Clippy vs PMD
Clippy
doc.rust-lang.orgPMD
pmd.github.ioSide by side
| Figure | Clippy | PMD |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | — | Free |
| Free plan | — | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | — | Yes |
| Plans published | 0 | 1 |
| Spec score · Linters | 7.6 (#23) | 8.3 (#6) |
| GitHub Actions | The documentation says GitHub-hosted runners with the latest stable Rust have Clippy preinstalled. | PMD's GitHub Action runs a user-supplied ruleset, creates a SARIF report, and can fail a build based on violation count. |
| Installation | Clippy is usually included with rustup toolchains and can be added with `rustup component add clippy`; the minimal profile does not install it automatically. | PMD requires Java 8 or above and is distributed as a ZIP archive containing PMD and CPD. |
| License | The Clippy repository is licensed under either Apache License 2.0 or MIT, at the licensee's option. | The project identifies its license as BSD-style. |
| Purpose | Clippy is a collection of lints that catches common mistakes and improves Rust code. | PMD is an extensible cross-language static code analyzer that finds common programming flaws. |
| Support | The Clippy contribution guide directs people with questions to GitHub issues or the #t-clippy Zulip stream. | The project directs users to Stack Overflow for questions, GitHub issues for suspected bugs or requests, and Gitter for quick questions. |
Plans
In their own words
PMD
PMD is a free, extensible static code analyzer that checks source code for programming flaws such as unused variables, empty catch blocks, and unnecessary object creation. It includes more than 400 built-in rules, and teams can write custom rules in Java or XPath. Its bundled CPD tool finds duplicated code across many programming languages. PMD checks source directories from the command line and can run as a Maven, Ant, Gradle, or bld build operation. Supported languages include Java, JavaScript, Salesforce Apex and Visualforce, Kotlin, Swift, Modelica, PL/SQL, Apache Velocity, JSP, WSDL, Maven POM, HTML, XML, and XSL; Scala is supported without Scala rules. It runs on Linux, macOS, and Windows and requires Java 8 or above. For CI, its GitHub Action can create SARIF reports and fail builds based on violation counts; documentation also covers GitLab, Jenkins, and Bamboo integrations. IDE integrations include Eclipse, IntelliJ IDEA, and Visual Studio Code, though some listed plugins are not actively maintained. Only the latest major version is actively developed.