| Title | The Unexplored Terrain of Compiler Warnings |
| Publication Type | Conference Paper |
| Year of Publication | 2022 |
| Authors | Kudrjavets, Gunnar, Kumar, Aditya, Nagappan, Nachiappan, Rastogi, Ayushi |
| Conference Name | 2022 IEEE/ACM 44th International Conference on Software Engineering: Software Engineering in Practice (ICSE-SEIP) |
| Keywords | Clang, compiler security, compiler warning, compositionality, Computer bugs, Costs, Defect prevention, GCC, Industries, Metrics, MSVC, Program processors, pubcrawl, Resiliency, Scalability, security, Software, software engineering |
| Abstract | The authors' industry experiences suggest that compiler warnings, a lightweight version of program analysis, are valuable early bug detection tools. Significant costs are associated with patches and security bulletins for issues that could have been avoided if compiler warnings were addressed. Yet, the industry's attitude towards compiler warnings is mixed. Practices range from silencing all compiler warnings to having a zero-tolerance policy as to any warnings. Current published data indicates that addressing compiler warnings early is beneficial. However, support for this value theory stems from grey literature or is anecdotal. Additional focused research is needed to truly assess the cost-benefit of addressing warnings. |
| DOI | 10.1145/3510457.3513057 |
| Citation Key | kudrjavets_unexplored_2022 |
The Unexplored Terrain of Compiler Warnings