Impact of Repeated SonarQube Scans on LOC Threshold in Azure DevOps Pipelines

SonarQube Server / Community Build
1

We’ve recently integrated SonarQube into our Azure DevOps pipelines as part of our deployment process. At the moment, the SonarQube analysis task runs every time a build pipeline is triggered—including during repeated deployments of the same codebase.

I’m wondering:
Does this repeated execution impact our Lines of Code (LOC) threshold, even if the code hasn’t changed between runs?

If so, what would be the best approach to optimize this setup? We’re looking to avoid unnecessary LOC consumption or any unintended billing issues that may come from redundant scans.

Has anyone faced a similar scenario or found an effective strategy to manage this?

2

Hi @Rajesh.chauhan ,

Thank you for reaching out with your question.

If you’re using a paid edition of SonarQube that supports branch and pull request analysis, it’s important to understand how Lines of Code (LOC) are calculated. In multibranch projects, only the branch with the largest LOC count is considered for your total LOC threshold, which should alleviate concerns about redundant scans impacting your billing.

However, it sounds like you might be worried about repeatedly analyzing unchanged code. While SonarQube is designed to perform incremental analysis efficiently, here are a few tips to potentially optimize your setup further:

  1. Set up Analysis Parameters: You can configure SonarQube to exclude directories or files that are not part of your code responsibility, such as external libraries or generated code.
  2. Use the ‘Skip Analysis’ Option: For deployment pipelines where no actual code change occurs, consider using conditional logic in your build pipeline to skip the SonarQube analysis task when it’s not necessary.
  3. Review the Documentation: I highly recommend checking out the SonarQube documentation on analysis scope for detailed guidance: SonarQube Documentation on Analysis Scope.

I hope these suggestions help you optimize your SonarQube setup. If you’ve faced any similar scenarios or have found effective strategies, sharing them with the community can also be quite beneficial!

Abdel,