CBMC vs Clang Static Analyzer

CBMC is a bounded model checker for C and C++ programs, available for Linux, macOS, and Windows. It checks memory safety, including array bounds and pointer use, along with several forms of undefined behavior and user-specified assertions. Its language range includes C89, C99, most of C11 and C17, and extensions from GCC, Clang, and Visual Studio. CBMC verifies by unwinding program loops and passing the resulting equation to a decision procedure. It can check C and C++ I/O equivalence with languages such as Verilog, and generate test cases for branch, decision, path, and MC/DC coverage. Listed language features include arrays, dynamic memory, nondeterminism, assumptions, assertions, and selected C++ features such as classes, templates, and STL containers. A MiniSat-based bit-vector solver is included; Boolector, CVC5, and Z3 are supported but must be installed separately. CBMC is free at free under a BSD 4-clause license. The Windows and macOS distributions are command-line tools without a GUI.

Clang Static Analyzer finds selected bugs in C, C++, and Objective-C programs. It uses symbolic execution to examine paths through code across function calls, and is part of the open-source Clang project. The analyzer is also implemented as a reusable C++ library for other tools and applications. Official releases include scan-build, a command-line tool for analyzing a codebase. On macOS, users can invoke it from Xcode; it can also run alongside clang-tidy when clang-analyzer checks are enabled. Clang-based IDEs may integrate the analyzer directly, and the documentation covers scan-build and CodeChecker. It runs on Linux, macOS, and Windows, and is self-hosted. The tool only detects bugs it has been designed to find, and analysis can take much longer than compilation. Some algorithms have exponential worst-case time, and results may include false positives. The listed free plan costs nothing.