...

In this mode, analysis data is written to disk. Swapping of analysis data uses the same persistent storage and is done in a similar process as incremental analysis. If the analysis is run on a large project, the analysis data that represents a semantical model of the analyzed source code may consume all the memory available for running Flow Analysis. If this occurs, Flow Analysis will remove from memory parts of the analysis data that are not currently necessary and reread it from disk later.

In general, we recommend running

...

Jtest

in runningJtestin a large JVM heap configured with the Xmx JVM option. This is to minimize swapping, which results in greater performance. If sufficient memory is available, swapping of analysis data may be disabled, which may speed up code analysis.

...

Enable swapping of analysis data to disk:

...

Enabled

by Enabledby default. If this option is disabled, it may result in faster analysis, if you are running Flow Analysis analysis on small to moderate size projects that do not require a lot of memory or when plenty of memory is available (for example, for 64-bit systems).

...

• Do not report violations when cause cannot be shown: Determines whether Flow Analysis reports violations where causes cannot be shown.
  Some Flow Analysis rules require that Flow Analysis checks all the possible paths leading to a certain point and verifies that a certain condition is met for all those paths. In such cases, a violation is associated with a set of paths (whereas in simple cases, a violation is represented by only one path). All of the paths in such a violation end with the violation point common to all the paths in the violation. However, different paths may start at different points in code. The beginning of each path is a violation cause (a point in code which stipulates a violation of a certain condition later in the code at the violation point). If a multipath violation's different paths have different causes, Flow Analysis will show only the violation point (and not the violation causes).
  Violations containing only the violation point may be difficult to understand (compared to regular cases where Flow Analysis shows complete paths starting from violation causes and leading to violation points). That’s why we provide an option to hide violations where the cause cannot be shown.
• Do not show more than one violation per point: Restricts reporting to one violation (for a single rule) per violation point. For example, one violation will be reported when Flow Analysis detects a potential null dereference with multiple sources of the null value. When verbosity is set to this level, Flow Analysis performance is somewhat faster.

...

...

Null-checking Methods

The Null-checking methods option allows you to specify the expected return value when a null parameter is passed to a method. This reduces false positives and excessive paths that would normally be built when the return value for null variables are unknown.

Select the Enabled checkbox and provide the following information:

• Fully-qualified type name (wildcard): the fully qualified name of the type that contains the method.
• Method name (wildcard): the name of the method.
• Returned value when null: the value that should be returned when a null parameter is passed to the method.
• + definitions in subclasses: indicates whether the null-checking functions definitions in sub-classes should be considered null-checking functions as well.

...

Null-checking Methods Example

Flow Analysis will analyze methods in the analysis scope. Null-checking method parameterizations are required when the methods are out of the scope of the current analysis (e.g. third-party libraries). The classes in the following example are defined in a different assembly and are outside the scope of the analysis (UString). The class uses static methods to manipulate code with Java strings in various ways, including the UString.isEmptyOrNull(String), which is defined:

public class UString
{
    static boolean isEmptyOrNull(String variable)
    {
        if ((variable == null) || (variable.length() == 0)) {
            return true;
        }
        return false;
    }
}

And there is the following class, which is analyzed by Flow Analysis’s BD-EXCEPT-NP rule:

public class SomeClass
{
    void someMethod(String variable)
    {
        boolean flag = variable == null; // violation search starts here
        if (UString.isEmptyOrNull(variable)) {
            /** 
             * In case variable is null, we will always get to this branch of the if clause.
             */
            System.out.println("String is empty");
        } else {
            variable.toString(); // FALSE POSITIVE BD-EXCEPT-NP VIOLATION
        }
    }
}

Flow Analysis assumes that the return value for the method isEmptyOrNull() is unknown. This is because the method is not in the analysis scope. Flow Analysis will analyze the then and else branches of the if statement and find a violation in one of these statements. Calling this method, however, returns true when the variable is null.

By adding UString.isEmptyOrNull() to the list of methods in the Null-checking Methods parameterization with the specified return value, Flow Analysis will not report a violation if the tracked variable is passed to this method. This is because the wrong branch of the if statement will not be analyzed, resulting in an avoided false positive.

Null-checking Methods Restrictions

Methods added to this parameterization should be static methods that have a primitive boolean return value. This restriction is managed to avoid excessive complications in parameterization and ensuring that there are no other variables that could affect the result of the null-checking method. 

Specifying Resources

The Resources tab allows you to define which resources the BD.RES category (Resources) rules should check. These rules check for the correct usage of all resources that are defined and enabled on this tab.

1. Specify the Type of resource.
2. Select the Enabled checkbox.
3. If appropriate/desired, disable the Do not report leaks at termination option.

4. Click the arrow to expand the Resource Allocators and Resource Closers tabs and complete the tables that open with the information about allocators and closers. Details about completing these tabs are provided below.

   Conditional Contentproduct: (dottest, jtest)product: (dottest, jtest)sv-attr:0A01020401598D973E6641760F8AF4E50A01020401598D973E684FA84B2F8FAC 0A01020401598D973E671AAA268425A3

   Image Modified

Configuring Resource Allocators

...

...

The Resource allocators table can be completed with the descriptors of methods that can produce a resource. The table has the following columns:

• Enabled: specifies whether the allocator should be considered during analysis.
• Fully-qualified type name (wildcard): the fully-qualified name of the type where the method is declared. Use '*' if you want to describe a function declared in any type, or a global function declared outside of any type.
• Method name (wildcard): the name of the allocating method. '*' can be used to denote any number of any symbols.
• Resource parameters: specifies that the method allocates a resource in one or more of its parameters. In this case, either specify a 1-based number of the parameter that is allocated by the method, or use '*' to denote that all of the parameters are allocated.
• + definitions in subclasses: a check box that indicates whether the definitions (of methods with the given name) in subclasses should be considered allocators as well. Note that this applies to both instance and static methods.
• "this" object is a resource: a check box that indicates that the method allocates a resource in the object on which the method is called.
• Returns a resource object: a check box that indicates that the method returns an allocated resource.

It is common that allocation methods return an error code to indicate allocation failure. When an allocation method returns a resource, a NULL value normally indicates an allocation failure. When Flow Analysis is looking for resource leaks, it needs to understand if allocation succeeded or failed; this helps it report only missing calls to deallocation methods on paths where allocation actually occurred. In cases where a resource allocator method returns a resource, Flow Analysis assumes that the resource is successfully allocated if the returned value is not NULL.

Configuring Resource Closers

...

The Resource closers table can be completed with the descriptors of methods that can close a resource. The table has the following columns:

• Enabled: specifies whether the closer should be considered during analysis.
• Fully-qualified type name (wildcard): the fully-qualified name of the type where the method is declared. Use '*' if you want to describe a function declared in any type , or a global function declared outside of any type.
• Method name (wildcard): the name of the closing method. '*' can be used to denote any num-ber of any symbols.
• + definitions in subclasses: a check box that indicates whether the definitions (of methods with the given name) in subclasses should be considered closers as well. Note that this applies to both instance and static methods.
• "this" object is a resource: a check box that indicates that a resource in the object on which the method is called is closed.
• Resource parameters: specifies that a resource in one or more of its parameters is closed. In this case, either specify a 1-based number of the parameter that is closed by the method, or use '*' to denote that all of the parameters are allocated.

Scroll Pagebreak