Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups
Register | Login
CSA

Clang Static Analyzer VS Cppcheck

Compare Clang Static Analyzer VS Cppcheck and see what are their differences

NinjaOne
NinjaOne (Formerly NinjaRMM) provides remote monitoring and management software that combines powerful functionality with a fast, modern UI. Easily remediate IT issues, automate common tasks, and support end-users with powerful IT management tools. featured
Contents:
  1. » Base Details
  2. » Videos
  3. » Reviews
  4. » Alternatives

Clang Static Analyzer logo Clang Static Analyzer

The Clang Static Analyzer is a source code analysis tool that finds bugs in C, C++, and Objective-C...

Cppcheck logo Cppcheck

Cppcheck is an analysis tool for C/C++ code. It detects the types of bugs that the compilers normally fail to detect. The goal is no false positives. CppCheckDownload cppcheck for free.
  • Clang Static Analyzer Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-07-28
  • Cppcheck Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-10-13

Clang Static Analyzer features and specs

  • Integration with Clang
    The Clang Static Analyzer is built as part of the Clang project, ensuring seamless integration with the Clang compiler. This allows for easy adoption in projects that already use Clang for compiling, as there is no need for additional tooling setup.
  • Open Source
    Being an open-source tool, Clang Static Analyzer is freely available for anyone to use and modify. This encourages a community-driven approach to improvements and provides the flexibility to tailor the tool to specific needs.
  • Path-sensitive Analysis
    Clang Static Analyzer performs path-sensitive analysis, which means it evaluates different execution paths in the code to detect complex bugs that may only manifest under certain conditions.
  • Deep C/C++ Support
    As part of the LLVM project, Clang Static Analyzer offers robust support for C and C++ languages, leveraging the deep language understanding from the Clang front-end.

Possible disadvantages of Clang Static Analyzer

  • Limited Language Support
    While it is excellent for C and C++, Clang Static Analyzer has limited support for other programming languages, which can be a drawback for projects involving multiple languages.
  • False Positives
    Like many static analysis tools, Clang Static Analyzer can generate false positives, where it reports issues that are not actual bugs. This can require developers to spend additional time reviewing and dismissing spurious warnings.
  • Complex Setup for Non-Clang Projects
    Projects that are not already using Clang might face a more complex setup process to integrate Clang Static Analyzer, as it requires adapting build configurations to use Clang.
  • Performance Overhead
    Running Clang Static Analyzer can introduce significant performance overhead during the analysis phase, which might lead to longer build or integration times, especially for large codebases.

Cppcheck features and specs

  • Open Source
    Cppcheck is open-source software, which means it is free to use and its source code is available for modification and distribution under the terms of the GNU General Public License.
  • Static Analysis
    Cppcheck excels at performing static code analysis, detecting bugs, memory leaks, and potential issues in C and C++ code without executing the program.
  • Wide Platform Support
    Cppcheck supports a wide range of platforms, including Windows, Linux, and macOS, making it versatile and accessible to developers on different operating systems.
  • Integrated with IDEs
    Cppcheck can be integrated with popular Integrated Development Environments (IDEs) like Visual Studio, Eclipse, and Code::Blocks, providing seamless code analysis during development.
  • Customizable
    Cppcheck allows customization of its analysis through command-line options and configurations, enabling users to tailor the tool to their specific needs and project requirements.
  • Extensive Reporting
    Cppcheck provides detailed reports that highlight various types of issues, making it easier for developers to identify and resolve problems efficiently.
  • Regular Updates
    Cppcheck is actively maintained, with regular updates and improvements that enhance its capabilities and address any newly discovered issues.

Possible disadvantages of Cppcheck

  • False Positives
    Cppcheck may sometimes produce false positives, flagging issues that are not actually problematic, which can lead to unnecessary debugging efforts.
  • Learning Curve
    New users may encounter a learning curve when first using Cppcheck, as they need to understand its configuration options and how to interpret its output effectively.
  • Limited Dynamic Analysis
    Cppcheck focuses on static analysis and does not provide dynamic analysis capabilities, which means it cannot detect issues that only occur at runtime.
  • Performance Overhead
    Running Cppcheck on large codebases can introduce performance overhead, potentially slowing down the development process if not managed properly.
  • Complex Configuration
    For complex projects, configuring Cppcheck to ignore certain false positives or to focus on specific types of issues can be challenging and time-consuming.

Clang Static Analyzer videos

+ Add

2019 LLVM Developers’ Meeting: A. Dergachev “Developing the Clang Static Analyzer”

More videos:

  • Review - Clang Static Analyzer - Eduard Bachmakov, Linux Foundation (GSoC)

Cppcheck videos

+ Add

Cppcheck

More videos:

  • Review - Daniel Marjamäki: Cppcheck, static code analysis

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Clang Static Analyzer and Cppcheck)

Clang Static Analyzer

Cppcheck

Code Analysis
39 39%
Code Analysis
61% 61
Code Coverage
39 39%
Code Coverage
61% 61
Code Review
39 39%
Code Review
61% 61
Development
42 42%
Development
58% 58

User comments

Share your experience with using Clang Static Analyzer and Cppcheck. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
Log in or Post with

Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Clang Static Analyzer and Cppcheck

Clang Static Analyzer Reviews

We have no reviews of Clang Static Analyzer yet.
Be the first one to post

Cppcheck Reviews

Top 9 C++ Static Code Analysis Tools
Cppcheck is a popular, open-source, free, cross-platform static code analysis tool dedicated to C and C++. It is known for being easy to use and its simplicity is one of its pros. To get started with it you don’t have to do any adjustments or modifications, which is why it’s often recommended for beginners. It also has a reputation of reporting a relatively small number of...
Source: www.incredibuild.com

Social recommendations and mentions

Cppcheck might be a bit more popular than Clang Static Analyzer. We know about 10 links to it since March 2021 and only 7 links to Clang Static Analyzer. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Clang Static Analyzer mentions (7)

  • Improvements to static analysis in GCC 14
    Clang has a similar tool, the Clang Static Analyzer: https://clang-analyzer.llvm.org/. - Source: Hacker News / about 1 year ago
  • Memory Safe or Bust?
    Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment [CI/CD] pipelines play a crucial role in enforcing code quality, especially when working with memory-unsafe languages. By integrating automated dynamic analysis tools like Valgrind or AddressSanitizer, static analysis tools like Clang Static Analyzer or cppcheck, and manual code review processes, developers can identify and mitigate many memory-related... - Source: dev.to / about 1 year ago
  • Static Code analysis
    No one static analyzer catches everything. It's best to run multiple. Popular ones are cppcheck, clang-analyzer, GCC static analyzer in GCC 10+, flawfinder, lizard. Source: about 2 years ago
  • Checked C
    With "cross translation units" (CTU) analysis a static analyzer could derive a constraint on `some_function` return value and check this against the array size to detect a possible bug. The Clang static analyzer [1], used through CodeChecker (CC) [2], do support CTU (enabled with `--ctu`). I'm very happy with the result on the code I'm working on. Of course this is not magic, and it's important to understand the... - Source: Hacker News / over 2 years ago
  • What's in your tool belt?
    Cppcheck and Clang Analyzer: statically analyze your code to find bad style and bugs (undefined behavior) respectively. Clang Analyzer can actually be frighteningly clever and has a low false positive rate (unlike most other non-commercial static checkers). Source: almost 3 years ago
View more

Cppcheck mentions (10)

  • Configuring Cppcheck, Cpplint, and JSON Lint
    I dedicated Sunday morning to going over the documentation of the linters we use in the project. The goal was to understand all options and use them in the best way for our project. Seeing their manuals side by side was nice because even very similar things are solved differently. Cppcheck is the most configurable and best documented; JSON Lint lies at the other end. - Source: dev.to / about 1 year ago
  • Enforcing Memory Safety?
    Using infer, someone else exploited null-dereference checks to introduce simple affine types in C++. Cppcheck also checks for null-dereferences. Unfortunately, that approach means that borrow-counting references have a larger sizeof than non-borrow counting references, so optimizing the count away potentially changes the semantics of a program which introduces a whole new way of writing subtly wrong code. Source: almost 2 years ago
  • Static Code analysis
    For my own projects, I used cppcheck. You can check out that tool to get a feel. Depending on what industry your in, you might need to follow a standard like Misra. Source: about 2 years ago
  • How do you not shoot yourself in the foot ?
    Https://cppcheck.sourceforge.io/ (there are many other static analysis tools, I just haven't used them or didn't care for them). Source: about 2 years ago
  • Linting tool for prohibiting the use of specific std types
    Sounds like something that could simply be communicated with the team that writes the tests. Unless you have dozens of such classes. In that case, you could just use e.g. Cppcheck and add a rule (regular expression) that searches for usages of the forbidden classes. Source: over 2 years ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Clang Static Analyzer and Cppcheck, you can also consider the following products

SonarQube - SonarQube, a core component of the Sonar solution, is an open source, self-managed tool that systematically helps developers and organizations deliver Clean Code.

Coverity Scan - Find and fix defects in your Java, C/C++ or C# open source project for free

Parasoft C/C++test - Ensure compliance with a variety of functional safety, security, and coding standards in embedded C/C++ software.

lgtm.com - lgtm.com is a platform for code analytics.

PVS-Studio - PVS-Studio is a useful piece of software for detecting problems in source code. The software examines program codes written in C, C++, and C# for any problems that might prohibit the code from functioning properly.

Polyspace - Polyspace is a suite of static code analysis products developed by Matlab to help software developers, QA Testers, and engineers find critical problems in their code and fix them before they become a serious threat.

Loading...