Common Infer Issues and Solutions

1. False Positives in Analysis Reports

Infer detects issues that may not be actual bugs, leading to unnecessary debugging efforts.

Root Causes:

• Overly aggressive default checks.
• Incorrect use of annotations or suppression mechanisms.
• Legacy or generated code triggering unnecessary warnings.

Solution:

Suppress known false positives using annotations:

@SuppressWarnings("InferWarning")

Use .inferconfig to fine-tune analysis rules:

{
  "infer": {
    "filter_paths": ["generated_code"],
    "disable_checks": ["NULL_DEREFERENCE"]
  }
}

Manually review reports to refine suppression rules and improve accuracy.

2. Infer Fails to Analyze Code

Infer does not generate reports or fails to analyze specific files.

Root Causes:

• Incorrect build command or missing dependencies.
• Unsupported language constructs in the codebase.
• Infer installation issues.

Solution:

Verify Infer installation:

infer --version

Ensure the correct build command is used:

infer run -- make

For Gradle or Java projects, use:

infer run -- ./gradlew build

Check logs for errors:

infer run --debug

3. Integration Issues with CI/CD Pipelines

Infer does not work as expected when integrated into continuous integration workflows.

Root Causes:

• Environment variables not set properly.
• Infer binary missing in CI/CD environment.
• Timeouts or memory constraints causing failures.

Solution:

Ensure Infer is installed in the CI/CD environment:

wget -O infer-linux64.tar.xz https://github.com/facebook/infer/releases/latest/download/infer-linux64.tar.xz

Run Infer with increased memory limits:

export INFER_ANALYSIS_TIMEOUT=600

Enable detailed logging for debugging:

infer run --debug --fail-on-issue

4. Performance and Slow Analysis Execution

Infer runs significantly slower than expected, especially on large projects.

Root Causes:

• Large codebase without optimized filtering.
• Too many checks enabled, leading to redundant analysis.
• Infer running on a low-resource machine.

Solution:

Limit Infer to relevant files using filtering:

infer run --filter "src/main"

Use incremental analysis to improve performance:

infer run -- make -j4

Increase available system resources (RAM/CPU) in CI/CD settings.

5. Missing or Incomplete Analysis Results

Infer does not report expected issues or produces incomplete results.

Root Causes:

• Infer is not analyzing the full codebase.
• Analysis depth settings are too low.
• Suppressed issues preventing expected warnings.

Solution:

Ensure all files are analyzed:

infer run -- make clean && infer run -- make

Increase analysis depth for more thorough scanning:

infer run --analyzer depth=5

Review .inferconfig settings to ensure relevant checks are enabled.

Best Practices for Infer Optimization

• Regularly update Infer to the latest version for improved analysis accuracy.
• Fine-tune filtering settings to avoid unnecessary checks.
• Integrate Infer into CI/CD pipelines for continuous static analysis.
• Use incremental analysis to improve performance on large projects.
• Suppress known false positives while maintaining strict issue tracking.

Conclusion

By troubleshooting false positives, integration issues, performance slowdowns, missing analysis results, and configuration problems, developers can enhance their static code analysis with Infer. Implementing best practices ensures effective bug detection and continuous code quality improvement.

FAQs

1. Why is Infer reporting false positives?

Adjust filtering rules and use .inferconfig to disable unnecessary checks.

2. How do I integrate Infer into CI/CD pipelines?

Ensure Infer is installed in the pipeline, increase timeout limits, and enable debug logging.

3. Why is Infer running slowly on large projects?

Use incremental analysis, optimize filtering rules, and allocate more system resources.

4. How do I ensure Infer analyzes all files?

Run infer run -- make clean before analysis and check filtering rules.

5. How can I suppress specific Infer warnings?

Use @SuppressWarnings annotations or update .inferconfig to exclude certain checks.