The team behind PVS-Studio has released a free-to-use version of the static code analyser. The news follows the recent release of a Linux version of the tool.

PVS-Studio is a tool for bug detection in the source code of programs, written in C, C++ and C#. There are versions for Windows and Linux, and now the free-for-use version.

PVS-Studio performs static code analysis and generates a report that you can use to help you find and fix bugs. It performs a wide range of code checks, and the developers say it is also useful to search for misprints and Copy-Paste errors.

The program works by using pattern-based analysis. An abstract syntax tree is used to look for fragments in the source code that are similar to the known code patterns with an error. It uses type inference based on the semantic model of the program to infer information about all variables and statements in the code, and symbolic execution allows range checking to find potential errors in the values of variables. It also uses data-flow analysis to evaluate what limits are imposed on the values of variables when processing various language constructs.

Finally, method annotations are used to gather more information about the methods used than would be obtained by analyzing only their signatures.

PVS-Studio offers integration with Visual Studio 2010-2015. You can carry out overnight analysis of files, running the scanner overnight then working on the results log in the morning. There's a command line option for project analysis, and you can interactively filter the analysis results in the PVS-Studio window by the diagnostic number, file name, or the keyword in the text of the diagnostic.

Andrey Karpov, co-founder and CTO of Program Verification Systems, has compiled a large collection of tips for programmers as a result of checking open source projects and presented a small selection on I Programmer, see Four Tips For C++ Programmers 

More Information

PVS-Studio Site

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