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| 5 | + <title>Clang Static Analyzer</title> |
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| 12 | + |
| 13 | +<div id="content"> |
| 14 | + |
| 15 | +<h1>Clang Static Analyzer</h1> |
| 16 | + |
| 17 | +<p>The Clang Static Analyzer consists of both a source code analysis framework |
| 18 | +and a standalone tool that finds bugs in C and Objective-C programs. The |
| 19 | +standalone tool is invoked from the command-line, and is intended to run in |
| 20 | +tandem with a build of a project or code base.</p> |
| 21 | + |
| 22 | +<p>Both are 100% open source and are part of the <a |
| 23 | +href="http://clang.llvm.org">Clang</a> project.</p> |
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| 87 | + <h2 style="padding:0px; margin:0px">Download</h2> |
| 88 | + <h3 style="margin-top:5px">Mac OS X</h3> |
| 89 | + <ul> |
| 90 | + <li>Latest build (Universal binary, 10.5+): |
| 91 | + <!--#include virtual="latest_checker.html.incl"--> |
| 92 | + </li> |
| 93 | + <li><a href="/installation.html">Installation</a> and <a |
| 94 | + href="/scan-build.html">usage</a></li> |
| 95 | + </ul> |
| 96 | + <h3>Other Platforms</h3> |
| 97 | + <p>For other platforms, please follow the instructions for <a |
| 98 | + href="/installation#OtherPlatforms">building the analyzer</a> from |
| 99 | + source code.<p> |
| 100 | + </div> |
| 101 | + </div> |
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| 108 | +</div> |
| 109 | + |
| 110 | +<h2 id="StaticAnalysis">What is Static Analysis?</h2> |
| 111 | + |
| 112 | +<p>The term "static analysis" is conflated, but here we use it to mean |
| 113 | +a collection of algorithms and techniques used to analyze source code in order |
| 114 | +to automatically find bugs. The idea is similar in spirit to compiler warnings |
| 115 | +(which can be useful for finding coding errors) but to take that idea a step |
| 116 | +further and find bugs that are traditionally found using run-time debugging |
| 117 | +techniques such as testing.</p> |
| 118 | + |
| 119 | +<p>Static analysis bug-finding tools have evolved over the last several decades |
| 120 | +from basic syntactic checkers to those that find deep bugs by reasoning about |
| 121 | +the semantics of code. The goal of the Clang Static Analyzer is to provide a |
| 122 | +industrial-quality static analysis framework for analyzing C and Objective-C |
| 123 | +programs that is freely available, extensible, and has a high quality of |
| 124 | +implementation.</p> |
| 125 | + |
| 126 | +<h3 id="Clang">Part of Clang and LLVM</h3> |
| 127 | + |
| 128 | +<p>As its name implies, the Clang Static Analyzer is built on top of <a |
| 129 | +href="http://clang.llvm.org">Clang</a> and <a href="http://llvm.org">LLVM</a>. |
| 130 | +Strictly speaking, the analyzer is part of Clang, as Clang consists of a set of |
| 131 | +reusable C++ libraries for building powerful source-level tools. The static |
| 132 | +analysis engine used by the Clang Static Analyzer is a Clang library, and has |
| 133 | +the capability to be reused in different contexts and by different clients.</p> |
| 134 | + |
| 135 | +<h2>Important Points to Consider</h2> |
| 136 | + |
| 137 | +<p>While we believe that the static analyzer is already very useful for finding |
| 138 | +bugs, we ask you to bear in mind a few points when using it.</p> |
| 139 | + |
| 140 | +<h3>Work-in-Progress</h3> |
| 141 | + |
| 142 | +<p>The analyzer is a continuous work-in-progress. |
| 143 | +There are many planned enhancements to improve both the precision and scope of |
| 144 | +its analysis algorithms as well as the kinds bugs it will find. While there are |
| 145 | +fundamental limitations to what static analysis can do, we have a long way to go |
| 146 | +before hitting that wall.</p> |
| 147 | + |
| 148 | +<h3>Slower than Compilation</h3> |
| 149 | + |
| 150 | +<p>Operationally, using static analysis to |
| 151 | +automatically find deep program bugs is about trading CPU time for the hardening |
| 152 | +of code. Because of the deep analysis performed by state-of-the-art static |
| 153 | +analysis tools, static analysis can be much slower than compilation.</p> |
| 154 | + |
| 155 | +<p>While the Clang Static Analyzer is being designed to be as fast and |
| 156 | +light-weight as possible, please do not expect it to be as fast as compiling a |
| 157 | +program (even with optimizations enabled). Some of the algorithms needed to find |
| 158 | +bugs require in the worst case exponential time.</p> |
| 159 | + |
| 160 | +<p>The Clang Static Analyzer runs in a reasonable amount of time by both |
| 161 | +bounding the amount of checking work it will do as well as using clever |
| 162 | +algorithms to reduce the amount of work it must do to find bugs.</p></li> |
| 163 | + |
| 164 | +<h3>False Positives</h3> |
| 165 | + |
| 166 | +<p>Static analysis is not perfect. It can falsely flag bugs in a program where |
| 167 | +the code behaves correctly. Because some code checks require more analysis |
| 168 | +precision than others, the frequency of false positives can vary widely between |
| 169 | +different checks. Our long-term goal is to have the analyzer have a low false |
| 170 | +positive rate for most code on all checks.</p> |
| 171 | + |
| 172 | +<p>Please help us in this endeavor by <a href="filing_bugs.html">reporting false |
| 173 | +positives</a>. False positives cannot be addressed unless we know about |
| 174 | +them.</p> |
| 175 | + |
| 176 | +<h3>More Checks</h3> |
| 177 | + |
| 178 | +<p>Static analysis not magic; a static analyzer can only find bugs that it has |
| 179 | +been specifically engineered to find. If there are specific kinds of bugs you |
| 180 | +would like the Clang Static Analyzer to find, please feel free to file <a |
| 181 | +href="filing_bugs.html">feature requests</a> or contribute your own patches.</p> |
| 182 | + |
| 183 | +</div> |
| 184 | +</body> |
| 185 | +</html> |
| 186 | + |
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