[Python-Dev] Coverity Scan

[Christian Heimes]

Hello,

this is an update on my work and the current status of Coverity Scan.

Maybe you have noticed a checkins made be me that end with the line "CID
#". These are checkins that fix an issue that was discovered by the
static code analyzer Coverity. Coverity is a commercial product but it's
a free service for some Open Source projects. Python has been analyzed
by Coverity since about 2007. Guido, Neal, Brett, Stefan and some other
developers have used Coverity before I took over. I fixed a couple of
issues before 3.3 reached the RC phase and more bugs in the last couple
of months.

Coverity is really great and its web GUI is fun to use, too. I was able
to identify and fix resource leaks, NULL pointer issues, buffer
overflows and missing checks all over the place. Because it's a static
analyzer that follows data-flows and control-flows the tool can detect
issues in error paths that are hardly visited at all. I have started to
document Coverity here:

  http://docs.python.org/devguide/coverity.html


Interview
---------

A week ago I was contacted by Coverity. They have started a series of
articles and press releases about Open Source projects that use their
free service Coverity Scan, see


http://www.coverity.com/company/press-releases/read/coverity-introduces-monthly-spotlight-series-for-coverity-scan-open-source-projects

Two days ago I had a lovely phone interview about my involvement in the
Python project and our development style. They are going to release a
nice article in a couple of weeks. In the mean time we have time to fix
the remaining couple issues. We *might* be able to reach the highest
coverity integrity level! I have dealt with all major issues so we just
have to fix a couple of issues.


Current stats
-------------

Lines of Code:	396,179
Defect Density:	0.05
Total defects:	1,054
Outstanding:	   21 (Coverity Connect shows less)
Dismissed:	  222
Fixed:		  811

http://i.imgur.com/NoELjcj.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/eJSzTUX.jpg


open issues
-----------

http://bugs.python.org/issue17899
http://bugs.python.org/issue18556
http://bugs.python.org/issue18555
http://bugs.python.org/issue18552
http://bugs.python.org/issue18551
http://bugs.python.org/issue18550
http://bugs.python.org/issue18528


Christian