How does SonarQube Community Edition determine “New Code” when scanning different SVN branches with

SonarQube Server / Community Build
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1

Hi Team,

I’m using SonarQube Community Edition, and I’d like to clarify how it determines and tracks “New Code” in the following setup:
• I run an initial scan on SVN trunk using a fixed sonar.projectKey (e.g., my-app).
• I then create a feature branch from trunk, make some changes, and scan it using the same project key (my-app).

Given that Community Edition does not support branches, How does SonarQube handles the previous analysis for the same projectKey. My question is:

:backhand_index_pointing_right: How does SonarQube determine what counts as “New Code” in this case?

Specifically:

  1. If the code in the feature branch is mostly identical to trunk, will SonarQube treat only the differences as “New Code”?
  2. Or does it treat the entire branch scan as a fresh baseline (and lose the ability to compare with the earlier trunk scan)?
  3. Is there any way to configure it (e.g., using sonar.newCode.reference=previous_analysis or a fixed date) to still highlight changes introduced by the feature branch after the trunk scan?

My goal is to track new issues introduced in feature branches in Community Edition. I don’t want branch analysis, just the new branch code scans should appear in new code for that project.

Any insights on how Community Edition handles this scenario internally would be really helpful.

Thanks!

2

Hello!

Quite simply, if your initial scan is of your trunk and the subsequent scan is of your new branch, any changes introduced in your branch will be treated as new code.