#1296 PMD UnusedPrivateMethod invalid detection of 'private void method(int,boolean,Integer...)'

[John Patrick]

PMD UnusedPrivateMethod

After some refactoring, a used private method is being highlighted by PMD as unused but it definetly is being used.

Avoid unused private methods such as 'deleteAllAssetsWithExceptions(int,boolean,Integer...)'.

Snippet below;

@Override
public void deleteAllAssetsWithExceptionsNoPurge(int galleryId, Integer... exceptionList) throws MediaServiceException
{
    deleteAllAssetsWithExceptions(galleryId, false, exceptionList);
}

private void deleteAllAssetsWithExceptions(int galleryId, boolean purge, Integer... exceptionList) throws MediaServiceException
{

...

[Andreas Dangel]

I cannot reproduce the problem.
I checked 5.1.1 through 5.2.2 and neither show a problem.

Which version of PMD were you using?

[John Patrick]

I've just retested am still getting the issue, the version I'm using below, as well as which version of maven.

pmd 5.2.3
pmd plugin 3.4

$ mvn -version
Apache Maven 2.2.1 (rdebian-14)
Java version: 1.7.0_65
Java home: /usr/lib/jvm/java-7-openjdk-amd64/jre
Default locale: en_GB, platform encoding: UTF-8
OS name: "linux" version: "3.13.0-39-generic" arch: "amd64" Family: "unix"

$ find /home/johnp/.m2/repository/ -name "pmd"
/home/johnp/.m2/repository/org/apache/maven/plugins/maven-pmd-plugin
/home/johnp/.m2/repository/org/apache/maven/plugins/maven-pmd-plugin/3.4-SNAPSHOT/maven-pmd-plugin-3.4-20141221.192442-156.pom.sha1
/home/johnp/.m2/repository/org/apache/maven/plugins/maven-pmd-plugin/3.4-SNAPSHOT/maven-pmd-plugin-3.4-20141221.192442-156.pom
/home/johnp/.m2/repository/org/apache/maven/plugins/maven-pmd-plugin/3.4-SNAPSHOT/maven-pmd-plugin-3.4-SNAPSHOT.pom
/home/johnp/.m2/repository/org/apache/maven/plugins/maven-pmd-plugin/3.4-SNAPSHOT/maven-pmd-plugin-3.4-20141221.192442-156.jar.sha1
/home/johnp/.m2/repository/org/apache/maven/plugins/maven-pmd-plugin/3.4-SNAPSHOT/maven-pmd-plugin-3.4-20141221.192442-156.jar
/home/johnp/.m2/repository/org/apache/maven/plugins/maven-pmd-plugin/3.4-SNAPSHOT/maven-pmd-plugin-3.4-SNAPSHOT.jar
/home/johnp/.m2/repository/net/sourceforge/pmd
/home/johnp/.m2/repository/net/sourceforge/pmd/pmd-core
/home/johnp/.m2/repository/net/sourceforge/pmd/pmd-core/5.2.3/pmd-core-5.2.3.pom.sha1
/home/johnp/.m2/repository/net/sourceforge/pmd/pmd-core/5.2.3/pmd-core-5.2.3.pom
/home/johnp/.m2/repository/net/sourceforge/pmd/pmd-core/5.2.3/pmd-core-5.2.3.jar.sha1
/home/johnp/.m2/repository/net/sourceforge/pmd/pmd-core/5.2.3/pmd-core-5.2.3.jar
/home/johnp/.m2/repository/net/sourceforge/pmd/pmd
/home/johnp/.m2/repository/net/sourceforge/pmd/pmd/5.2.3/pmd-5.2.3.pom.sha1
/home/johnp/.m2/repository/net/sourceforge/pmd/pmd/5.2.3/pmd-5.2.3.pom
/home/johnp/.m2/repository/net/sourceforge/pmd/pmd-java
/home/johnp/.m2/repository/net/sourceforge/pmd/pmd-java/5.2.3/pmd-java-5.2.3.pom.sha1
/home/johnp/.m2/repository/net/sourceforge/pmd/pmd-java/5.2.3/pmd-java-5.2.3.pom
/home/johnp/.m2/repository/net/sourceforge/pmd/pmd-java/5.2.3/pmd-java-5.2.3.jar.sha1
/home/johnp/.m2/repository/net/sourceforge/pmd/pmd-java/5.2.3/pmd-java-5.2.3.jar
/home/johnp/.m2/repository/net/sourceforge/pmd/pmd-javascript
/home/johnp/.m2/repository/net/sourceforge/pmd/pmd-javascript/5.2.3/pmd-javascript-5.2.3.pom.sha1
/home/johnp/.m2/repository/net/sourceforge/pmd/pmd-javascript/5.2.3/pmd-javascript-5.2.3.pom
/home/johnp/.m2/repository/net/sourceforge/pmd/pmd-javascript/5.2.3/pmd-javascript-5.2.3.jar.sha1
/home/johnp/.m2/repository/net/sourceforge/pmd/pmd-javascript/5.2.3/pmd-javascript-5.2.3.jar
/home/johnp/.m2/repository/net/sourceforge/pmd/pmd-jsp
/home/johnp/.m2/repository/net/sourceforge/pmd/pmd-jsp/5.2.3/pmd-jsp-5.2.3.pom.sha1
/home/johnp/.m2/repository/net/sourceforge/pmd/pmd-jsp/5.2.3/pmd-jsp-5.2.3.pom
/home/johnp/.m2/repository/net/sourceforge/pmd/pmd-jsp/5.2.3/pmd-jsp-5.2.3.jar.sha1
/home/johnp/.m2/repository/net/sourceforge/pmd/pmd-jsp/5.2.3/pmd-jsp-5.2.3.jar
$

[John Patrick]

MediaServiceException

[John Patrick]

MediaMgmtService

[John Patrick]

MediaMgmtServiceImpl

[John Patrick]

I've extracted the files into a example project and can still reproduce the issue.

I'm using pmd 5.2.3 and pmd plugin 3.4.

$ mvn -version
Apache Maven 2.2.1 (rdebian-14)
Java version: 1.7.0_65
Java home: /usr/lib/jvm/java-7-openjdk-amd64/jre
Default locale: en_GB, platform encoding: UTF-8
OS name: "linux" version: "3.13.0-39-generic" arch: "amd64" Family: "unix"
$

$ find /home/johnp/.m2/repository/ -name "pmd"
/home/johnp/.m2/repository/org/apache/maven/plugins/maven-pmd-plugin
/home/johnp/.m2/repository/org/apache/maven/plugins/maven-pmd-plugin/3.4-SNAPSHOT/maven-pmd-plugin-3.4-20141221.192442-156.pom.sha1
/home/johnp/.m2/repository/org/apache/maven/plugins/maven-pmd-plugin/3.4-SNAPSHOT/maven-pmd-plugin-3.4-20141221.192442-156.pom
/home/johnp/.m2/repository/org/apache/maven/plugins/maven-pmd-plugin/3.4-SNAPSHOT/maven-pmd-plugin-3.4-SNAPSHOT.pom
/home/johnp/.m2/repository/org/apache/maven/plugins/maven-pmd-plugin/3.4-SNAPSHOT/maven-pmd-plugin-3.4-20141221.192442-156.jar.sha1
/home/johnp/.m2/repository/org/apache/maven/plugins/maven-pmd-plugin/3.4-SNAPSHOT/maven-pmd-plugin-3.4-20141221.192442-156.jar
/home/johnp/.m2/repository/org/apache/maven/plugins/maven-pmd-plugin/3.4-SNAPSHOT/maven-pmd-plugin-3.4-SNAPSHOT.jar
/home/johnp/.m2/repository/net/sourceforge/pmd
/home/johnp/.m2/repository/net/sourceforge/pmd/pmd-core
/home/johnp/.m2/repository/net/sourceforge/pmd/pmd-core/5.2.3/pmd-core-5.2.3.pom.sha1
/home/johnp/.m2/repository/net/sourceforge/pmd/pmd-core/5.2.3/pmd-core-5.2.3.pom
/home/johnp/.m2/repository/net/sourceforge/pmd/pmd-core/5.2.3/pmd-core-5.2.3.jar.sha1
/home/johnp/.m2/repository/net/sourceforge/pmd/pmd-core/5.2.3/pmd-core-5.2.3.jar
/home/johnp/.m2/repository/net/sourceforge/pmd/pmd
/home/johnp/.m2/repository/net/sourceforge/pmd/pmd/5.2.3/pmd-5.2.3.pom.sha1
/home/johnp/.m2/repository/net/sourceforge/pmd/pmd/5.2.3/pmd-5.2.3.pom
/home/johnp/.m2/repository/net/sourceforge/pmd/pmd-java
/home/johnp/.m2/repository/net/sourceforge/pmd/pmd-java/5.2.3/pmd-java-5.2.3.pom.sha1
/home/johnp/.m2/repository/net/sourceforge/pmd/pmd-java/5.2.3/pmd-java-5.2.3.pom
/home/johnp/.m2/repository/net/sourceforge/pmd/pmd-java/5.2.3/pmd-java-5.2.3.jar.sha1
/home/johnp/.m2/repository/net/sourceforge/pmd/pmd-java/5.2.3/pmd-java-5.2.3.jar
/home/johnp/.m2/repository/net/sourceforge/pmd/pmd-javascript
/home/johnp/.m2/repository/net/sourceforge/pmd/pmd-javascript/5.2.3/pmd-javascript-5.2.3.pom.sha1
/home/johnp/.m2/repository/net/sourceforge/pmd/pmd-javascript/5.2.3/pmd-javascript-5.2.3.pom
/home/johnp/.m2/repository/net/sourceforge/pmd/pmd-javascript/5.2.3/pmd-javascript-5.2.3.jar.sha1
/home/johnp/.m2/repository/net/sourceforge/pmd/pmd-javascript/5.2.3/pmd-javascript-5.2.3.jar
/home/johnp/.m2/repository/net/sourceforge/pmd/pmd-jsp
/home/johnp/.m2/repository/net/sourceforge/pmd/pmd-jsp/5.2.3/pmd-jsp-5.2.3.pom.sha1
/home/johnp/.m2/repository/net/sourceforge/pmd/pmd-jsp/5.2.3/pmd-jsp-5.2.3.pom
/home/johnp/.m2/repository/net/sourceforge/pmd/pmd-jsp/5.2.3/pmd-jsp-5.2.3.jar.sha1
/home/johnp/.m2/repository/net/sourceforge/pmd/pmd-jsp/5.2.3/pmd-jsp-5.2.3.jar
$

[Andreas Dangel]

Many thanks for the example. I could reproduce it now. It seems, that PMD gets confused with the two method usages... it actually gets confused about the overloaded method - one method is public, this other is private, but both have the same name.

So, as a workaround, you could rename your private method to a different name (e.g. internalDeleteAllAssetsWithExceptions) and the false positive should go away.

I'll try to fix it with the next version.

[Andreas Dangel]

Will be fixed with the next version.