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Code Analysis

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C++ is not Java, which means that you have to pay extra attention when coding. Most problems are caused by memory leaks since C++ provides no garbage collection. However, with some tools you can make your life easier.

Valgrind

"Valgrind is a GPL'd system for debugging and profiling Linux programs. With Valgrind's tool suite you can automatically detect many memory management and threading bugs, avoiding hours of frustrating bug-hunting, making your programs more stable. You can also perform detailed profiling to help speed up your programs."

If you use Eclipse for developing, don't forget to switch to debug mode before using Valgrind (right click on a project → Build Configurations → Set Active → Debug). Then switch to the Debug folder in the command line :)

Example

If you normally run your program like this:

./myprog arg1 arg2

Use this command line:

valgrind --leak-check=yes myprog arg1 arg2

See this page for a quick start.

Cppcheck

"Cppcheck is an analysis tool for C/C++ code. Unlike C/C++ compilers and many other analysis tools, we don't detect syntax errors. Cppcheck only detects the types of bugs that the compilers normally fail to detect."

Example:

cppcheck -v -a -s *.cpp