Re: [Valgrind-users] New experimental skin: signal handler checker

[Nicholas N. <nj...@ca...>]

On Thu, 3 Jul 2003, Dan Kegel wrote:

> BTW, this tool of yours is pretty cool.  I bet a similar
> test could be applied at compile time using smatch
> http://smatch.sourceforge.net/
> That'd be quite a combination -- catch a bunch of them statically,
> and then use your dynamic tool to find some the static checker missed...

Ah, I was aware of the Stanford checking project but not smatch.  That's
cool.  I had thought that this signal handler checking would be much
better done statically.  Crocus may be put out of business before it's
even started!  But that would be fine, a static checker would be better.

You mention using the dynamic tool for the ones the static tool misses,
have you used smatch and know that static misses are common, or is this
just a guess?  I imagine that signal handler checking would be pretty
straightforward to do statically.  And once people know they shouldn't
call these function from signal handlers, it's not a problem that's hard
to fix, it's more just a case of knowing about it in the first place.  As
opposed to eg. memory errors, where a dynamic automated tool is very
useful for finding obscure bugs.

N