LWN.net Logo

Smatch update

Smatch is Dan Carpenter's project to create a free version of the Stanford Checker. The project is making progress, and smatch is now capable of finding several classes of bugs in the Linux kernel. Some patches fixing bugs found by smatch have already begun to appear.

The database of problems found by smatch is now hosted at kbugs.org. As of 2.5.64, there are just over 1000 potential bugs in the database. Many of them are certainly false alarms, but others will be real. An interesting feature of the kbugs.org site is the ability to "moderate" bugs as being real problems or not. With this capability, interested volunteers can help to sift out the real bugs, even if they don't feel able to contribute patches to fix them.

The smatch project is still in an early stage, but it is already showing great promise as a tool which can help in the creation of a better kernel.


(Log in to post comments)

Copyright © 2003, Eklektix, Inc.
Comments and public postings are copyrighted by their creators.
Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds