Visual Studio CMake build log adds project path and breaks error parsing

Question

I managed to set up PC-Lint as a custom target for my CMake project that is usable in Visual Studio 2019.

add_custom_target( PROJECT_LINT
    COMMAND C:/pc_lint/Lint-nt +v -u project_opts.lnt ${PROJECT_SOURCE_FILES}
    WORKING_DIRECTORY ${LINT_DIR}
)

This target can be built with Visual Studio just fine and PC-Lint works as it should. PC_Lint is configured to output all findings as errors with the option -"format=%(%f %l %)error %n: (%t -- %m)". The problem is, that in the build log output, Visual Studio prepends the project patch to each line where an error is printed, like this:

G:\ProjectPath\G : \ProjectPath\code\Common\MAIN.c 746 error 737: (Info -- Loss of sign in promotion from int to unsigned int)

Visual Studio would be able to parse this output so the errors show up in the error list, but it parses the file to be "G" since this obviously comes out of the regex when parsing the line above.

Removing the file from the PC-Lint format -"format=%(%l %)error %n: (%t -- %m)"results in the output of

G:\ProjectPath\EXEC 746 error 737: (Info -- Loss of sign in promotion from int to unsigned int)

and now of course VS parses the file to be "EXEC".

It seems like Visual Studio expects PC-Lint to output the filename without path, but prepending it then breaks it. I don't understand why this happens since it doesn't prepend the path in other lines:

  --- Module:   G:\ProjectPath\code\Common\FILE1.c (C)
  
  During Specific Walk:
    File G:\ProjectPath\code\Common\FILE1.c line 5515: ReadCodeObservables4(59? | 0?, [1]?)
    File G:\ProjectPath\code\Common\FILE1.c line 5938: HAL__ReadReg(59? | 0?, 176)
G:\ProjectPath\G : \ProjectPath\code\Common\HAL.h 2438 error 662: (Warning -- Possible creation of out-of-bounds pointer (15 beyond end of data) by operator '[' [Reference: file G:\ProjectPath\code\Common\HAL.h: line 2438; file G:\ProjectPath\code\Common\FILE1.c: lines 5471, 5515, 5938])
G:\ProjectPath\G : \ProjectPath\code\Common\HAL.h 2438 error 831: (Info -- Reference cited in prior message)
G:\ProjectPath\G : \ProjectPath\code\Common\FILE1.c 5471 error 831: (Info -- Reference cited in prior message)
G:\ProjectPath\G : \ProjectPath\code\Common\FILE1.c 5515 error 831: (Info -- Reference cited in prior message)
G:\ProjectPath\G : \ProjectPath\code\Common\FILE1.c 5938 error 831: (Info -- Reference cited in prior message)

Here is my configuration, both Ninja and Visual Studio 16 2019 generators deliver the same results. Note, that I have a custom compiler without inherited Environment, but for this LINT target, the compiler isn't even invoked, so I don't see why the issue would be there.

{
  "configurations": [
    {
      "name": "PROJECT",
      "generator": "Ninja",
      "configurationType": "Release",
      "inheritEnvironments": [],
      "buildRoot": "${projectDir}",
      "installRoot": "${projectDir}\\out\\install\\${name}",
      "cmakeCommandArgs": "",
      "buildCommandArgs": "",
      "ctestCommandArgs": "",
      "intelliSenseMode": "linux-gcc-arm"
    }
  ]
}

I also tried to build this target from the command line using the cmake.exe in the Visual Studio install directory, and there the extra path is NOT prepended to the error output, so it's definitely a problem with Visual Studio. I have seen some reports about the "/FC" (Full Path of Source Code File in Diagnostics flag) here, but for me the project files are not generated, so I can't modify them. I don't know why there are no project/solution files because at some point in the past they were auto-generated, but since I don't really need them (and don't want to depend on them), I never investigated this issue.

Answer 1

With further investigation I was able to fix the problem by using a different output format for PC-Lint:

-"format=%(%F(%l):%) error %n: %t -- %m"