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• 06 Jan 2009 » Using the LLVM/Clang Static Analyzer for iPhone apps
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Using the LLVM/Clang Static Analyzer for iPhone apps

This set of instructions will help you get started with finding potential bugs in your app. They are provided for developers who do not have their provisioning certificate yet.

Why would you want to use this static code analysis tool? Why wouldn’t you? It’s another tool in your belt to detect bugs early and is probably a good idea to do before submission to the App Store.

• Ensure the project active build configuration is the Debug profile that Xcode sets up for you when you create a new iPhone project.

  Project > Set Active Build Configuration > Debug
  

• Navigate to your project directory in your shell and check that you can run xcodebuild from the root directory of your project.

If you haven’t run this tool before, you may run into this output:

$ xcodebuild
=== BUILDING NATIVE TARGET Property Machine OF PROJECT Test Project WITH THE DEFAULT CONFIGURATION (Debug) ===

Checking Dependencies...
CodeSign error: Code Signing Identity 'iPhone Developer' does not match any code-signing certificate in your keychain.  Once added to the keychain, touch a file or clean the project to continue.
** BUILD FAILED **

In this particular case, the project was set up to build against the iPhone device and not the iPhone simulator. Building for the device requires you to use an iPhone provisioning certificate which can be had for USD 99 from the Apple iPhone Developer Program. If you wish to write and compile software without a provisioning certificate - you may still test your app in the simulator provided with the SDK however you will not be able to test your app on the device itself.

• You must change your build settings for the project.

  Project > Edit Project Settings
  

• Ensure the Base SDK is set to Simulator - iPhone OS 2.2 (or whichever version of the iPhone OS you wish to build for).
• Ensure the Code Signing Identity is set to Don't Code Sign (if you don’t have a provisioning certificate yet).
• Check the code signing SDK (expand the Code Signing Identity disclosure) and ensure it is also set to a simulator SDK. Also ensure the value for this option is Don't Code Sign.
• You should end up with something like this:

• Back in your shell, you should be able to run xcodebuild inside your project’s directory and your project should now build.
• Download the analyzer tool from here, extract it and optionally add it to your path for easy accessibility.
• The analyzer must be run after a xcodebuild clean command.
• Do so like this:

  xcodebuild clean
  scan-build -k -V xcodebuild
  

• After the tool has run, it launches its own web server and opens your default browser allowing you to view the results of the analysis.
• You will be pleasantly surprised at the quality of the results: