Archicheck

Archicheck is a command line tool for ensuring that high level architecture of C and C++ projects are maintained during development. It is intended to be used in conjuction with continuous integration tools like GitLab CI.

Archicheck recursively scans header files labeled with a special // @level tag, and checks to make sure that none of the imports are more abstract than the importer. That is to say, it enforces the inversion principle.

Basic Usage

1. Install archicheck globally with npm install -g archicheck
2. Add a // @level 3 comment somewhere in each of your header files
   • You may use any number.
   • 1 represents the top level of your app, the most abstract
   • larger numbers represent layers further down in the app architecture
3. Call archicheck on the directory containing your headers. archicheck headers
   • It will be scanned recursively looking for headers with #include "somelibrary.h"
   • Imports of the form <somelibrary> will be ignored
   • It will fail if it finds a header without a // @level comment
   • It will fail if it cannot locate an imported header
   • It will fail if any header attempts to import header with a lower level lower than its own

Integration with GitLab CI

In your .gitlab-ci.yml file, add a new build using an image that contains node. Within node, install archicheck and run it on your headers directory.

build:osx:
    stage: test
    script: 
      - npm install -g archicheck
      - archicheck headers 

Advanced

No functionality currently exists for ignoring specific files or directories, automatically scanning project include paths for headers outside of the project, or ignoring files without a // @level comment. If interest is expressed in these features I will add them.