FRAMA-C(1)

NAME
frama-c[.byte] - a static analyzer for C programs

frama-c-gui[.byte] - the graphical interface of frama-c

SYNOPSIS
frama-c [ options ] files

DESCRIPTION
frama-c is a suite of tools dedicated to the analysis of source code written in C. It gathers several static analysis techniques in a single collaborative framework. This framework can be extended by additional plugins placed in the $FRAMAC_PLUGIN directory. The command

    frama-c -help

will provide the full list of the plugins that are currently installed.

frama-c-gui is the graphical user interface of frama-c. It features the same options as the command-line version.

frama-c.byte and frama-c-gui.byte are the ocaml bytecode versions of the command-line and graphical user interface respectively. By default, Frama-C recognizes .c files as C files needing pre-processing and .i files as C files having been already pre-processed. Some plugins may extend the list of recognized files. Pre-processing can be customized through the -cpp-command and -cpp-extra-args options.

OPTIONS
Syntax

Options taking an additional parameter can also be written under the form

    -option=param

This option is mandatory when param starts with a dash ('-')

Most options that takes no parameter have a corresponding

    -no-option

option which has the opposite effect.

Help options

-help
    gives a short usage notice and the list of installed plugins.

-kernel-help
    prints the list of options recognized by Frama-C's kernel

-verbose n
    Sets verbosity level (default is 1). Setting it to 0 will output less progress messages. This level can also be set on a per plugin basis, with option -plugin-verbose n. Verbosity level of the kernel can be controlled with option -kernel-verbose n.

-debug n
    Sets debugging level (default is 0, meaning no debugging messages). This option has the same per plugin (and kernel) specializations as -verbose.

-quiet
    Sets verbosity and debugging level to 0.

Options controlling Frama-C's kernel

-absolute-valid-range <min-max>
    considers that all numerical addresses in the range min-max are valid. Bounds are parsed as ocaml integer constants. By default, all numerical addresses are considered invalid.

-add-path p1[,p2[...,pn]]
    adds directories <p1> through <pn> to the list of directories in which plugins are searched

[-no]-allow-duplication
    allows duplication of small blocks during normalization of tests and loops. Otherwise, normalization use labels and gotos. Bigger blocks and blocks with non-trivial control flow are never duplicated. Defaults to yes.

[-no]-annot
    reads ACSL annotation. This is the default. Annotation are not pre-processed by default. Use -pp-annot for that.

-big-ints-hex max
    integers larger than max are displayed in hexadecimal (by default, all integers are displayed in decimal)

-check
    performs integrity checks on the internal AST (for developers only).

[-no]-collapse-call-cast
    allows implicit cast between the value returned by a function and the lval it is assigned to. Otherwise, a temporary variable is used and the cast is made explicit. Defaults to yes.

[-no]-constfold
    folds all syntactically constant expressions in the code before analyses. Defaults to no.

[-no]-continue-annot-error
    When analyzing an annotation, the default behavior (the -no version of this option) when a typechecking error occurs is to reject the source file as is the case for typechecking errors within the C code. With this option on, the typechecker will only output a warning and discard the annotation but typechecking will continue (errors in C code are still fatal, though).

-cpp-command cmd
    Uses cmd as the command to pre-process C files. Defaults to the CPP environment variable or to

    gcc -C -E -I.

    if it is not set. In order to preserve ACSL annotations, the preprocessor must keep comments (the -E option for gcc). %1 and %2 can be used in cmd to denote the original source file and the pre-processed file respectively

-cpp-extra-args args
    Gives additional arguments to the pre-processor. This is only useful when -preprocess-annot is set. Pre-processing annotations is done in two separate pre-processing stages. The first one is a normal pass on the C code which retains macro definitions. These are then used in the second pass during which annotations are pre-processed. args are used only for the first pass, so that arguments that should not be used twice (such as additional include directives or macro definitions) must thus go there instead of -cpp-command.

[-no]-dynlink
    When on, load all the dynamic plug-ins found in the search path (see -print-plugin-path for more information on the default search path). Otherwise, only plugins requested by -load-modules will be loaded. Default behavior is on.

-float-digits n
    When outputting floating-point numbers, display n digits. Defaults to 12.

-float-flush-to-zero
    Floating point operations flush to zero

-float-hex
    display floats as hexadecimal

-float-normal
    display floats with standard Ocaml routine

-float-relative
    display float interval as [ lower_bound++width ]

[-no]-force-rl-arg-eval
    forces right to left evaluation order for arguments of function calls. Otherwise the evaluation order is left unspecified, as in C standard. Defaults to no.

-journal-disable
    Do not output a journal of the current session. See -journal-enable.

-journal-enable
    On by default, dumps a journal of all the actions performed during the current Frama-C session in the form of an ocaml script that can be replayed with -load-script. The name of the script can be set with the -journal-name option.

-journal-name name
    Set the name of the journal file (without the .ml extension). Defaults to frama_c_journal.

[-no]-keep-comments
    Tries to preserve comments when pretty-printing the source code (defaults to no).

[-no]-keep-switch
    When -simplify-cfg is set, keeps switch statements. Defaults to no.

-keep-unused-specified-functions
    See -remove-unused-specified-functions

[-no]-lib-entry
    Indicates that the entry point is called during program execution. This implies in particular that global variables can not be assumed to have their initial values. The default is -no-lib-entry: the entry point is also the starting point of the program and globals have their initial value.

-load file
    load the (previously saved) state contained in file.

-load-module m1[,m2[...,mn]]
    loads the ocaml modules <m1>through <mn>. These modules must be .cmxsfiles for the native code version of Frama-c and .cmoor.cmafiles for the bytecode version (see the Dynlink section of Ocaml manual for more information). All modules which are present in the plugin search paths are automatically loaded.

-load-script s1[,s2,[...,sn]]
    loads the ocaml scripts <s1> through <sn>. The scripts must be .mlfiles. They must be compilable relying only on Ocaml standard library and Frama-C's API. If some custom compilation step is needed, compile them outside of Frama-C and use -load-module instead.

-machdep machine
    uses machine as the current machine-dependent configuration (size of the various integer types, endiandness, ...). The list of currently supported machines is available through -machdep help option. Default is x86_32

-main f
    Sets f as the entry point of the analysis. Defaults to 'main'. By default, it is considered as the starting point of the program under analysis. Use -lib-entry if f is supposed to be called in the middle of an execution.

-obfuscate
    prints an obfuscated version of the code (where original identifiers are replaced by meaningless one) and exits. The correspondance table between original and new symbols is kept at the beginning of the result.

-ocode file
    redirects pretty-printed code to file instead of standard output.

[-no]-orig-name
    During the normalization phase, some variables may get renamed when different variable with the same name can co-exist (e.g. a global variable and a formal parameter). When this option is on, a message is printed each time this occurs. Defaults to no.

[-no]-overflow
    arithmetic operations may overflow (this is the default option). The -no-overflow version assumes that the result of all arithmetic operations is within the bounds of the associated type.

[-no]-pp-annot
    pre-process annotations. This is currently only possible when using gcc (or GNU cpp) pre-processor. The default is to not pre-process annotations.

[-no]-print
    pretty-prints the source code as normalized by CIL (defaults to no).

-print-libpath
    outputs the directory where Frama-C kernel library is installed

-print-path
    alias of -print-share-path

-print-plugin-path
    outputs the directory where Frama-C searches its plugins (can be overidden by the FRAMAC_PLUGIN variable and the -add-path option)

-print-share-path
    outputs the directory where Frama-C stores its data (can be overidden by the FRAMAC_SHARE variable)

-remove-unused-specified-functions
    keeps function prototypes that have an ACSL specification but are not used in the code. This is the default. Functions having the attribute FRAMAC_BUILTIN are always kept.

-safe-arrays
    For structure fields that are arrays, assumes that all accesses must be in bound (set by default). The opposite option is -unsafe-arrays

-save file
    Saves Frama-C's state into file after analyses have taken place.

[-no]-simplify-cfg
    removes break, continue and switch statement before analyses. Defaults to no.

-then
    allows to compose analyzes: a first run of Frama-C will occur with the options before -then and a second run will be done with the options after -then on the current project from the first run.

-then-on prj
    Similar to -then except that the second run is performed in project prj If no such project exists, Frama-C exits with an error.

-time file
    appends user time and date in the given file when Frama-C exits.

-typecheck
    forces typechecking of the source files. This option is only relevant if no further analysis is requested (as typechecking will implicitely occurs before the analysis is launched).

-ulevel n
    syntactically unroll loops n times before the analysis. This can be quite costly and some plugins (e.g. the value analysis) provide more efficient ways to perform the same thing. See their respective manuals for more information. This can also be activated on a per-loop basis via the loop pragma unroll <m> directive. A negative value for n will inhibit such pragmas.

[-no]-unicode
    outputs ACSL formulas with utf8 characters. This is the default. When given the -no-unicode option, Frama-C will use the ASCII version instead. See the ACSL manual for the correspondance.

-unsafe-arrays
    see -safe-arrays

[-no]-unspecified-access
    checks the that read/write accesses occuring in unspecified order (according to the C standard's notion of sequence point) are performed on separate locations. With -no-unspecified-access, assumes that it is always the case (this is the default).

-version
    outputs the version string of Frama-C

-warn-decimal-float <freq>
    warns when a floating-point constant cannot be exactly represented (e.g. 0.1). <freq> can be one of none, once, or all

[-no]-warn-undeclared-callee
    warns when a function is called before it has been declared (set by default). Frama-C

Plugins specific options

For each plugin, the command

    frama-c -plugin-help

will give the list of options that are specific to the plugin.

EXIT STATUS

0   Successful execution

1   Invalid user input

2   User interruption (kill or equivalent)

3   Unimplemented feature

4   Internal error

5   Error while exiting normally

6   Error while exiting abnormally

125 Unknown error

Exit status greater than 2 can be considered as a bug (or a feature request for the case of exit status 3) and may be reported on Frama-C's BTS (see below).

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
It is possible to control the places where Frama-C looks for its files through the following variables.

FRAMAC_LIB
    The directory where kernel's compiled interfaces are installed

FRAMAC_PLUGIN
    The directory where Frama-C can find standard plug-ins. If you wish to have plugins in several places, use -add-path instead.

FRAMAC_SHARE
    The directory where Frama-C datas are installed.

SEE ALSO
Frama-C user manual: $FRAMAC_SHARE/manuals/user-manual.pdf

Frama-C homepage: http://frama-c.com

Frama-C BTS: http://bts.frama-c.com