WoW Global Check

A high-performance tool for World of Warcraft addon developers to identify performance-killing global variables in Lua code.

The program leverages the Mikk's FindGlobals script to check.

What it does

WoW Global Check analyzes your addon's Lua files to find global variable usage patterns that can cause:

• Performance issues - Non-localized globals are slower to access
• Addon conflicts - Global variables can interfere with other addons
• Memory leaks - Unintended global assignments can accumulate over time

The tool scans your addon directory and reports exactly where global variables are being accessed or assigned, helping you optimize your code for better performance.

Why you need it

World of Warcraft addons run in a shared Lua environment where:

• Global variable access is significantly slower than local variables
• Accidental global assignments can pollute the global namespace
• Global conflicts between addons can cause mysterious bugs
• Performance issues compound during combat or in raids

This tool helps you catch these issues early and maintain clean, fast addon code.

Quick Start

1. Download the latest release for your platform

2. Run the tool on your addon directory:

   wow_global_check -d "C:/World of Warcraft/_retail_/Interface/AddOns/YourAddon"

3. Review the output to find global variable usage

4. Fix the issues by localizing variables or using proper namespacing

Installation

Download from GitHub Releases

Download the latest wow_global_check-Download from GitHub Releases.exe from the releases page and place it in your PATH or addon directory.

Build from Source

# Requires Rust 1.70+
git clone https://github.com/wind-addons/wow_global_check.git
cd wow_global_check
cargo build --release

Usage Examples

Basic Usage

Scan your addon directory:

wow_global_check -d "C:/World of Warcraft/_retail_/Interface/AddOns/MyAddon"

Output Sample:

🔍 WoW Global Variable Checker v0.1.0
📋 Loaded config from: config.yaml
📁 Directory: E:\World of Warcraft\Addons\ElvUI_WindTools
📄 Output: E:\World of Warcraft\Addons\ElvUI_WindTools\check.txt
🚀 Lua root: E:\World of Warcraft\Addons\WindToolsScripts\lua
🧵 Concurrency: 30
🚫 Ignore patterns: 2
ℹ️  Using Lua runtime: E:\World of Warcraft\Addons\WindToolsScripts\lua
ℹ️  Searching for Lua files in 'E:\World of Warcraft\Addons\ElvUI_WindTools'...
📁 Found 444 Lua files to analyze
✅ Analysis complete! (avg: 119.2 files/sec)
✅ Results saved to: E:\World of Warcraft\Addons\ElvUI_WindTools\check.txt
📊 Analysis complete! Found: 2 unique global variable patterns

Advanced Usage Scenarios

1. Large addon with custom configuration:

# Create a config file for complex setups
wow_global_check --create-config -d "C:/WoW/AddOns/BigAddon"
# Edit the generated config.yaml, then run:
wow_global_check -c config.yaml

Configuration

Configuration File (config.yaml)

Create a config.yaml file for persistent settings:

# Required: Directory to scan (supports multiple directories)
dir: "C:/World of Warcraft/_retail_/Interface/AddOns/MyAddon"

# Optional: Output file (omit for console output)
output: "C:/World of Warcraft/_retail_/Interface/AddOns/MyAddon/global_check_results.txt"

# Required: Lua runtime path for enhanced analysis
lua_root: "C:/lua"

# Optional: Number of parallel workers (default: number of CPU cores)
concurrency: 8

# Optional: Files and patterns to ignore
ignores:
  - "Libraries/" # Ignore entire directories
  - "*_test.lua" # Ignore test files
  - "vendor/**/*.lua" # Ignore vendor code
  - "!Libraries/MyLib.lua" # Exception: don't ignore this file

Command Line Options

wow_global_check [OPTIONS]

OPTIONS:
    -d, --dir <PATH>           Directory to scan (can be used multiple times)
    -o, --output <FILE>        Output file (default: console)
    -c, --config <FILE>        Configuration file (default: config.yaml)
    -j, --concurrency <NUM>    Number of parallel workers
    -v, --verbose              Show detailed progress information
    -q, --quiet               Suppress progress output
    --json                    Output results in JSON format for CI/CD integration
    --strict                  Exit with error code if globals found
    --create-config           Generate a sample configuration file
    --create-gcignore         Generate a sample .gcignore file
    -h, --help                Show this help message
    -V, --version             Show version information

Ignore Patterns (.gcignore)

Create a .gcignore file in your addon directory to specify files to ignore:

# Ignore third-party libraries
Libraries/
Libs/

# Ignore test files
*_test.lua
*_spec.lua
test/

# Ignore generated files
*.generated.lua

# But keep specific files (use ! prefix)
!Libraries/MyCustomLib.lua

License

This project is licensed under MIT License (LICENSE-MIT)

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Made with ❤️ for the WoW addon development community