bazel_rules_pmd

The PMD (a static analysis tool) integration for the Bazel build system.

Usage

MODULE.bazel Configuration

bazel_dep(name = "rules_pmd", version = "...")

Please refer to GitHub releases for the available versions.

BUILD Configuration

Once declared in the MODULE.bazel file, the rule can be loaded in the BUILD file.

load("@rules_pmd//pmd:defs.bzl", "pmd", "pmd_test")

pmd(
    name = "pmd_analysis",
    srcs = glob(["src/main/java/**/*.java"]),
    rulesets = ["pmd_ruleset.xml"],
)

pmd_test(
    name = "pmd_analysis_test",
    srcs = glob(["src/main/java/**/*.java"]),
    rulesets = ["pmd_ruleset.xml"],
)

PMD Version

Change the MODULE.bazel file:

pmd = use_extension("@rules_pmd//pmd:extensions.bzl", "pmd")
pmd.pmd_version(
    version = "x.x.x",
    sha256 = "x.x.x.sha256",
)
use_repo(pmd, "net_sourceforge_pmd")

To download PMD from a custom location (for example, an internal mirror), provide a url_templates list:

pmd = use_extension("@rules_pmd//pmd:extensions.bzl", "pmd")
pmd.pmd_version(
    version = "x.x.x",
    sha256 = "x.x.x.sha256",
    url_templates = [
        "https://my-mirror.example.com/pmd/pmd-dist-{version}-bin.zip",
        "https://backup.example.com/pmd/pmd-dist-{version}-bin.zip",
    ],
)
use_repo(pmd, "net_sourceforge_pmd")

Each template may contain {version}, which is replaced with the selected PMD version. Supplying a non-empty list replaces the default GitHub URL; omitting url_templates, or passing an empty list, uses that default. Custom URLs must provide the same pinned PMD distribution archive layout (pmd-bin-{version}/lib) and the sha256 of that archive.

This release uses PMD 7.26.0. Custom PMD distributions must be PMD 7.14.0 or newer because the rule uses --exclude-file-list; PMD 6 distributions are no longer supported. Existing rulesets may need updates; see the PMD 7 migration guide and use PMD 7 rule references, for example:

<rule ref="category/java/bestpractices.xml/AbstractClassWithoutAbstractMethod" />

See available attributes.

JVM Flags

The default PMD toolchain supplies no JVM flags, preserving the Java runtime defaults. To configure flags, define and register a custom toolchain:

# BUILD
load("@rules_pmd//pmd:toolchain.bzl", "pmd_toolchain")

pmd_toolchain(
    name = "pmd_toolchain_impl",
    jvm_flags = ["-Xmx1g", "-Dexample.property=value"],
)

toolchain(
    name = "pmd_toolchain",
    toolchain = ":pmd_toolchain_impl",
    toolchain_type = "@rules_pmd//pmd:toolchain_type",
)

Register it from MODULE.bazel with register_toolchains("//:pmd_toolchain").

Execution

Use pmd for a build-time analysis whose report is the target output.

By default, violations fail the build; set fail_on_violation = False to keep the report while allowing violations.

$ bazel build //YOUR_PACKAGE:pmd_analysis

Use pmd_test to run analysis as a test. Violations are replayed in the test log and reported through the test result:

$ bazel test //YOUR_PACKAGE:pmd_analysis_test

Human-readable PMD reports are replayed in the pmd_test log, including when the PMD build action is cached. All reports remain available as build outputs.