Free Branch Analysis in SonarQube Cummunity Edition – Here’s How!

Hey there! Are you using SonarQube Community Edition and missing the branch analysis feature that’s only available in the paid versions? Don’t worry – I’ll show you how to add this functionality to your setup. With a community plugin and Docker, you’ll have it running in no time!

Quick Disclaimer First

Before we dive in, a quick heads-up: The plugin we’ll be using isn’t officially from SonarSource – it’s a community project under the GNU LGPL v3 license. If you’re planning to use this for large, business-critical projects, you might want to check out the official Developer Edition. But for most projects, this solution works perfectly fine!

What You’ll Need

– Docker and Docker Compose installed on your machine
– Git
– A Bash shell (Git Bash works fine on Windows)
– Basic Docker knowledge is helpful

Let’s Get Started!

1. Setting Up the Project

First, create a directory for your project:

mkdir sonarqube-docker
cd sonarqube-docker

2. Configuration Files

Let’s start with the .env file. This is where you set the versions you want to use:

SONARQUBE_VERSION=24.12.0.100206-community
BRANCH_PLUGIN_VERSION=1.23.0

Next up is the docker-compose.yml. It’s a bit longer, but don’t worry – you won’t need to modify anything:

services:
  sonarqube:
    depends_on:
      db:
        condition: service_healthy
    build:
      context: .
      dockerfile: Dockerfile
      args:
        - SONARQUBE_VERSION=${SONARQUBE_VERSION}
        - BRANCH_PLUGIN_VERSION=${BRANCH_PLUGIN_VERSION}
    container_name: sonarqube
    ports:
      - "9000:9000"
    networks:
      - sonarnet
    environment:
      - SONAR_JDBC_URL=jdbc:postgresql://db:5432/sonar
      - SONAR_JDBC_USERNAME=sonar
      - SONAR_JDBC_PASSWORD=sonar
    volumes:
      - sonarqube_conf:/opt/sonarqube/conf
      - sonarqube_data:/opt/sonarqube/data
  db:
    image: postgres:16
    healthcheck:
      test: [ "CMD-SHELL", "pg_isready -U sonar" ]
      interval: 10s
      timeout: 5s
      retries: 5
    hostname: db
    container_name: postgres
    networks:
      - sonarnet
    environment:
      - POSTGRES_USER=sonar
      - POSTGRES_PASSWORD=sonar
    volumes:
      - postgresql:/var/lib/postgresql
      - postgresql_data:/var/lib/postgresql/data

volumes:
  sonarqube_conf:
  sonarqube_data:
  postgresql:
  postgresql_data:

networks:
  sonarnet:

Now for the Dockerfile – this is where we integrate the plugin into the SonarQube image:

ARG SONARQUBE_VERSION
FROM sonarqube:${SONARQUBE_VERSION}
ARG BRANCH_PLUGIN_VERSION
# Copy the plugin
COPY plugins/sonarqube-community-branch-plugin-${BRANCH_PLUGIN_VERSION}.jar /opt/sonarqube/extensions/plugins/
ARG PLUGIN_VERSION
ENV PLUGIN_VERSION=1.23.0
ENV SONAR_WEB_JAVAADDITIONALOPTS="-javaagent:./extensions/plugins/sonarqube-community-branch-plugin-${PLUGIN_VERSION}.jar=web"
ENV SONAR_CE_JAVAADDITIONALOPTS="-javaagent:./extensions/plugins/sonarqube-community-branch-plugin-${PLUGIN_VERSION}.jar=ce"

3. Helper Scripts

The download-plugin.sh script automatically fetches the plugin for you:

#!/bin/bash
mkdir -p plugins
curl -L -o plugins/sonarqube-community-branch-plugin-${BRANCH_PLUGIN_VERSION}.jar \
 https://github.com/mc1arke/sonarqube-community-branch-plugin/releases/download/${BRANCH_PLUGIN_VERSION}/sonarqube-community-branch-plugin-${BRANCH_PLUGIN_VERSION}.jar

And the start.sh script makes launching everything super easy:

#!/bin/bash
# Check if .env exists
if [ ! -f .env ]; then
    echo "Error: .env file not found!"
    exit 1
fi
# Load and export environment variables
export $(cat .env | grep -v '^#' | xargs)
# Check if required variables are set
if [ -z "$SONARQUBE_VERSION" ] || [ -z "$BRANCH_PLUGIN_VERSION" ]; then
    echo "Error: Required environment variables are not set!"
    echo "Please check SONARQUBE_VERSION and BRANCH_PLUGIN_VERSION in .env file"
    exit 1
fi
# Download plugin
./download-plugin.sh
# Start Docker Compose
docker-compose up -d

4. Almost There!

Make the scripts executable:

chmod +x download-plugin.sh start.sh

5. Launch Time!

Now just run the start script:

./start.sh

The script takes care of everything for you:
– Checks if all settings are correct
– Downloads the plugin
– Starts the Docker containers

6. Your SonarQube is Ready

After a few seconds, you can access SonarQube:
– URL: http://localhost:9000
– Login: admin
– Password: admin (you’ll need to change this on first login)

Using Branch Analysis

Now you can use branch analysis in your projects. Just specify the branch name when running a scan:

sonar-scanner \
-Dsonar.projectKey=my-awesome-project \
-Dsonar.branch.name=feature/new-feature

Common Issues and Solutions

1. SonarQube won’t start? Check the logs:

docker-compose logs sonarqube

2. On Linux, you might need this setting:

sudo sysctl -w vm.max_map_count=262144

3. Plugin not found? Check the plugins directory:

ls -l plugins/

Wrapping Up

That’s all there is to it! You now have a fully functional SonarQube installation with branch analysis. I’m using this setup myself for various projects and it works great.

Remember: For larger enterprises, the Developer Edition might be the better choice. But for most projects, this solution is more than adequate!

Useful Links

– The Community Branch Plugin on GitHub
– Official SonarQube Documentation
– SonarQube on Docker Hub