4.1 Compile Waivers

You can use waivers to change the severity (promote/demote) or disable the problems reported by DVT during compilation.

Promote	Warning -> Error
Demote	Error -> Warning
Disable	Hide
Restore	Restore a waived problem to its default (originally reported) severity

Waivers are applied in order. Multiple waivers may be applied to the same problem.

Waivers are defined in the .dvt/waivers.xml file.

To quickly create waivers use the "DVT: Create New Waiver..." command or invoke the "Quick Fix..." command on an existing error and pick the "Waive ... error" proposal.

You can include other waiver files using:

The path can be absolute or relative to the project root and can use environment variables.

Compile Waivers Examples

Use Case	Solution
I want to hide all problems from a library that I do not control.	<waiver name="Disable all from library folder." severity="DISABLED"><match path="/path/to/library/*"/></waiver>
I want to hide some errors that I don't care about.	<waiver name="Disable all that match a specific message pattern." severity="DISABLED"><match message="some message pattern"/></waiver>
I want to turn NON_STANDARD warnings into errors.	<waiver name="Promote NON_STANDARD warnings to errors." severity="ERROR"><match message="NON_STANDARD*"/></waiver>
I want to see only the problems reported on files in a specific directory.	Create a waiver to disable all problems: <waiver name="Disable all" severity="DISABLED"><match path="*"/></waiver> After it, create a waiver to restore the severity of the problems inside a specific path: <waiver name="Restore my problems" severity="DEFAULT"><match path="/my/path"/></waiver>
I want to hide some DVT false alarms until the issue causing them is fixed.	Use a message based and/or path based waiver.

Each problem message is in the form:

<CHECK_ID>: <Failure Details>

or, for Non-top files:

_<CHECK_ID>: <Failure Details>

See Semantic Checks for a complete list of all checks and their identifiers.

This allows you to change the severity by check id using a waiver like:

<waiver name="Disable all <CHECK_ID>" severity="DISABLED"><match message="*<CHECK_ID>:*"/>

Compile Waivers File Syntax (XML)

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE waivers PUBLIC "-//DVT//waivers" "waivers.dtd" >

<waivers version="1">
   
   <include path="$COMMON/path/to/included_waivers.xml"/>
   
   <waiver name="Optional short name of the waiver" severity="DISABLED">
       <description>An optional verbose description of the waiver.</description>
       <!--
           Each waiver must contain at least one match tag.
           Each match tag can specify any combination of the following attributes: message pattern, path pattern, default-severity.
           Any omitted attribute is implicitly matched.
           A match tag without any attributes will match all problems.

A match tag matches a problem if ALL specified patterns and the default-severity match.
           The waiver will waive a problem if ANY of the match tags matches.
           NOTE:
               path pattern is matched against the problem's full path (NOT the project relative path)
               default-severity is matched against the problem's initial reported severity
               patterns may contain * or ? wildcards
       -->
       <match
           message="pattern to match against the problem's message"
           path="/pattern/to/match/against/the/problems/absolute/path"/>
       <match message="*message pattern*" path="/path/pattern*"/>
       <match message="*only by message*"/>
       <match path="/only/by/path*"/>
       <match path="/all/warnings/in/path/*" default-severity="WARNING"/>
   </waiver>
   
   <waiver name="Disable by message" severity="DISABLED">
       <description>
           This waiver disables all problems containing 'JUST_A_FOO_PROBLEM'
           inside their message.
       </description>
       <match message="*JUST_A_FOO_PROBLEM*"/>
   </waiver>
   <waiver name="Demote by path" severity="WARNING">
       <description>
           This waiver turns into warnings all problems reported
           under '/path/to/foo'
       </description>
       <match path="/path/to/foo/*"/>
   </waiver>
   <waiver name="Promote by path OR message" severity="ERROR">
       <description>
           This waiver turns into errors all problems that
           contain 'JUST_A_FOO_PROBLEM' inside their message OR were reported
           under '/path/to/foo'.</description>
       <match message="*JUST_A_FOO_PROBLEM*"/>
       <match path="/path/to/foo/*"/>
   </waiver>
   <waiver name="Disable by path AND message" severity="DISABLED">
       <description>
           This waiver disables all problems that contain 'JUST_A_FOO_PROBLEM'
           inside their message AND were reported
           under '/path/to/foo'.</description>
       <match message="*JUST_A_FOO_PROBLEM*" path="/path/to/foo/*"/>
   </waiver>
</waivers>

NOTE: Backslashes '\' are always treated as path separators, regardless of the OS. Therefore, you cannot use '\?' and '\*' to escape wildcards.