[cocci] spatch #include statements and include search path

Jani Nikula
2025-01-13T12:03:15Z

I want to use a non-trivial match rule in multiple other rules, in
multiple .cocci files. I'm trying put the match rule in a separate file,
and #include that in the other files, to avoid duplication. (I'm
referring to the "include_cocci ::= #include string" usage of #include,
not transformations.)

It works when the current working directory is the same as the file to
be included, but I seem to be unable to make it work from another
directory.

It doesn't matter if the .cocci files are all in the same directory or
not, it doesn't seem to matter what I pass as -I to spatch on the
command-line. I see #include mentioned in the SmPL Grammar as well as
some tutorials, but I can't find any proper, working examples for it.

How is the #include and the search path supposed to work? There seems to
be some conflation in the documentation about include_cocci in .cocci
and #includes in the .c files.

Specifically, I'm running spatch in my kernel repo, and I keep the
.cocci files in a separate directory outside the kernel repo.

TIA,
Jani.

--
Jani Nikula, Intel