CLANG-QUERY(1)

✨ NAME ✨

clang-query — okay bestie, this is literally the manual page for clang-query 20, and it sits in the User Commands corner of the manual (that's section 1, iykyk) 💅

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

So the whole vibe of this thing, right, is this:

USAGE: clang-query [options] <source0> [... <sourceN>]

And then it's just options all the way down. Not me listing every single one — I am listing every single one 🫶

🌈 OPTIONS 🌈

💜 Generic Options:

• --help — shows you the available options (and there's --help-hidden if you want more, bestie)
• --help-list — shows you the list of available options (and --help-list-hidden for more, again)
• --version — tells you the version of this program

🎀 clang-query options:

• -c <command> — say which command to run
• --extra-arg=<string> — an extra argument you want appended to the compiler command line
• --extra-arg-before=<string> — an extra argument you want prepended to the compiler command line (front of the line energy, iconic)
• -f <file> — read your commands from a file
• -p <string> — the build path
• --preload=<file> — preload commands from a file, then start interactive mode 🧚
• --use-color — use colors in the detailed AST output. But if you don't set it, colors get used anyway when the terminal connected to standard output supports colors. So basically it's a "you didn't have to ask, but go off" situation ✨

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🍓 the -p <build-path> of it all

-p <build-path> is what you use to read a compile command database.

For example, it can be a CMake build directory that has a file named compile_commands.json in it — and to get that file you use the -DCMAKE_EXPORT_COMPILE_COMMANDS=ON CMake option. And when you don't specify a build path at all, it goes looking for compile_commands.json up through every parent path of the first input file. If you want an example of setting up Clang Tooling on a source tree, see https://clang.llvm.org/docs/HowToSetupToolingForLLVM.html 💖

🦋 the <source0> ... of it all

<source0> ... is where you specify the paths of your source files. Those paths get looked up in the compile command database, and okay here's the part you actually need to hear:

• If a file's path is absolute, it needs to point into CMake's source tree.
• If a file's path is relative, then your current working directory needs to be in the CMake source tree, and the file has to be in a subdirectory of the current working directory.

Also, "./" prefixes in relative files get automatically removed — but the rest of a relative path has to be a suffix of a path in the compile command database. No cap, that's the rule 😭

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And that's the whole page, angel. This was clang-query 20, dated September 2026 — go forth and query, you absolute main character, and remember: absolute paths point into the CMake source tree, relative paths need you standing in it 👑