Scanner Environment

A Java runtime environment is always required to run the scanner that performs (CI-based) analysis. This applies to all scanner variants (CLI, Cloud CI-specific, etc.)

Additionally, in order to analyze JavaScript, TypeScript or CSS, the scanner also requires a Node.js runtime.

The required versions for these runtimes change with successive versions of the scanner. The current requirements and recommendations are:

• You must use at least Java 11 or 17.
• You should use at least Node.js 14, though we recommend that you use the latest Node.js LTS, which is currently Node.js 16.

Scanner vs project

The requirements above refer only to the versions of Java and Node.js used by the scanner itself to run. It does not restrict the versions of Java, JavaScript, TypeScript or CSS that can be analyzed by the scanner.

Java configuration

GitHub Actions

The SonarCloud GitHub Action can be configured for different target build technologies. You can find samples for .NET, Gradle, Maven and a generic one, all running with JDK11 here.

Maven / Gradle

If your whole Maven or Gradle build doesn't run on Java 11 or 17, we suggest first to try to base the whole build on one of those versions of Java. If it's not compatible, then you can override the JAVA_HOME environment variable just before the analysis step, as shown here:

# Maven
mvn verify ...
export JAVA_HOME=/path/to/java11
mvn sonar:sonar ...

# Gradle
gradle build ...
export JAVA_HOME=/path/to/java11
gradle sonarqube ...

Azure DevOps

All VM images available in Azure Pipelines for Microsoft-hosted agents already contain Java 11. There is no further action required. For self-hosted agents you must ensure that you are using Java 11 or 17. You can either modify your build pipeline to ensure that it runs with Java 11 or 17 by default, or override the JAVA_HOME environment variable just before running the analysis.

Xamarin

For the specific case of Xamarin, which only allows Java 8, you will need to specify a Java 8 path separately when invoking MSBuild (using, for example, XAMARIN_JAVA_HOME), and then leave the JAVA_HOME environment variable for the scanner only.

$env:JAVA_HOME=/path/to/java11
$env:XAMARIN_JAVA_HOME=/path/to/java8
msbuild.exe  /p:JavaSdkDirectory=$env:XAMARIN_JAVA_HOME

Dockerfile

Multiple base images can be used to run your build with Java 11, here are some examples:

• openjdk:11-jre-slim
• debian:buster and above
• gradle:jre11-slim

If your build is not compatible with Java 11, then you can override the JAVA_HOME environment variable  to point to Java 11 immediately before running the scanners.

Jenkins

You can easily define a new JDK version by navigating to Manage Jenkins > Global Tool Configuration if you have the JDK Tool Plugin installed.

Declarative pipelines

If you are using a declarative pipeline with different stages, you can add a 'tools' section to the stage in which the code scan occurs. This will make the scanner use the JDK version that is specified.

stage('SonarCloud analysis') {
    tools {
        jdk "jdk11" // the name you have given the JDK installation in Global Tool Configuration
    }
    environment {
        scannerHome = tool 'SonarCloud Scanner' // the name you have given the Sonar Scanner (in Global Tool Configuration)
    }
    steps {
        withSonarQubeEnv(installationName: 'SonarCloud') {
            sh "${scannerHome}/bin/sonar-scanner -X"
        }
    }
}

If you are analyzing a Java 8 project, you probably want to continue using Java 8 to build your project. The following example allows you to continue building in Java 8, but will use Java 11 to scan the code:

stage('Build') {
 tools {
        jdk "jdk8" // the name you have given the JDK installation using the JDK manager (Global Tool Configuration)
    }
    steps {
        sh 'mvn compile'
    }
}
stage('SonarCloud analysis') {
    tools {
        jdk "jdk11" // the name you have given the JDK installation using the JDK manager (Global Tool Configuration)
    }
    environment {
        scannerHome = tool 'SonarCloud Scanner' // the name you have given the Sonar Scanner (Global Tool Configuration)
    }
    steps {
        withSonarQubeEnv(installationName: 'SonarCloud') {
            sh 'mvn sonar:sonar'
        }
    }
}

This example is for Maven but it can be easily modified to use Gradle.

Classical pipelines

Set Job JDK version

Set the JDK version to be used by jobs in the General section of your configuration. This option is only visible if you have configured multiple JDK versions under Manage Jenkins > Global Tool Configuration.

Set 'Execute SonarQube Scanner' JDK version

If you are using the "Execute SonarQube Scanner" step in your configuration, you can set the JDK for this step in the configuration dialog. By using this approach, you can use JDK 11 only for the code scanning performed by SonarCloud. All the other steps in the job will use the globally configured JDK. 

Java 8 projects

Jenkins does not offer functionality to switch JDKs when using a Freestyle project or Maven project configuration. To build your project using Java 8,  you will have to manually set the JAVA_HOME variable to Java 11 when running the analysis.

This can be done by using the Tool Environment Plugin. This plugin lets you expose the location of the JDK you added under Manage Jenkins > Global Tool Configuration. 

The location of the JDK can then be used to set the JAVA_HOME variable in a post step command, like this:

export JAVA_HOME=$OPENJDK_11_HOME/Contents/Home
mvn $SONAR_MAVEN_GOAL

Node.js configuration

GitHub Actions

The SonarCloud GitHub Action already uses Node.js 14+. If you are using the official SonarCloud Action, there is nothing further to do. If you are using your own GitHub Action and invoke the SonarScanner manually within that Action, then you should ensure that you are also using at least Node.js 14. See Other cases below.

Bitbucket Pipelines

Version 1.4.0 and onward of the sonarcloud-scan Bitbucket Pipe uses Node.js 14+. You should ensure that you specify at least version 1.4.0 of the pipe declaration in your bitbucket-pipelines.yml. For example:

- pipe: sonarsource/sonarcloud-scan:1.4.0

Azure Pipelines

All VM images available in Azure Pipelines for Microsoft-hosted agents already contain Node.js 14+. There is no further action required. For self-hosted agents you must ensure that you are using Node.js 14+.

GitLab CI/CD

The recommended setup for your .gitlab-ci.yml specifies sonar-scanner-cli:latest which already uses Node.js 14+. If you are using the recommended setup there is nothing further to do.

Circle CI

When using the official SonarCloud CircleCI Orb, you should ensure that the version of Node.js specified is 14+. For example, in your .circleci/config.yml file, you should have a stanza that looks something like this:

jobs:
  build:
    docker:
      - image: 'node:16.14.0'

Travis CI

You should specify Node.js 14+ in your .travis.yml file.

Jenkins

You should ensure that the Node.js version used by your Jenkins jobs is at least version 14. If you want to manage multiple versions of Node.js in Jenkins, the NodeJS Jenkins plugin may be useful.

Other cases

If your build setup falls into one of the following categories, then you will need to ensure that the build environment within which the SonarScanner runs has Node.js 14+ installed:

• Manual invocation of the SonarScanner from the command line.
• Custom local build script invoking the SonarScanner.
• Non-standard use of a SonarCloud-integrated CI (that is, one of the above). For example, using GitHub Actions but not using the provided SonarCloud GitHub Action and instead using some other custom Action.
• Use of a CI that is not SonarCloud-integrated (that is, not one of the above)

In general, if you are running the SonarScanner command line tool as an executable, then Node.js 14+ needs to be installed on the machine where it is run. Alternatively, if you are using the SonarScanner Docker image, then you just have to ensure that you are using at least version 4.4 of the image, as it already bundles the correct version of Node.js.