[Elipse] Installation and usage of FindBugs Plugin

FindBugs is a static analysis tool that examines the classes in search of potential problems during development, providing a powerful code auditing feature.

It analyzes the bytecode to find some familiar patterns. It is not limited to searching by regular expressions, it tries to understand what the program wants to do.

Installing the plugin

• Pre-installation:

FindBugs is an Eclipse plugin compatible with versions 3.x: (3.0, 3.1, 3.2, ...).
If you have already installed a previous version of FindBugs (before May 2006), then delete this version:

Simply delete the directory de.tobject.findbugs_0.0.nlocated in the plugins directory of Eclipse.
Verify that the environment JAVA_HOME variable is present.

• Installation
  • To install the FindBugs plug-in, follow these steps:
  • In Eclipse, click Help/Software Update/Find and Install ...
  • Choose the option "Search for new features to install" and click Next.
  • Click on New Remote Site.

Fill the following boxes:

• • Name: FindBugs update site
  • URL: enter the following: (note: no slash at the end of the url)
  • For official releases: http://findbugs.cs.umd.edu/eclipse
  • For official releases and candidates release:http://findbugs.cs.umd.edu/eclipse-candidate
  • For all versions:http://findbugs.cs.umd.edu/eclipse-daily
  • Then click OK.
  • "FindBugs update site" should appear in the list "Sites to include in search".
  • Select the checkbox "FindBugs update site", then click "Finish".
  • "FindBugs Feature" would then appear under "Select features to install".
  • Select the checkbox and click "next".
  • Select the option "I accept" to accept the license and click "Next."
  • Ensure that the installation directory is correct. Then click Finish.
  • Restart Eclipse.

Using the plugin

FindBugs Window
Click on Window/Show View/Other /Bug Explorer

The "Explorer Bug" and "Bug Details" windows should appear .

Viewing bugs

Select projects, packages, or classes that you want to check, right-click and choose Find Bugs.
The bugs found by FindBugs appear in the Bug Explorer window.