modernize-deprecated-headers

Some headers from C library were deprecated in C++ and are no longer welcome in C++ codebases. Some have no effect in C++. For more details refer to the C++14 Standard [depr.c.headers] section.

This check replaces C standard library headers with their C++ alternatives and removes redundant ones.

// C++ source file...
#include <assert.h>
#include <stdbool.h>

// becomes

#include <cassert>
// No 'stdbool.h' here.

Important note: the Standard doesn’t guarantee that the C++ headers declare all the same functions in the global namespace. The check in its current form can break the code that uses library symbols from the global namespace.

If the specified standard is older than C++11 the check will only replace headers deprecated before C++11, otherwise – every header that appeared in the previous list.

These headers don’t have effect in C++:

The checker ignores include directives within extern “C” { … } blocks, since a library might want to expose some API for C and C++ libraries.

// C++ source file...
extern "C" {
#include <assert.h>  // Left intact.
#include <stdbool.h> // Left intact.
}

Options

CheckHeaderFile

clang-tidy cannot know if the header file included by the currently analyzed C++ source file is not included by any other C source files. Hence, to omit false-positives and wrong fixit-hints, we ignore emitting reports into header files. One can set this option to true if they know that the header files in the project are only used by C++ source file. Default is false.