Infer – static analyzer for Java, C, C++, and Objective-C

Infer is a static code analysis tool developed by Meta for detecting potential defects in Java, C, C++ and Objective-C programs. It examines source code without executing the application, helping developers identify problems before they reach production.

The analyser uses a two-stage workflow. First, it captures compilation commands and translates source files into an intermediate representation. It then analyses functions and methods, building summaries that allow it to reason about behaviour across procedure boundaries and source files.

Infer employs several specialised analysis engines. These examine memory safety, resource management, concurrency and other aspects of program correctness. The tool can analyse individual files or larger projects, with options for incremental analysis and comparing results between code revisions.

This is free and open source software.

Key Features

• Pulse analysis identifies null-pointer dereferences, use-after-free errors and other memory safety problems.
• Detects memory leaks, resource leaks and invalid accesses to objects.
• Identifies potential buffer overruns and uses of uninitialised values.
• RacerD detects potential data races and thread-safety violations.
• Reports dead stores, unused values and selected redundant operations.
• Cost analysis estimates computational complexity and identifies potential performance regressions.
• Supports taint analysis for tracing potentially unsafe data flows.
• Detects certain infinite recursion and non-termination problems.
• Configurable analysis engines and issue types.
• Supports compilation databases and integration with existing build systems.
• Incremental analysis examines changed code without requiring a complete reanalysis.
• Differential reporting distinguishes introduced, fixed and pre-existing issues.
• Generates text and JSON reports, with tools for exploring analysis results.
• Cross-platform support – runs on Linux and macOS.

Website: github.com/facebook/infer
Support:
Developer: Facebook, Inc. and its affiliates
License: MIT License

Infer is written in OCaml. Learn OCaml with our recommended free books and free tutorials.

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