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<font color="darkblue" face="arial,helvetica"><a href="http://www.splint.org/"><b>Splint</b> - Secure Programming Lint</a><br></font>
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<p>
<blockquote>
<h1>Splint - Frequently Asked Questions</h1>
<h3>Index</h3>
<ol>
<h4><a href="#genquest">General Questions About Splint</a></h4>
<li><a href="#quest1">What is the difference between Splint and LCLint?</a><br />
</li>
<li><a href="#quest2">What is the Splint logo?<br />
</a></li>
<li><a href="#quest2a">How is Splint pronounced?<br />
</a></li>
<li><a href="#quest3">Can I include Splint in my software distribution?<br />
</a></li>
<li><a href="#quest4">Can we use your software in our company? (We are not a GNU
organization.)<br />
</a></li>
<li><a href="#quest9">Which compilers does Splint support?<br>
</a></li>
<li><a href="#quest5">Does Splint handle C++?<br>
</a></li>
<h4><a href="#install">Installation</a></h4>
</li>
<li><a href="#quest6">I downloaded the Splint .tgz file but can't figure out how to
extract it. There is no 'z' option on the tar on my system.<br />
</a></li>
<li><a href="#quest7">I want to use Splint in Windows. How do I do that?<br />
</a></li>
<li><a href="#quest8">I have installed Splint for Windows 2000. Where should I put
the ".splintrc" file?<br />
</a></li>
<li><a href="#quest17">When I build Splint I get the following errors.... Should I
be worried?<br />
</a></li>
<li><a href="#quest18">I just installed Splint on a new machine. I get a bunch of
errors during building when the test suite is run. When I look through the results,
it seems like Splint is not reporting any errors in the code it analyzes. What is
going on?<br />
</a></li>
<h4><a href="#usage">Usage</a></h4>
<li><a href="#quest15">Why am I getting parse errors in system header files?</a></li>
<li><a href="#quest16">Is every Splint warning a real error?<br />
</a></li>
<li><a href="#quest10">How does Splint handle const?<br />
</a></li>
<li><a href="#quest14">I develop code on an embedded system with a compiler that
uses nonstandard key words and data types. I would like to run Splint on my code
but these nonstandard keywords cause parse errors. What should I do?<br />
</a></li>
<li><a href="#quest14b">How can I get Splint to recognize directory trees and local
source include directories?<br />
</a></li>
<li><a href="#quest20">I use realloc in my code. How can I get Splint in check this
code more effectively?<br />
</a></li>
<h4><a href="#warnerror">Warnings and Errors</a></h4>
<li><a href="#quest11">Why do I get a warning when multiplying different integer
types? The C standard says this is ok. Why is this wrong?<br />
</a></li>
<li><a href="#quest13">Why does splint complain if I ignore the return value of <tt>scanf</tt> but
not <tt>printf</tt>?<br />
</a></li>
<li><a href="#quest18b">I get parse errors when I try to run Splint on code like
#define MACROdebug(...) blahblah . Can I use variadic macros in Splint?<br />
</a></li>
<h4><a href="#bugs">Bugs</a></h4>
<li><a href="#quest21">I think I've found a bug in Splint. What should I do?<br />
</a></li>
<li><a href="#quest22">Splint tells me that there is a bug and I should report it.
What information should I send?<br />
</a></li>
<h4><a href="#adinfo">Additional Information</a></h4>
<li><a href="#quest23">My question isn't answered here. How can I get more
information about Splint?<br />
</a></li>
</ol>
<h3>Questions and Answers</h3>
<ol>
<h4><a id="genquest" name="genquest">General Questions About Splint</a></h4>
<li>
<p><a id="quest1" name="quest1">What is the difference between Splint and
LCLint?</a></p>
<blockquote>
Before 2002, Splint was known as LCLint. LCLint Version 3.0 was renamed
Splint Verion 3.0.
<p>
LCLint was originally named for <b>LCL</b>, the Larch C Interface
Language and lint, a well-known C program checking tool. Because our
tool has diverged from LCL, and our focus now is on secure programming,
it was renamed Splint.
</blockquote>
</li>
<li>
<p><a id="quest2" name="quest2">What is the Splint logo?</a></p>
<blockquote>
Thomas Jefferson's <a
href="http://www.cs.virginia.edu/evans/pictures/serpentine/">Serpentine
Walls</a> at the University of Virginia. The walls are one brick thick,
but because of their design are both strong and aesthetic. Like a
secure program, secure walls depend on sturdy bricks, solid
construction, and
<a href="http://www.bia.org/BIA/technotes/t29a.htm">elegant and principled design</a>.
</blockquote>
</li>
<li>
<p><a id="quest2a" name="quest2a">How is Splint pronounced?</a></p>
<blockquote>
"Splint" can be pronounced as one word, like the first aid device used
to fix broken bones. It is also acceptable (but harder) to pronounce
it as "S" "P" "lint".
</blockquote>
</li>
<li>
<p><a id="quest3" name="quest3">Can I include Splint in my software
distribution?</a></p>
<blockquote>
Yes. Splint is licensed under the GNU General Public License. You may
redistribute it as you wish so long as credits and pointers to <a
href="http://www.splint.org/">www.splint.org</a> are not changed or removed.
Splint may be included in commercial distributions, and is included in several
Linux and freeware CDs. If you want to redistribute Splint, please let us know by
sending a message to <a
href="mailto:splint@cs.virginia.edu">splint@cs.virginia.edu</a>.<br />
<br />
</blockquote>
</li>
<li>
<p><a id="quest4" name="quest4">Can we use your software in our company? (We are
not a GNU organization.)</a></p>
<blockquote>
Yes, Splint is GPL-licensed. Anyone may use it. If you want to redistribute it,
check the license for details or contact us.<br />
<br />
</blockquote>
</li>
<li>
<p><a id="quest9" name="quest9">Which compilers does Splint support?</a></p>
<blockquote>
Splint is independent from your compiler. It checks standard C
code, according to the ISO C99 specification. Splint supports
most, but not all, of the C99 extensions to the ANSI C. Splint
supports some of the gcc compiler extensions (if +gnuextensions
is used).
<br></br>
</blockquote>
</li>
<li>
<p><a id="quest5" name="quest5">Does Splint handle C++?</a></p>
<blockquote>
No, Splint does not check C++ code. We don't have the
resources (or the research justification) to build a C++
front end, but if you are interested in building a C++ front end the source
code is available, and I will certainly be willing to help.<br></br>
</blockquote>
</li>
<h4><a id="install" name="install">Installation</a></h4>
<li>
<p><a id="quest6" name="quest6">I downloaded the Splint .tgz file but can't
figure out how to extract it. There is no 'z' option on the tar on my
system.</a></p>
<blockquote>
Check to see if there is GNU tar on your system, it is usually invoked by the
command gtar or gnutar. GNU tar supports the -z option.<br></br>
<p>You can also unzip the file then untar it.
Do: <tt>gunzip filename.tar.gz</tt> to
unzip then <tt>tar -xvf filename.tar</tt>.
<p>
A single command to do this is: <tt>gzip -d < filename.tar.gz | tar
-xvf -</tt>. <font size="-1">[Contributed by Derric Tubbs]</font>
</p>
</blockquote>
</li>
<li>
<p><a id="quest7" name="quest7">I want to use Splint in Windows. How do I do
that?</a></p>
<blockquote>
See <a
href="http://splint.org/win32.html/">http://splint.org/win32.html</a>
for instructions on obtaining and installing Splint on Windows.
We do not actively support Windows or do any Windows
development.
<br></br>
</blockquote>
</li>
<li>
<p><a id="quest8" name="quest8">I have installed Splint for Windows 2000. Where
should I put the <tt>.splintrc</tt> file?</a></p>
<blockquote>
For Win32, Splint looks for <tt>splint.rc</tt> instead of
<tt>.splintrc</tt> due to the DOS filename limitations. It will
look first in the current directory, then in your home
directory.
</blockquote>
</li>
<li>
<p><a id="quest17" name="quest17">When I build Splint I get the following
error:</a>
<blockquote>
<pre>
Checking manual...
cmx > / Checking tests2.2...
Checking tests2.4...
Checking tests2.5...
Checking db1...
0a1,2
< /cmx/tools/make -e clean
> /cmx/tools/make -e check
*** FAIL ***
Checking db2...
0a1,2
< /tools/make -e clean
> /cmx/tools/make -e check
*** FAIL ***
Checking db3...
</pre>
</blockquote>
<p>Should I be worried?</p>
<blockquote>
Those differences look harmless. It is likely that your make is set up slightly
differently than ours.
</blockquote>
</li>
<li>
<p><a id="quest18" name="quest18">I just installed Splint on a new machine. I get
a bunch of errors during building when the test suite is run. When I look through
the results, it seems like Splint is not reporting any errors in the code it
analyzes. What is going on?</a></p>
<blockquote>
One possibility is that the installation directory where the test suite is
running is on the system path (hence, splint won't report errors if
<tt>-sysdirerrors</tt> is set, as it is by default). Try adding <tt>+sysdirerrors</tt> to the
command line for the test suite to see if that is the problem, or installing
Splint in a different directory not in the system path.<br></br>
<br></br>
</blockquote>
</li>
<h4><a id="usage" name="usage">Usage</a></h4>
<li>
<p><a id="quest15" name="quest15">Why am I getting parse errors in
system header files?</a></p>
<blockquote>
Parse errors usually occur in code written for compilers that
use nonstandard keywords or type names. (See the <a
href="#quest14">question</a> on providing definitions of these names.)<br></br>
If you're getting parse errors make sure that the required libraries are included by using the +posixlib or +unixlib flags. If you're using nonstandard gnu extensions the +gnuextensions flag make be helpful.<br></br>
However, Splint doesn't yet support all C99 extensions so there are some legitimate C programs that will need to be modified.<br></br>
<br></br>
</blockquote>
</li>
<li>
<p><a id="quest16" name="quest16">Is every Splint warning a real
error?</a></p>
<blockquote>
No. Many of the program properties that Splint checks are
undecidable. This means that any static analysis tool that can be run
on real programs will either produce false positives or false
negatives. Because of this and to improve efficiency, Splint makes some
simplifying assumptions. This means that Splint will occasionally
produce spurious warnings or miss real errors.<br></br>
However, often spurious errors can be fixed by adding additional annotations.<br></br>
</blockquote>
</li>
<li>
<p><a id="quest10" name="quest10">How does Splint handle const?</a></p>
<blockquote>
Splint doesn't interpret const (at all). See the manual section on modifies
checking (<a
href="http://www.splint.org/manual/html/sec7.html">http://www.splint.org/manual/html/sec7.html</a>).<br></br>
<br></br>
</blockquote>
</li>
<li>
<p><a id="quest14" name="quest14">I develop code on an embedded system with a
compiler that uses nonstandard key words and data types. I would like to run
Splint on my code but these nonstandard keywords cause parse errors. What should
I do?</a></p>
<blockquote>
<p>You can often use -D to solve this problem.</p>
<p>If you just want to ignore a keyword, you can add -Dnonstandardkeyword= to
make the preprocessor eliminate the keyword, where nonstandardkeyword is the
name of the keyword. Similarly, you can use -Dspecialtype=int to make a custom
type parse as an int.</p>
</blockquote>
</li>
<li>
<p><a id="quest14b" name="quest14b">How can I get Splint to recognize directory
trees and local source include directories? I've tried putting them in my path
but it doesn't seem to look beyond the current directory.</a></p>
<blockquote>
You can use -I to set the include path like you would with a compiler.<br></br>
<br></br>
</blockquote>
</li>
<li>
<p><a id="quest20" name="quest20">I use <tt>realloc</tt> in my
code. How can I get Splint in check this code more
effectively?</a></p> <blockquote>
The semantics of <tt>realloc</tt> cannot be describe precisely with
Splint's annotations since its memory behavior is different
depending on its return value. When <tt>realloc</tt> succeeds, the
pointer passed to it is no longer valid. The returned
pointer points to available storage with the specified size, and
the values are copied from the leading portion of the original
storage indicated by the pointer passed to the function.
When <tt>realloc</tt> returns a NULL pointer, and more than zero bytes
were supposed to be allocated, no new storage has been
allocated. The original pointer passed in is not
deallocated and its contents are still accessible. (Under
ANSI C '89 and later, malloc and <tt>realloc</tt> may return NULL if
asked for zero bytes. In this case, <tt>realloc</tt> would release
the old storage.)</p>
<p>
If you do use <tt>realloc</tt>, we recommend that you use a
wrapper around it.
</blockquote>
</li>
<h4><a id="warnerror" name="warnerror">Warnings and Errors</a></h4>
<li>
<p><a id="quest11" name="quest11">Why do I get a warning when multiplying
different integer types? The C standard says this is ok. Why is this
wrong?</a></p>
<blockquote>
There are lots of things that the C spec allows and defines clearly, that
Splint will provide warnings for. It's not a question of it being "wrong", it's
a matter of it being likely to reveal a programming mistake.
</blockquote>
</li>
<li><p><a id="quest13" name="quest13">Why does splint complain if I ignore the return value of <tt>scanf</tt> but
not <tt>printf</tt>?<br />
<blockquote>
This is just a strategic decision --- we view ignoring the result of a <tt>scanf</tt> to
be more likely to reveal a problem with the code than ignoring the result of a
<tt>printf</tt>, even though strict programmers will want to check the result of <tt>printf</tt> also.
<p>
If you want stricter checking, use the flags <Tt>+ansistrictlib</tt>, <tt>+posixstrictlib</tt>,
<tt>+unixstrictlib</tt> to select the strict versions of these libraries.<br></br>
</blockquote>
</li>
<li>
<p><a id="quest18b" name="quest18b">I get parse errors when I try to run Splint
on code like #define MACROdebug(...) blahblah . Can I use variadic macros in
Splint?</a></p>
<blockquote>
Sorry, Splint does not yet support variadic macros. We hope to fix this in a
future release.<br></br>
<br></br>
</blockquote>
</li>
<h4><a id="bugs" name="bugs">Bugs</a></h4>
<li>
<p><a id="quest21" name="quest21">I think I've found a bug in Splint. What should
I do?</a></p>
<blockquote>
See <a
href="http://www.splint.org/bugs.html">http://www.splint.org/bugs.html</a> for
a list of known bugs and instructions on reporting bugs.<br></br>
<br></br>
</blockquote>
</li>
<li>
<p><a id="quest22" name="quest22">Splint tells me that there is a bug and I
should report it. What information should I send?</a></p>
<blockquote>
Ideally we would like enough code to reproduce the problem. Small snippets of
code which trigger the bug are the best but more code is also acceptable.<br></br>
<p>
If we're not able to reproduce the problem, then we are unlikely to be able
to patch Splint. However, we would still appreciate hearing about the bug and
may be able to at least to offer you advice on working around the problem.</p>
</blockquote>
</li>
<h4><a id="adinfo" name="adinfo">Additional Information</a></h4>
<li>
<p><a id="quest23" name="quest23">My question isn't answered here. How can I get
more information about Splint?</a></p>
<blockquote>
The Splint manual is available at: <a
href="http://www.splint.org/manual/">http://www.splint.org/manual/</a></p>
<p>The mailing list archives are at:</p>
<p><a
href=" http://www.splint.org/lists.html"> http://www.splint.org/lists.html/</a></p>
<p>If you're still unable to find the information to answer your question, you
can try posting the question to the splint-discuss mailing list (see <a
href="http://www.splint.org/lists.html">http://www.splint.org/lists.html</a>)</p>
<p>You can also email us at splint@splint.org.</p>
</blockquote>
</li>
</ol>
</blockquote>
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