This GitHub Action integrates continuous code quality and security analysis directly into your workflow. It scans your project with either SonarQube Server or SonarQube Cloud, helping you catch bugs, security vulnerabilities, and code smells automatically within your CI/CD pipeline. This action is the official method for scanning C, C++, Objective-C, and Dart projects via GitHub Actions.
SonarQube Server and SonarQube Cloud are widely used static analysis solutions for continuous code quality, security inspection, and fix remediation. The platform supports over in 30+ languages, frameworks, and IaC platforms, including Java, JavaScript, TypeScript, C#, Python, C, C++, and many more.
You must have a project already set up on SonarQube Cloud or SonarQube Server. This action performs the analysis, but the project must exist on the platform to receive the results.
For more information, see Key Requirements.
The action needs two key variables to connect to the SonarQube instance and run the analysis. These should be stored as GitHub secrets or variables for security.
• SONAR_TOKEN : The authentication token required to access the SonarQube instance. This is a mandatory secret for all use cases.
• SONAR_HOST_URL : The URL of the SonarQube Server. This is required for self-hosted SonarQube Server but not needed for SonarQube Cloud.
For more information, see Configuration.
Create or update your CI pipeline to run the scan action:
on:
# Trigger analysis when pushing to your main branches, and when creating a pull request.
push:
branches:
- main
- master
- develop
- 'releases/**'
pull_request:
types: [opened, synchronize, reopened]
name: Main Workflow
jobs:
sonarqube:
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
steps:
- uses: actions/checkout@v4
with:
# Disabling shallow clones is recommended for improving the relevancy of reporting
fetch-depth: 0
- name: SonarQube Scan
uses: SonarSource/sonarqube-scan-action@<action version or sha1> # Ex: v4.1.0 or sha1, See the latest version at https://github.com/marketplace/actions/official-sonarqube-scan
env:
SONAR_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.SONAR_TOKEN }}Create a configuration file in the root directory of the project and name it sonar-project.properties:
sonar.organization=<replace with your SonarQube Cloud organization key>
sonar.projectKey=<replace with the key generated when setting up the project on SonarQube Cloud>
# relative paths to source directories. More details and properties are described
# at https://docs.sonarsource.com/sonarqube-cloud/advanced-setup/analysis-scope/
sonar.sources=srcFor other workflows, see Workflow Examples.
This GitHub Action will not work for all technologies. If you are in one of the following situations, you should use the following alternatives:
- Your code is built with Maven. Read the documentation about our SonarScanner for Maven in SonarQube Server and Cloud.
- Your code is built with Gradle. Read the documentation about our SonarScanner for Gradle in SonarQube Server and Cloud.
- You want to analyze a .NET solution. Read the documentation about our SonarScanner for .NET in SonarQube Server and Cloud.
Also, do not use this GitHub action if:
- You want to run the action on C, C++, or Objective-C projects on a 32-bits system - build wrappers support only 64-bits OS.
To use this GitHub Action you need to meet the following prerequisites for your choosen SonarQube platform.
- Create your account on SonarQube Cloud. Sign up for free now if it's not already the case!
- Set up a repository to be analyzed in just one click.
- Your SonarQube Server instance must be accessible from GitHub, and you will need an access token to run the analysis (more information below under Environment variables).
- To run an analysis on your code, you first need to set up your project on SonarQube Server.
Read more information on how to analyze your code here.
You can change the analysis base directory by using the optional input projectBaseDir like this:
- uses: SonarSource/sonarqube-scan-action@<action version or sha1>
with:
projectBaseDir: app/srcIn case you need to specify the version of the Sonar Scanner, you can use the scannerVersion option:
- uses: SonarSource/sonarqube-scan-action@<action version or sha1>
with:
scannerVersion: 6.2.0.4584In case you need to add additional analysis parameters, and you do not wish to set them in the sonar-project.properties file, you can use the args option:
- uses: SonarSource/sonarqube-scan-action@<action version>
with:
projectBaseDir: app/src
args: >
-Dsonar.organization=my-organization # For SonarQube Cloud only
"-Dsonar.projectName=My Project"
-Dsonar.projectKey=my-projectkey
-Dsonar.python.coverage.reportPaths=coverage.xml
-Dsonar.sources=lib/
-Dsonar.tests=tests/
-Dsonar.test.exclusions=tests/**
-Dsonar.verbose=trueNote
In version 6, the way the args option is handled has been changed to prevent command injection.
As a result, we no longer support the full bash syntax.
This means there is now a much more restricted use of quoting and escaping compared to older versions of the action.
Example:
with:
args: >
-testing test
-valid=true
--quotes "test quotes" "nested \'quotes\'"
-Dsonar.property="some value"
"-Dsonar.property=some value" will be parsed as the following array of strings:
[
'-testing',
'test',
'-valid=true',
'--quotes',
'test quotes', # Surrounding quotes are removed
'nested \'quotes\'',
'-Dsonar.property="some value"', # Internal quotes are NOT removed, contrary to the bash syntax
'-Dsonar.property=some value', # This is the proper way to pass scanner arguments with spaces
]
You can also specify the URL where to retrieve the SonarScanner CLI from.
The specified URL overrides the default address: https://binaries.sonarsource.com/Distribution/sonar-scanner-cli.
This can be useful when the runner executing the action is self-hosted and has regulated or no access to the Internet:
- uses: SonarSource/sonarqube-scan-action@<action version>
with:
scannerBinariesUrl: https://my.custom.binaries.url.com/Distribution/sonar-scanner-cli/More information about possible analysis parameters can be found:
- in the Analysis parameters page of the SonarQube Server documentation
- in the Analysis parameters page of the SonarQube Cloud documentation
SONAR_TOKEN– Required this is the token used to authenticate access to SonarQube. You can read more about security tokens in the documentation of SonarQube Server and Cloud. You can set theSONAR_TOKENenvironment variable in the "Secrets" settings page of your repository, or you can add them at the level of your GitHub organization (recommended).SONAR_HOST_URL– this tells the scanner where SonarQube Server is hosted. You can set theSONAR_HOST_URLenvironment variable in the "Variables" settings page of your repository, or you can add them at the level of your GitHub organization (recommended). Not needed for SonarQube Cloud.SONAR_ROOT_CERT– Holds an additional certificate (in PEM format) that is used to validate the certificate of SonarQube Server or of a secured proxy to SonarQube (Server or Cloud). You can set theSONAR_ROOT_CERTenvironment variable in the "Secrets" settings page of your repository, or you can add them at the level of your GitHub organization (recommended).
Here is an example of how you can pass a certificate (in PEM format) to the Scanner truststore:
- uses: SonarSource/sonarqube-scan-action@<action version>
env:
SONAR_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.SONAR_TOKEN }}
SONAR_HOST_URL: ${{ vars.SONAR_HOST_URL }}
SONAR_ROOT_CERT: ${{ secrets.SONAR_ROOT_CERT }}If your source code file names contain special characters that are not covered by the locale range of en_US.UTF-8, you can configure your desired locale like this:
- uses: SonarSource/sonarqube-scan-action@<action version>
env:
SONAR_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.SONAR_TOKEN }}
SONAR_HOST_URL: ${{ vars.SONAR_HOST_URL }} # or https://sonarcloud.io
LC_ALL: "ru_RU.UTF-8"Project metadata, including the location of the sources to be analyzed, must be declared in the file sonar-project.properties in the base directory:
sonar.organization=<replace with your SonarQube Cloud organization key>
sonar.projectKey=<replace with the key generated when setting up the project on SonarQube Cloud>
# relative paths to source directories. More details and properties are described
# at https://docs.sonarsource.com/sonarqube-cloud/advanced-setup/analysis-scope/
sonar.sources=srcFor projects that:
- do not contain C, C++, or Objective-C, and
- for C, C++, Objective-C projects that don't use Build Wrapper
the workflow, usually declared under .github/workflows/build.yml, looks like the following:
on:
# Trigger analysis when pushing to your main branches, and when creating a pull request.
push:
branches:
- main
- master
- develop
- 'releases/**'
pull_request:
types: [opened, synchronize, reopened]
name: Main Workflow
jobs:
sonarqube:
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
steps:
- uses: actions/checkout@v4
with:
# Disabling shallow clones is recommended for improving the relevancy of reporting
fetch-depth: 0
- name: SonarQube Scan
uses: SonarSource/sonarqube-scan-action@<action version or sha1> # Ex: v4.1.0 or sha1, See the latest version at https://github.com/marketplace/actions/official-sonarqube-scan
env:
SONAR_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.SONAR_TOKEN }}For C, C++, and Objective-C projects relying on Build Wrapper to generate the compilation database, the workflow requires additional steps to download the Build Wrapper and invoke it:
# Trigger analysis when pushing to your main branches, and when creating a pull request.
push:
branches:
- main
- master
- develop
- 'releases/**'
pull_request:
types: [opened, synchronize, reopened]
name: Main Workflow
jobs:
sonarqube:
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
env:
BUILD_WRAPPER_OUT_DIR: build_wrapper_output_directory # Directory where build-wrapper output will be placed
steps:
- uses: actions/checkout@v4
with:
# Disabling shallow clone is recommended for improving relevancy of reporting
fetch-depth: 0
- name: Install Build Wrapper
uses: SonarSource/sonarqube-scan-action/install-build-wrapper@<action version>
- name: Run Build Wrapper
run: |
# Here goes your compilation wrapped with Build Wrapper
# For more information, see https://docs.sonarsource.com/sonarqube-cloud/advanced-setup/languages/c-family/prerequisites/#using-build-wrapper
# build-preparation steps
# build-wrapper-linux-x86-64 --out-dir ${{ env.BUILD_WRAPPER_OUT_DIR }} build-command
- name: SonarQube Scan
uses: SonarSource/sonarqube-scan-action@<action version or sha1>
env:
SONAR_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.SONAR_TOKEN }}
SONAR_ROOT_CERT: ${{ secrets.SONAR_ROOT_CERT }}
with:
# Consult https://docs.sonarsource.com/sonarqube-server/latest/analyzing-source-code/scanners/sonarscanner/ for more information and options
args: >
--define "sonar.cfamily.compile-commands=${{ env.BUILD_WRAPPER_OUT_DIR }}/compile_commands.json" See also example configurations of C++ projects for SonarQube Cloud.
Project metadata, including the location of the sources to be analyzed, can be declared in the file sonar-project.properties in the base directory:
sonar.projectKey=<replace with the key generated when setting up the project on SonarQube Server>
# relative paths to source directories. More details and properties are described
# at https://docs.sonarsource.com/sonarqube-server/latest/project-administration/analysis-scope/
sonar.sources=srcFor projects that:
- do not contain C, C++, or Objective-C, and
- for C, C++, Objective-C projects that don't use Build Wrapper
the workflow, usually declared under
.github/workflows/build.yml, looks like the following:
on:
# Trigger analysis when pushing to your main branches, and when creating a pull request.
push:
branches:
- main
- master
- develop
- 'releases/**'
pull_request:
types: [opened, synchronize, reopened]
name: Main Workflow
jobs:
sonarqube:
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
steps:
- uses: actions/checkout@v4
with:
# Disabling shallow clones is recommended for improving the relevancy of reporting
fetch-depth: 0
- name: SonarQube Scan
uses: SonarSource/sonarqube-scan-action@<action version or sha1> # Ex: v4.1.0, or sha1, See the latest version at https://github.com/marketplace/actions/official-sonarqube-scan
env:
SONAR_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.SONAR_TOKEN }}
SONAR_HOST_URL: ${{ vars.SONAR_HOST_URL }}This subsection would contain the more complex YAML configuration for projects that require the build wrapper to generate a compilation database. The example would detail the three-step process: checking out the code, installing the build wrapper, and then running the SonarQube scan with the appropriate parameters.
For C, C++, and Objective-C projects relying on Build Wrapper to generate the compilation database, the workflow requires additional steps to download the Build Wrapper and invoke it:
# Trigger analysis when pushing to your main branches, and when creating a pull request.
push:
branches:
- main
- master
- develop
- 'releases/**'
pull_request:
types: [opened, synchronize, reopened]
name: Main Workflow
jobs:
sonarqube:
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
env:
BUILD_WRAPPER_OUT_DIR: build_wrapper_output_directory # Directory where build-wrapper output will be placed
steps:
- uses: actions/checkout@v4
with:
# Disabling shallow clone is recommended for improving relevancy of reporting
fetch-depth: 0
- name: Install Build Wrapper
uses: SonarSource/sonarqube-scan-action/install-build-wrapper@<action version>
env:
SONAR_HOST_URL: ${{ vars.SONAR_HOST_URL }}
- name: Run Build Wrapper
run: |
# Here goes your compilation wrapped with Build Wrapper
# For more information, see https://docs.sonarsource.com/sonarqube-server/latest/analyzing-source-code/languages/c-family/prerequisites/#using-buildwrapper
# build-preparation steps
# build-wrapper-linux-x86-64 --out-dir ${{ env.BUILD_WRAPPER_OUT_DIR }} build-command
- name: SonarQube Scan
uses: SonarSource/sonarqube-scan-action@<action version or sha1>
env:
SONAR_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.SONAR_TOKEN }}
SONAR_HOST_URL: ${{ vars.SONAR_HOST_URL }}
SONAR_ROOT_CERT: ${{ secrets.SONAR_ROOT_CERT }}
with:
# Consult https://docs.sonarsource.com/sonarqube-server/latest/analyzing-source-code/scanners/sonarscanner/ for more information and options
args: >
--define sonar.cfamily.compile-commands="${{ env.BUILD_WRAPPER_OUT_DIR }}/compile_commands.json" If you are using SonarQube Server 10.5 or earlier, use sonar.cfamily.build-wrapper-output instead of sonar.cfamily.compile-commands in the args property of the last step, as Build Wrapper does not generate a compile_commands.json file before SonarQube Server 10.6.
It should look like this:
with:
args: >
--define "sonar.cfamily.build-wrapper-output=${{ env.BUILD_WRAPPER_OUT_DIR }}"See also example configurations of C++ projects for SonarQube Server.
When running the action in a self-hosted runner or container, please ensure that the following programs are installed:
- curl or wget
- unzip
The sonarqube-scan-action/install-build-wrapper action installs coreutils if run on macOS.
To provide feedback (requesting a feature or reporting a bug) please post on the SonarSource Community Forum page for SonarQube Server or SonarQube Cloud.
Container images built with this project include third-party materials.
![@dependabot[bot]](https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/in/29110?s=64&v=4){kind=small}
