[ILUG] Looking for a lint clone

[Bryan O'Donoghue]

Paul Biggar wrote:
>>What do people out there in ILUG land use, or recommend to use, as a
>>lint type scource code checker ?
> 
> 
> 
> I've heard good things about pclint (for c++). I see from google that
> there exists a C version, though surely the C++ version works for C.
> It is, AFAIK, neither Free nor free.
> 
> 
> Theres a decent list here:
> http://www.splint.org/links.html
> 
> and another here:
> http://alephnull.com/perf.html

Ideally, something free (as in beer / speech)[1]

> Linus wrote a tool called sparse, but I dont know if it runs on
> anything, or just the kernel.
> 
> 
>>splint, (*)lint ? Is there a semi-universally accepted obvious choice (tm) ?
> 
> 
> My first experience with splint gave me false errors which actually
> needed to be undone for the code to compile, and, being thus
> displeased, I havent gone back.

I like the idea of a gcc patch/lint type thing, since I'd rather have my
compiler say "hey stupid char x[2]; memset(x,0x0,20); is wrong!", then I
would have to backtrace a core dump, or spend time graphing code in
valgrind... also, since gcc makes various passes and gives genuinely
impressive error detection, to me it makes *sense* to do the check
there. Perhaps there's a reason, due to some standard or other that,
it's not done in the compiler.


[1] I don't really *get* that disjunction in the OSS domain. "Beer"
freebies back when I did drink, always seemed to come with strings
attached. And Freespeech (tm) is actually not guaranteed by law nor
constitution in this Republic !!!!


Bryan : Pursued by black helicopters.

-- 

"I have to return some video tapes" -- Patrick Bateman