ANTLR TestRig / grun Setup TestRig

Example

ANTLR contains a testing tool in its runtime library, this tool can be used to display information detailing how the parsing is performed to match input against defined rules in your grammar file.

To use this tool contained within the ANTLR jar file you should setup your systems classpath to allow access to both the ANTLR tool and the runtime library :

export CLASSPATH=".:/usr/local/lib/antlr-4.5.3-complete.jar:$CLASSPATH"

Note: Ensure the Dot precedes any path to ensure the java virtual machine wont see classes in your current working directory.

Alises can be used on Linux/MAC/Unix to simplify commands used:

alias antlr4='java -jar /usr/local/lib/antlr-4.5.3-complete.jar' 
//or any directory where your jar is located

Note setup on windows for aliases and classpath setup may be more complicated, see here for more comprehensive details.

Accessing TestRig

Once you have setup your alias you can setup TestRig in the following way, again using an alias is recommended as reduces the amount of time required to perform the action:

alias grun='java org.antlr.v4.runtime.misc.TestRig'

If you do not wish to setup an alias on windows you can access TestRig by running the following command in the same location as your ANTLR jar directory:

java -cp .;antlr.4.5.3-complete.jar org.antlr.v4.runtime.misc.TestRig
//or
java -cp .;antlr.4.5.3-complete.jar org.antlr.v4.gui.TestRig

To run TestRig on your grammar you can pass the parameters in for your grammar like this :

grun yourGrammar yourRule -tree //using the setup alias
java -cp .;antlr.4.5.3-complete.jar org.antlr.v4.gui.TestRig yourGrammar YourRule -tree //on windows with no alias
java -cp .;antlr.4.5.3-complete.jar org.antlr.v4.gui.TestRig yourGrammar Hello r -tree
//Windows with the grammar Hello.g4 starting from the rule 'r'.