feat: Switch clang tools from static binaries to wheels

[shenxianpeng]

closes #364

Summary by CodeRabbit

• Documentation

  • Clarified installation instructions per OS with prioritized fallback sources (Homebrew/PyPI/static binaries where applicable), added direct wheel references for tools, and updated license wording to "MIT License".

• Chores

  • Installer now better detects platform, validates/normalizes version inputs, installs selected tools sequentially with clearer per-tool logging, and handles empty or invalid version inputs gracefully.

[coderabbitai]

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Walkthrough

README install instructions now prefer wheels with OS-specific fallback order and updated links/licensing. action.yml adds version validation/normalization, switches Windows detection to build_os, and installs clang tools per-tool (clang-tidy/clang-format) with conditional installer selection.

Changes

Cohort / File(s)	Summary
Documentation README.md	Reworked installation instructions to prefer PyPI wheels with ordered fallbacks per OS (Linux, macOS, Windows); removed clang-tools-static-binaries link; added explicit PyPI links for clang-tidy/clang-format; adjusted license text to “MIT License”.
Action manifest / install logic action.yml	Replaced OS detection with `version

Estimated code review effort

🎯 4 (Complex) | ⏱️ ~45 minutes

Possibly related PRs

• feat: support clang version to include 22 and adjust default version to 20 #398 — Modifies action.yml clang version handling and installation logic; overlaps with per-tool/wheel installation changes.
• Add clang v20 and change default version to v16 #299 — Changes to action.yml version handling and accepted/default versions; related to version coercion logic.
• fix: venv usage #314 — Related installer/uv invocation and OS detection edits tied to switching installers.

Suggested reviewers

• 2bndy5

🚥 Pre-merge checks | ✅ 5

✅ Passed checks (5 passed)

Check name	Status	Explanation
Description Check	✅ Passed	Check skipped - CodeRabbit’s high-level summary is enabled.
Title check	✅ Passed	The pull request title accurately reflects the main objective of switching clang tools installation from static binaries to wheels, as implemented in both README.md and action.yml.
Linked Issues check	✅ Passed	The PR implements the core objective from issue #364 by updating both documentation and code to adopt wheels-based installation via clang-tools-wheel CLI.
Out of Scope Changes check	✅ Passed	All changes directly support the wheels migration objective: README updates document the new installation approaches, and action.yml implements the wheels-based tool selection logic.
Docstring Coverage	✅ Passed	No functions found in the changed files to evaluate docstring coverage. Skipping docstring coverage check.

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✨ Finishing Touches

🧪 Generate unit tests (beta)

• Create PR with unit tests
• Commit unit tests in branch fix-364

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[github-actions]

Cpp-Linter Report ⚠️

Some files did not pass the configured checks!

clang-format (v16.0.6) reports: 2 file(s) not formatted

• docs/examples/demo/demo.cpp
• docs/examples/demo/demo.hpp

clang-tidy (v16.0.6) reports: 7 concern(s)

• docs/examples/demo/demo.cpp:3:10: warning: [modernize-deprecated-headers]

  inclusion of deprecated C++ header 'stdio.h'; consider using 'cstdio' instead

  #include <stdio.h>
           ^~~~~~~~~
           <cstdio>

• docs/examples/demo/demo.cpp:8:5: warning: [modernize-use-trailing-return-type]

  use a trailing return type for this function

  int main(){
  ~~~ ^
  auto       -> int

• docs/examples/demo/demo.cpp:10:13: warning: [readability-braces-around-statements]

  statement should be inside braces

      for (;;) break;
              ^
               {

• docs/examples/demo/demo.cpp:13:5: warning: [cppcoreguidelines-pro-type-vararg]

  do not call c-style vararg functions

      printf("Hello world!\n");
      ^

• docs/examples/demo/demo.hpp:6:11: warning: [modernize-use-default-member-init]

  use default member initializer for 'useless'

      char* useless;
            ^
                   {"\0"}

• docs/examples/demo/demo.hpp:7:9: warning: [modernize-use-default-member-init]

  use default member initializer for 'numb'

      int numb;
          ^
              {0}

• docs/examples/demo/demo.hpp:11:11: warning: [modernize-use-trailing-return-type]

  use a trailing return type for this function

      void *not_useful(char *str){useless = str;}
      ~~~~~~^
      auto                        -> void *

Have any feedback or feature suggestions? Share it here.

[2bndy5]

I think there's a bug in clang-tools-pip. It does not seem to match v9.0.0. Probably a logical error (>= vs >).

[2bndy5]

I have pushed any changes that I requested.

This is now the least breaking implementation that I can muster.

Also, the README now states the origin of clang tools in order of install attempts.

Caution

This should be tested in test repo before merging.
We have made some significant changes to how version input is used before it is passed to cpp-linter.

[2bndy5]

Seems to work as expected when version is an integer. just need to check when version is a

• path
• empty string

[2bndy5]

ok, so the nushell script handles a path as the version input:

Version is not an integer
Using custom clang tools installation at path: D:\a_temp/llvm

This works if the path points to a folder where clang-tidy and/or clang-format binaries exist.
But if the path is wrong (above example should be D:\a\_temp/llvm/bin), then cpp-linter uses the version installed in the venv:

INFO:CPP Linter:D:\a\_actions\cpp-linter\cpp-linter-action\fix-364\.venv\Scripts\clang-format.EXE --version: 21.1.2
INFO:CPP Linter:D:\a\_actions\cpp-linter\cpp-linter-action\fix-364\.venv\Scripts\clang-tidy.EXE --version: 21.1.1

This is because cpp-linter-hooks installs a version of clang tools as dependencies:

https://github.com/cpp-linter/cpp-linter-hooks/blob/4a6686cd87dae7b5c1d8beba7563f6e0dd26f6b1/pyproject.toml#L33-L38

@shenxianpeng Can we remove the unnecessary dependencies in cpp-linter-hooks?

This isn't a deal breaker. It just causes confusion when the given path is wrong.

[shenxianpeng]

Let's merge this PR and publish a minor release.