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| <h1>Information on using the Static Analyzer ("LLVM Checker")</h1> |
| |
| <p>This documents provides some notes on using the LLVM/clang static analyzer to |
| find bugs in C and Objective-C programs.</p> |
| |
| <p>Please note that this tool is <b>very early</b> in development, and there are |
| <b>many planned enhancements</b> to improve both the precision and scope of its |
| analysis algorithms as well as the kinds bugs it will find.</p> |
| |
| <p>This document is arranged into the following sections:</p> |
| |
| <ul> |
| <li><a href="#Contents">Obtaining the Analyzer</a></li> |
| <li><a href="#BasicUsage">Basic Usage</a></li> |
| <li><a href="#Output">Output of the Analyzer</a></li> |
| <li><a href="#RecommendedUsageGuidelines">Recommended Usage Guidelines</a></li> |
| <li><a href="#Debugging">Debugging the Analyzer</a> |
| </ul> |
| |
| <h2 id="ReleaseContents">Obtaining the Analyzer</h2> |
| |
| <p> Using the analyzer involves executing <tt>scan-build</tt> (see <a |
| href="#BasicUsage">Basic Usage</a>). <tt>scan-build</tt> will first look for a |
| <tt>clang</tt> executable in the same directory as <tt>scan-build</tt>, and then |
| search your path.</p> |
| |
| <p>If one is using the analyzer directly from the Clang sources, it suffices to |
| just directly execute <tt>scan-build</tt> in the <tt>utils</tt> directory. No |
| other special installation is needed.</p> |
| |
| <h3>Packaged Builds (currently Mac-Only)</h3> |
| |
| <p>Semi-regular builds of the analyzer on Mac OS X (10.5) are available <a |
| href="http://keeda.stanford.edu/~kremenek/checker">here</a>. Packaged builds for |
| other platforms may eventually be provided, but as the tool is in its early |
| stages we are not actively promoting releases yet. If you wish to help |
| contribute regular builds of the analyzer on other platforms, please email the |
| <a href="http://lists.cs.uiuc.edu/mailman/listinfo/cfe-dev">Clang Developers' |
| mailing list</a>.</p> |
| |
| <p>Packaged builds of the analyzer expand to the following files:</p> |
| |
| <table id="package"> |
| <thead><tr><td>File</td><td>Purpose</td></tr></thead> |
| <tr><td><tt><b>scan-build</b></tt></td><td>Script for running the analyzer over a project build. <b>This is the only file you care about.</b></td></tr> |
| <tr><td><tt>ccc-analyzer</tt></td><td>GCC interceptor (called by scan-build)</td></tr> |
| <tr><td><tt>clang</tt></td><td>Static Analyzer (called by ccc-analyzer)</td><tr> |
| <tr><td><tt>sorttable.js</tt></td><td>JavaScript used for displaying error reports</td></tr> |
| </table> |
| |
| <h3>Other Platforms (Building the Analyzer from Source)</h3> |
| |
| <p>Packaged builds simply consist of a few files from the Clang source tree, |
| meaning that <b>anyone</b> who can build Clang can use the static analyzer. |
| Please see the <a href="get_started.html">Getting Started</a> page for more |
| details on downloading and compiling Clang.</p> |
| |
| <p>All files used by the analyzer (and included in packaged builds; <a |
| href="#package">see above</a>) other than a compiled <tt>clang</tt> executable |
| are found in the <tt>utils</tt> subdirectory in the Clang tree.</p> |
| |
| <h2 id="BasicUsage">Basic Usage</h2> |
| |
| <p>The analyzer is executed from the command-line. To run the analyzer, you will |
| use <tt>scan-build</tt> to analyze the source files compiled by <tt>gcc</tt> |
| during a project build.</p> |
| |
| <p>For example, to analyze the files compiled under a build:</p> |
| |
| <pre> |
| $ <b>scan-build</b> make |
| $ <b>scan-build</b> xcodebuild |
| </pre> |
| |
| <p> In the first case <tt>scan-build</tt> analyzes the code of a project built |
| with <tt>make</tt>, andin the second case <tt>scan-build</tt> analyzes a project |
| built using <tt>xcodebuild</tt>. In general, the format is: </p> |
| |
| <pre> |
| $ <b>scan-build</b> <i>[scan-build options]</i> <b><command></b> <i>[command options]</i> |
| </pre> |
| |
| <p> Operationally, <tt>scan-build</tt> literally runs <command> with all of the |
| subsequent options passed to it. For example</p> |
| |
| <pre> |
| $ scan-build make <b>-j4</b> |
| </pre> |
| |
| <p>In this example, <tt>scan-build</tt> makes no effort to interpret the options |
| after the build command (in this case, <tt>make</tt>); it just passes them |
| through. In general, <tt>scan-build</tt> should support parallel builds, but |
| <b>not distributed builds</b>. Similarly, you can use <tt>scan-build</tt> to |
| analyze specific files: |
| |
| <pre> |
| $ scan-build gcc -c <b>t1.c t2.c</b> |
| </pre> |
| |
| <p> |
| This example causes the files <tt>t1.c</tt> and <tt>t2.c</tt> to be analyzed. |
| </p> |
| |
| <h3>Other Options</h3> |
| |
| <p> |
| As mentioned above, extra options can be passed to <tt>scan-build</tt>. These |
| options prefix the build command. For example:</p> |
| |
| <pre> |
| $ scan-build <b>-k -V</b> make |
| $ scan-build <b>-k -V</b> xcodebuild |
| </pre> |
| |
| <p>Here are a complete list of options:</p> |
| |
| <table> |
| <thead><tr><td>Option</td><td>Description</td></tr></thead> |
| |
| <tr><td><b>-a</b></td> |
| <td>The analysis to run. The default analysis is <i>checker-cfref</i>. Valid options are: <i>checker-cfref</i>, <i>fsyntax-only</i>. |
| These translate into options passed down to the <tt>clang</tt> executable, and currently this option is mainly used for debugging.</td></tr> |
| |
| <tr><td><b>-o</b></td><td>Target directory for HTML report files. Subdirectories will be |
| created as needed to represent separate "runs" of the analyzer. If this option |
| is not specified, a directory is created in <tt>/tmp</tt> to store the |
| reports.</td><tr> |
| |
| <tr><td><b>-h</b><br><i><nobr>(or no arguments)</nobr></i></td><td>Display <tt>scan-build</tt> options.</td></tr> |
| |
| <tr><td><b>-k</b><br><nobr><b>--keep-going</b></nobr></td><td>Add a "keep on going" option to the |
| specified build command. <p>This option currently supports <tt>make</tt> and |
| <tt>xcodebuild</tt>.</p> <p>This is a convenience option; one can specify this |
| behavior directly using build options.</p></td></tr> |
| |
| <tr><td><b>-v<b></td><td>Verbose output from scan-build and the analyzer. <b>A second and third |
| "-v" increases verbosity</b>, and is useful for filing bug reports against the analyzer.</td></tr> |
| |
| <tr><td><b>-V</b></td><td>View analysis results in a web browser when the build command completes.</td></tr> |
| </table> |
| |
| <p>These options can also be viewed by running <tt>scan-build</tt> with no |
| arguments:</p> |
| |
| <pre> |
| $ <b>scan-build</b> |
| |
| USAGE: scan-build [options] <build command> [build options] |
| |
| OPTIONS: |
| |
| -a - The analysis to run. The default is 'checker-cfref'. |
| Valid options are: 'checker-cfref', 'fsyntax-only' |
| |
| -o - Target directory for HTML report files. Subdirectories |
| will be created as needed to represent separate "runs" of |
| the analyzer. If this option is not specified, a directory |
| is created in /tmp to store the reports. |
| <b>...</b> |
| </pre> |
| |
| <h2 id="Output">Output of the Analyzer</h2> |
| |
| <p> |
| The output of the analyzer is a set of HTML files, each one which represents a |
| separate bug report. A single <tt>index.html</tt> file is generated for |
| surveying all of the bugs. You can then just open <tt>index.html</tt> in a web |
| browser to view the bug reports. |
| </p> |
| |
| <p> |
| Where the HTML files are generated is specified with a <b>-o</b> option to |
| <tt>scan-build</tt>. If <b>-o</b> isn't specified, a directory in <tt>/tmp</tt> |
| is created to store the files (<tt>scan-build</tt> will print a message telling |
| you where they are). If you want to view the reports immediately after the build |
| completes, pass <b>-V</b> to <tt>scan-build</tt>. |
| </p> |
| |
| |
| <h2 id="RecommendedUsageGuidelines">Recommended Usage Guidelines</h2> |
| |
| Here are a few recommendations with running the analyzer: |
| |
| <h3>Always Analyze a Project in its "Debug" Configuration</h3> |
| |
| Most projects can be built in a "debug" mode that enables assertions. Assertions |
| are picked up by the static analyzer to prune infeasible paths, which in some |
| cases can greatly reduce the number of false positives (bogus error reports) |
| emitted by the tool. |
| |
| <h3>Pass -k to <tt>scan-build</tt></h3> |
| |
| <p>While <tt>ccc-analyzer</tt> invokes <tt>gcc</tt> to compile code, any |
| problems in correctly forwarding arguments to <tt>gcc</tt> may result in a build |
| failure. Passing <b>-k</b> to <tt>scan-build</tt> potentially allows you to |
| analyze other code in a project for which this problem doesn't occur.</p> |
| |
| <p> Also, it is useful to analyze a project even if not all of the source files |
| are compilable. This is great when using <tt>scan-build</tt> as part of your |
| compile-debug cycle.</p> |
| |
| <h3>Use Verbose Output when Debugging <tt>scan-build</tt></h3> |
| |
| <tt>scan-build</tt> takes a <b>-v</b> option to emit verbose output about what |
| it's doing; two <b>-v</b> options emit more information. Redirecting the output |
| of <tt>scan-build</tt> to a text file (make sure to redirect standard error) is |
| useful for filing bug reports against <tt>scan-build</tt> or the analyzer, as we |
| can see the exact options (and files) passed to the analyzer. For more |
| comprehendible logs, don't perform a parallel build. |
| |
| <h2 id="Debugging">Debugging the Analyzer</h2> |
| |
| This section provides information on debugging the analyzer, and troubleshooting |
| it when you have problems analyzing a particular project. |
| |
| <h3>How it Works</h3> |
| |
| To analyze a project, <tt>scan-build</tt> simply sets the environment variable |
| <tt>CC</tt> to the full path to <tt>ccc-analyzer</tt>. It also sets a few other |
| environment variables to communicate to <tt>ccc-analyzer</tt> where to dump HTML |
| report files. |
| |
| <p>Some Makefiles (or equivalent project files) hardcode the compiler; for such |
| projects simply overriding <tt>CC</tt> won't cause <tt>ccc-analyzer</tt> to be |
| called. This will cause the compiled code <b>to not be analyzed.</b></p> If you |
| find that your code isn't being analyzed, check to see if <tt>CC</tt> is |
| hardcoded. If this is the case, you can hardcode it instead to the <b>full |
| path</b> to <tt>ccc-analyzer</tt>.</p> |
| |
| <p>When applicable, you can also run <tt>./configure</tt> for a project through |
| <tt>scan-build</tt> so that configure sets up the location of <tt>CC</tt> based |
| on the environment passed in from <tt>scan-build</tt>: |
| |
| <pre> |
| $ scan-build <b>./configure</b> |
| </pre> |
| |
| <p><tt>scan-build</tt> has special knowledge about <tt>configure</tt>, so it in |
| most cases will not actually analyze the configure tests run by |
| <tt>configure</tt>.</p> |
| |
| <p>Under the hood, <tt>ccc-analyzer</tt> directly invokes <tt>gcc</tt> to |
| compile the actual code in addition to running the analyzer (which occurs by it |
| calling <tt>clang</tt>). <tt>ccc-analyzer</tt> tries to correctly forward all |
| the arguments over to <tt>gcc</tt>, but this may not work perfectly (please |
| report bugs of this kind). |
| |
| <h3>Filing Bugs</h3> |
| |
| We encourage users to file bug reports for any problems that they encounter. |
| |
| <p><b>Outside Apple</b>: Please <a |
| href="http://llvm.org/bugs/enter_bug.cgi?product=clang">file bugs</a> (against |
| Clang) in LLVM's Bugzilla database.</p> |
| |
| <p><b>Apple-internal</b>: Please file bugs in Radar against the <b>llvm - clang</b> |
| component.</p> |
| |
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