5.2. FindBugs GUI

FindBugs' GUI provides a reasonably nice user interface to the program's capabilities. You invoke it by running the findbugs script with the -gui argument; don't give filename arguments or they will be silently ignored. There's a cute little splash screen with the "buggy" mascot crawling across. When the program starts up, you can create a project by entering (from the File menu) the class files or directories and the corresponding source (it's a bit annoying that you have to navigate the full path to both, since most people keep their source and classes together, but it is an early version of the GUI code). Once that's done you should save your project in a .fb file, so you don't have to reenter all the file locations. You can reopen it later by using the -project command line or by navigating in the File → Open Project menu.

Then you can analyze your code by clicking the Find button. In the upper left, you will see a tree of complaints. Expand the tree down to leaf entries and click on one. The program will immediately show the source code (if available), with the objected-to line highlighted in yellow (see the figure "FindBugs in Action"; this example is the code from page 2 of this Short Cut, showing the error). FindBugs GUI also displays some details of the bug in the bottom window. The Annotations drop-down allows you to make a note to yourself for later review, categorizing the complaint into such categories as "Not a bug," "Must Fix," "Review Later," and others. You can also move through the reports by clicking Find Next or Find Previous as appropriate.