning compile_command.json can be found here.

Suggested solutions:

After Googling about that I found gist:Basics of generating a compile_commands.json file with Bazel.

It works fine and I have written an automated solution with bash scripts <- my solution

Alternative:

Also on GitHub, you can find:

• Kythe: uses Bazel action listeners
• github.com/grailbio/bazel-compilation-database: provides a script and a bazel rule.

Answer 2

To add to the alternatives listed by other answers...

Hedron's Compile Commands Extractor for Bazel (GitHub) was just released and does what you want, I think. From the README, its goal is to "provide Bazel users cross-platform autocomplete for (Objective-)C(++) to make development more efficient and fun[..., and] export Bazel build actions into the compile_commands.json format that enables great tooling decoupled from Bazel."

Disclaimer: I work for the company that makes hedronvision/bazel-compile-commands-extractor... but I use it every day, and in my personal opinion it is very good!