Visual Studio Code Analysis Settings

I've just spent the last week or so working with Code Analysis for my Visual Studio 2010 projects.  I still haven't figured out if I'm using Visual Studio's built in Code Analysis tool or FxCop 10.0, because the two tools share a lot of the same engine and rulesets.  At any rate, one of the pain points I had to work through was ensuring that the configuration settings between my Visual Studio configurations were the same.  Strangely enough, I had more confidence in my changes when manually editing the csproj files in Notepad++ than from Visual Studio -- it seemed like each configuration had slightly different settings, and being able to see the msbuild settings seemed to make more sense.

During this process, I found it quite frustrating that none of the CodeAnalysis settings that are configurable from the csproj schema were documented online.  However, the intellisense for the schema is quite good.  The schema is located at: <Program Files>\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\Xml\Schemas\1033\MSBuild\Microsoft.Build.CommonTypes.xsd

Most of the settings generated by Visual Studio are often the default values and can be discarded.

For my reference, here's the documentation, lifted from the schema:

Project Element	Description
CodeAnalysisAdditionalOptions	Additional options to pass to the Code Analysis command line tool.
CodeAnalysisApplyLogFileXsl	Indicates whether to apply the XSL style sheet specified in $(CodeAnalysisLogFileXsl) to the Code Analysis report. This report is specified in $(CodeAnalysisLogFile). The default is false.
CodeAnalysisConsoleXsl	Path to the XSL style sheet that will be applied to the Code Analysis console output. The default is an empty string (''), which causes Code Analysis to use its default console output.
CodeAnalysisCulture	Culture to use for Code Analysis spelling rules, for example, 'en-US' or 'en-AU'. The default is the current user interface language for Windows.
CodeAnalysisDependentAssemblyPaths	Additional reference assembly paths to pass to the Code Analysis command line tool. A fully qualified path to a directory containing reference assemblies to be used by Code Analysis.
CodeAnalysisDictionary	Code Analysis custom dictionaries.  Semicolon-separated list of Code Analysis custom dictionaries. Wildcards are allowed.
CodeAnalysisFailOnMissingRules	Indicates whether Code Analysis should fail if a rule or rule set is missing. The default is false.
CodeAnalysisForceOutput	Indicates whether Code Analysis generates a report file, even when there are no active warnings or errors. The default is true.
CodeAnalysisGenerateSuccessFile	Indicates whether Code Analysis generates a '$(CodeAnalysisInputAssembly).lastcodeanalysissucceeded' file in the output folder when no build-breaking errors occur. The default is true.
CodeAnalysisIgnoreBuiltInRules	Indicates whether Code Analysis will ignore the default rule directories when searching for rules. The default is false.
CodeAnalysisIgnoreBuiltInRuleSets	Indicates whether Code Analysis will ignore the default rule set directories when searching for rule sets. The default is false.
CodeAnalysisIgnoreInvalidTargets	Indicates whether Code Analysis should silently fail when analyzing invalid assemblies, such as those without managed code. The default is true.
CodeAnalysisIgnoreGeneratedCode	Indicates whether Code Analysis should fail silently when it analyzes invalid assemblies, such as those without managed code. The default is true.
CodeAnalysisImport	Code Analysis projects (*.fxcop) or reports to import. Semicolon-separated list of Code Analysis projects (*.fxcop) or reports to import. Wildcards are allowed.
CodeAnalysisInputAssembly	Path to the assembly to be analyzed by Code Analysis. The default is '$(OutDir)$(TargetName)$(TargetExt)'.
CodeAnalysisLogFile	Path to the output file for the Code Analysis report. The default is '$(CodeAnalysisInputAssembly).CodeAnalysisLog.xml'.
CodeAnalysisLogFileXsl	Path to the XSL style sheet to reference in the Code Analysis output report. This report is specified in $(CodeAnalysisLogFile). The default is an empty string ('').
CodeAnalysisModuleSuppressionsFile	Name of the file, without the path, where Code Analysis project-level suppressions are stored. The default is 'GlobalSuppressions$(DefaultLanguageSourceExtension)'.
CodeAnalysisOverrideRuleVisibilities	Indicates whether to run all overridable Code Analysis rules against all targets. This will cause specific rules, such as those within the Design and Naming categories, to run against both public and internal APIs, instead of only public APIs. The default is false.
CodeAnalysisOutputToConsole	Indicates whether to output Code Analysis warnings and errors to the console. The default is false.
CodeAnalysisVerbose	Indicates whether to output verbose Code Analysis diagnostic info to the console. The default is false.
CodeAnalysisPath	Path to the Code Analysis installation folder. The default is '$(VSINSTALLDIR)\Team Tools\Static Analysis Tools\FxCop'.
CodeAnalysisPlatformPath	Path to the .NET Framework folder that contains platform assemblies, such as mscorlib.dll and System.dll. The default is an empty string ('').
CodeAnalysisProject	Path to the Code Analysis project (*.fxcop) to load. The default is an empty string ('').
CodeAnalysisQuiet	Indicates whether to suppress all Code Analysis console output other than errors and warnings. This applies when $(CodeAnalysisOutputToConsole) is true. The default is false.
CodeAnalysisRuleAssemblies	Semicolon-separated list of paths either to Code Analysis rule assemblies or to folders that contain Code Analysis rule assemblies. The paths are in the form '[+|-][!][file|folder]', where '+' enables all rules in rule assembly, '-' disables all rules in rule assembly, and '!' causes all rules in rule assembly to be treated as errors. For example '+D:\Projects\Rules\NamingRules.dll;+!D:\Projects\Rules\SecurityRules.dll'. The default is '$(CodeAnalysisPath)\Rules'.
CodeAnalysisRuleDirectories	Semicolon-separated list of directories in which to search for rules when resolving a rule set. The default is '$(CodeAnalysisPath)\Rules' unless the CodeAnalysisIgnoreBuiltInRules property is set to true.
CodeAnalysisRules	Semicolon-separated list of Code Analysis rules. The rules are in the form '[+|-][!]Category#CheckId', where '+' enables the rule, '-' disables the rule, and '!' causes the rule to be treated as an error. For example, '-Microsoft.Naming#CA1700;+!Microsoft.Naming#CA1701'. The default is an empty string ('') which enables all rules.
CodeAnalysisRuleSet	A .ruleset file which contains a list of rules to run during analysis. The string can be a full path, a path relative to the project file, or a file name. If a file name is specified, the CodeAnalysisRuleSetDirectories property will be searched to find the file. The default is an empty string ('').
CodeAnalysisRuleSetDirectories	Semicolon-separated list of directories in which to search for rule sets. The default is '$(VSINSTALLDIR)\Team Tools\Static Analysis Tools\Rule Sets' unless the CodeAnalysisIgnoreBuiltInRuleSets property is set to true.
CodeAnalysisSaveMessagesToReport	Comma-separated list of the type ('Active', 'Excluded', or 'Absent') of warnings and errors to save to the output report file. The default is 'Active'.
CodeAnalysisSearchGlobalAssemblyCache	Indicates whether Code Analysis should search the Global Assembly Cache (GAC) for missing references that are encountered during analysis. The default is true.
CodeAnalysisSummary	Indicates whether to output a Code Analysis summary to the console after analysis. The default is false.
CodeAnalysisTimeout	The time, in seconds, that Code Analysis should wait for analysis of a single item to complete before it aborts analysis. Specify 0 to cause Code Analysis to wait indefinitely. The default is 120.
CodeAnalysisTreatWarningsAsErrors	Indicates whether to treat all Code Analysis warnings as errors. The default is false.
CodeAnalysisUpdateProject	Indicates whether to update the Code Analysis project (*.fxcop) specified in $(CodeAnalysisProject). This applies when there are changes during analysis. The default is false.
CodeAnalysisUseTypeNameInSuppression	Indicates whether to include the name of the rule when Code Analysis emits a suppression. The default is true.
RunCodeAnalysis	Indicates whether to run Code Analysis during the build.

As this has been a fun week dealing with FxCop, expect to see a few more posts related to the above settings.  Stay right here and click refresh endlessly, or subscribe to the rss feed.

Happy coding.