rat - Removal Advice Tool

This is a simple javac annotation processor, which produces compilation warnings for code elements annotated with @Remove, @RemoveInVersion and @RemoveAfterDate annotations.
Essentially, these are TODOs, done the annotation processor way!

Download

Gradle

repositories {
    jcenter()
}
dependencies {
    compileOnly group: 'ru.jihor.rat', name: 'rat', version: '<version>'
    // or
    // compileOnly 'ru.jihor.rat:rat:<version>'
}

Maven

<dependency>
    <groupId>ru.jihor.rat</groupId>
    <artifactId>rat</artifactId>
    <version>(version)</version>
    <type>pom</type>
</dependency>

Usage

Annotations

The following annotations are available:

• @Remove: denotes that the element should be removed
  • Fields:
    • reason (optional)
  • How does it work: the annotation processor will always print a warning for the annotated element
• @RemoveInVersion: denotes that the element should be removed in an upcoming version (e.g. 2.0)
  • Fields:
    • version (mandatory, in any sensible format)
    • reason (optional)
  • How does it work: the annotation processor will print a warning for the annotated element if version in the annotation <= current version. Snapshots are not respected, e.g. an element annotated with @RemoveInVersion(version = "2.0") will produce a warning in a 2.0-SNAPSHOT build
• @RemoveAfterDate: denotes that the element should be removed after a certain date
  • Fields:
    • date (mandatory, in yyyy-MM-dd format)
    • reason (optional)
  • How does it work: the annotation processor will print a warning for the annotated element if date in the annotation < current date

See ru.jihor.rat.Demo in test scope for examples.

Processor

Gradle

The processor will work out-of-the-box, the only thing that needs to be passed is the project version to compare the version in @RemoveInVersion against.
This variable is controlled by rat.project.version annotation processor option:

tasks.withType(JavaCompile) {
    options.compilerArgs += ["-Arat.project.version=$project.version"]
}
// or, if Groovy is used:
tasks.withType(GroovyCompile) {
    options.compilerArgs += ["-Arat.project.version=$project.version"]
}

IntelliJ Idea

The Gradle settings mentioned before will sadly NOT set the version for the annotation processor when Build→Build project is executed in IntelliJ Idea, because of this bug: https://youtrack.jetbrains.com/issue/IDEA-154038 .

The workaround is to open the IDE settings and set up the version manually in Build, Execution, Environment -> Compiler -> Java Compiler -> Additional command line parameters: -Arat.project.version=<project version>