Infer Lab Instructions

Note: Infer works on Linux and MacOSX. If you use Windows, you'll need to run Infer in a Linux VM.

(1) Install Infer according to the instructions here: https://github.com/facebook/infer/blob/master/INSTALL.md. Follow the "Install Infer from source" variant of the instructions rather than the "Pre-compiled clang" variant.

(2) Run the tests to make sure everything works: make -j test.

(3) Set up your OCaml development environment by following the "Development dependency" instructions here: https://github.com/facebook/infer/blob/master/CONTRIBUTING.md. After doing this, open an ML file (e.g., infer/src/checkers/ThreadSafety.ml) and make sure syntax highlighting, jump-to-definition, etc. are working correctly.

(4) An optional part of the lab will involve using your new Infer analysis to find bugs in open-source Android code. Doing the following will make this easier:

• Download the Android SDK: https://developer.android.com/studio/index.html
• Download SDK tools: run `android` to launch SDK manager UI, check the latest few versions of "Android SDK Tools"/"Android SDK Build-tools", and click "Install"
• Download some Android apps. Here's a few ideas, but pick any apps that interest you! Tip: since many open-source Android apps use submodules, it's usually a good idea to clone with git clone --recursive
  • https://github.com/WhisperSystems/Signal-Android
  • https://github.com/duckduckgo/Android
  • https://github.com/DrKLO/Telegram
  • https://github.com/wordpress-mobile/WordPress-Android
  • https://github.com/k9mail/k-9
  • https://github.com/owncloud/android
  • https://github.com/google/iosched
  • https://f-droid.org/ (list of open-source apps)
  • https://github.com/pcqpcq/open-source-android-apps (another list of open-source apps)
• Try building an app: ./gradlew assembleDebug, then try running Infer on it: infer -- ./gradlew assembleDebug