Tracking defect warnings across versions

Various static analysis tools will analyze a software artifact in order to identify potential defects, such as misused APIs, race conditions and deadlocks, and security vulnerabilities. For a number of reasons, it is important to be able to track the occurrence of each potential defect over multiple versions of a software artifact under study: in other words, to determine when warnings reported in multiple versions of the software all correspond the same underlying issue. One motivation for this capability is to remember decisions about code that has been reviewed and found to be safe despite the occurrence of a warning. Another motivation is constructing warning deltas between versions, showing which warnings are new, which have persisted, and which have disappeared. This allows reviewers to focus their efforts on inspecting new warnings. Finally, tracking warnings through a series of software versions reveals where potential defects are introduced and fixed, and how long they persi...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2006
• Where: MSR
• Authors: Jaime Spacco, David Hovemeyer, William Pugh
• Keywords: MSR 2006, Potential Defects, Software Artifact, Static Analysis Tool