Objective-C syntax checker

Question

Is there an Objective-C syntax checker?

I have tried gcc -fsyntax-only but it is not really 'syntax only'. It still produces errors if run on an individual implementation file which has references to external frameworks.

I am looking for something that can perform a syntax check on individual header or implementation files without attempting to link or produce object files.

Can gcc do this with additional flags I am unaware of, or is there another tool up to this task?

I want to do this from the command-line. Can xcodebuild do this for an individual file? Running xcodebuild for the entire project to check the syntax of one file is a bit much.

Answer 1

You can compile a single file in Xcode[1] using Build->Compile (cmd-K) which is effectively a syntax check (there's no linking step).

[1] I assume you're using Xcode, as there's little point in using Objective-C without OS X (really the Cocoa frameworks).

Answer 2

You could try using clang -fsyntax-only instead, especially if you're using 10.6/Xcode 3.2. Clang/LLVM has much better separation between the parser and the other parts of the compiler chain. You can find clang in /Developer/usr/bin.

Answer 3

There's no way for it to check the syntax without it knowing about the header files for the frameworks you are using. You need to use the -framework flag to include the relevant header files.

Answer 4

So after trawling through the gcc man page I discovered the -F flag which lets you add a framework directory to the list of directories gcc searches for header files.

This solves my issue.

Use it like this: gcc -fsyntax-only -ObjC -F/Path/To/A/Framework -F/Path/To/Another/Framework File.m