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Check Unnecessarily Public Code

Reports public top-level declarations (classes, mixins, enums, etc.) and class members (fields, methods, etc.) that are only used in the containing file (including parts) and can be made private.

To execute the command, run:

$ dcm check-unnecessarily-public-code lib # or dcm upc lib

Full command description:

Usage: dcm check-unnecessarily-public-code [arguments] <directories>
-h, --help                                         Print this usage information.


    --exclude-public-api (--ep)                    Exclude publicly exported code from the analysis output.


-r, --reporter="console" (--output-format)         Analysis output format.
                                                   [console (default), json, codeclimate, gitlab, checkstyle, sonar]
-a, --absolute-path                                Show absolute paths in console reporter output.
    --output-to="path/to/file"                     Path to the file with the analysis output.


-c, --print-config                                 Print resolved config.


    --root-folder="./"                             Root folder.
                                                   (defaults to the current directory)
-s, --sdk-path="directory-path"                    Dart SDK directory path.
                                                   If the project has a `.fvm/flutter_sdk` symlink, it will be used if the SDK is not found.
-e, --exclude="{**/*.g.dart,**/*.freezed.dart}"    Files to exclude (in Glob syntax).
                                                   (defaults to "{**/*.g.dart,**/*.freezed.dart}")
    --root-exclude                                 Files to exclude, relative to the root folder (in Glob syntax).


    --[no-]congratulate                            Show output even when there are no issues.


    --verbose                                      Show verbose logs.


    --ci-key                                       The license key to run on CI server. Can be provided via DCM_CI_KEY env variable.
    --email                                        The email used to purchase the license. Can be provided via DCM_EMAIL env variable.


    --no-analytics                                 Disable sending anonymous usage statistics.


    --[no-]fatal-found                             Treat unnecessarily public code as fatal.
                                                   (defaults to on)

Suppressing the Command​

To suppress issues produced by the command, add the ignore: unnecessarily-public-code comment. To suppress the command for an entire file, add the ignore_for_file: unnecessarily-public-code comment to the beginning of a file.

Excluding Public API​

By default, this command analyzes all code, even if it's part a package's public API.

To exclude such code from the analysis, pass the exclude-public-api CLI flag.

note

This command follows this convention when locating API and implementation files.

Overriding "exclude-public-api" for a Particular Package​

To override the exclude-public-api flag for a particular package, set the exclude-public-api entry in the analysis_options.yaml.

Output Example​

Console (default)​

Use --reporter=console to get output in console format.

Console

JSON​

Use --reporter=json to get output as a single JSON object containing metadata and the list of unnecessarily public code issues.

Format specification

The root object fields are​

  • formatVersion - an integer representing the format version (will be incremented each time the serialization format changes)
  • timestamp - a creation time of the report in YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS format
  • unnecessarilyPublicCodeResults - an array of objects
  • summary - an array of objects
{
  "formatVersion": 10,
  "timestamp": "2021-04-11 14:44:42",
  "unnecessarilyPublicCodeResults": [
    {
      ...
    },
    {
      ...
    },
    {
      ...
    }
  ],
  "summary": [
    {
      ...
    },
    {
      ...
    }
  ]
}

The result object fields are​

  • path - the relative path to the file with issues
  • issues - an array of issues detected in the target file
{
  "path": "lib/src/some/file.dart",
  "issues": [
    ...
  ],
}

The issue object fields are​

  • id - issue id
  • message - the message associated with the issue
  • location - the location associated with the issue
  • effortInMinutes - an estimated effort to fix the issue (in minutes)
  • declarationName - unnecessarily public declaration name
  • declarationType - unnecessarily public declaration type
{
  "id": "unnecessarily-public-issue",
  "message": "This public class PartClass is referenced only in its library and can be made private",
  "location": {
    ...
  },
  "effortInMinutes": 2,
  "declarationName": "PartClass",
  "declarationType": "class",
}

The location object fields are​

  • startColumn - the start column of the entity
  • startLine - the start line of the entity
  • endColumn - the end column of the entity
  • endLine - the end line of the entity
  • startOffset - the offset of the entity
{
  "endColumn": 2,
  "endLine": 90,
  "startColumn": 1,
  "startLine": 48,
  "startOffset": 1638
}

The summary-record object fields are​

  • title - a message with the summary entry title
  • value - the actual value of the entry
{
  "title": "Total unnecessarily public code declarations",
  "value": 1
}

GitLab​

Use --reporter=gitlab to get output in a GitLab-compatible format. To learn how to integrate DCM with GitLab, refer to this guide.

Code Climate​

Use --reporter=codeclimate to get output in Code Climate format.

Output example
{"type":"issue","check_name":"unnecessarily-public-issue","description":"This public field someField is referenced only in its library and can be made private","categories":["Bug Risk"],"location":{"path":"lib/src/buttons/pulldown_button.dart","positions":{"begin":{"column":3,"line":41},"end":{"column":25,"line":41}}},"severity":"major","fingerprint":"46ed0a539d46e514e67003f0a661976e"}
{"type":"issue","check_name":"unnecessarily-public-issue","description":"This public field someField is referenced only in its library and can be made private","categories":["Bug Risk"],"location":{"path":"lib/src/buttons/pulldown_button.dart","positions":{"begin":{"column":3,"line":41},"end":{"column":25,"line":41}}},"severity":"major","fingerprint":"46ed0a539d46e514e67003f0a661976e"}

Checkstyle​

Use --reporter=checkstyle to get output in Checkstyle format.

Output example
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<checkstyle version="10.0">
  <file name="example.dart">
    <error line="5" column="3" severity="warning" message="This public field someField is referenced only in its library and can be made private" source="unnecessarily-public-issue"/>
  </file>
</checkstyle>
note

Checkstyle format is supported by Bitbucket. To learn how to integrate DCM with Bitbucket, refer to this guide.

Sonar​

Use --reporter=sonar to get output in SonarQube's generic format for external issues.

Output example
{
  "rules": [
    {
      "cleanCodeAttribute": "CLEAR",
      "description": "To learn more, visit the documentation https://dcm.dev/docs/cli/code-quality-checks/unnecessarily-public-code/",
      "engineId": "dcm",
      "id": "unnecessarily-public-issue",
      "impacts": [
        {
          "severity": "MEDIUM",
          "softwareQuality": "MAINTAINABILITY"
        }
      ],
      "name": "unnecessarily-public-issue"
    }
  ],
  "issues": [
    {
      "effortMinutes": 2,
      "primaryLocation": {
        "filePath": "lib/src/home_i18n.dart",
        "message": "This public class SomeClass is referenced only in its library and can be made private",
        "textRange": {
          "endColumn": 9,
          "endLine": 14,
          "startColumn": 3,
          "startLine": 10
        }
      },
      "ruleId": "unnecessarily-public-issue"
    },
    {
      "effortMinutes": 10,
      "primaryLocation": {
        "filePath": "lib/src/home_i18n.dart",
        "message": "This public method someMethod is referenced only in its library and can be made private",
        "textRange": {
          "endColumn": 9,
          "endLine": 20,
          "startColumn": 3,
          "startLine": 16
        }
      },
      "ruleId": "unnecessarily-public-issue"
    }
  ]
}
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