Static analyzers are automated tools that spot bugs in source code by scanning programs without running them. They complement traditional dynamic testing: Where testing allows individual runs through a piece of software to be checked for correctness, static analysis allows multiple and sometimes even all flows to be checked at once. Infer is an open-source static analyzer that is used internally at Facebook to analyze the main apps for Android and iOS, Facebook Messenger, and WhatsApp, among others. Infer reports bugs responsible for app crashes and performance issues, such as accessing null pointers, and leaking resources such as Context instances.
Each month, hundreds of potential bugs identified by Infer are fixed by our developers before they are committed to our codebases and deployed to people's phones.
This talk will present Infer and show how it can be integrated as part of the development workflow.
Speakers: Jules Villard