How To Install cppcheck on Ubuntu

Posted on April 1, 2023  (Last modified on May 20, 2023 )

3 minutes  • 540 words

Introduction

In this tutorial we learn how to install cppcheck on Ubuntu.

What is cppcheck

cppcheck is:

Cppcheck is a command-line tool that tries to detect bugs that your C/C++ compiler doesn’t see. It is versatile, and can check non-standard code including various compiler extensions, inline assembly code, etc. Its internal preprocessor can handle includes, macros, and several preprocessor commands. While Cppcheck is highly configurable, you can start using it just by giving it a path to the source code.

It includes checks for:

• pointers to out-of-scope auto variables;
• assignment of auto variables to an effective parameter of a function;
• out-of-bounds errors in arrays and STL;
• missing class constructors;
• variables not initialized by a constructor;
• use of memset, memcpy, etcetera on a class;
• non-virtual destructors for base classes;
• operator= not returning a constant reference to itself;
• use of deprecated functions (mktemp, gets, scanf);
• exceptions thrown in destructors;
• memory leaks in class or function variables;
• C-style pointer cast in C++ code;
• redundant if;
• misuse of the strtol or sprintf functions;
• unsigned division or division by zero;
• unused functions and struct members;
• passing parameters by value;
• misuse of signed char variables;
• unusual pointer arithmetic (such as “abc” + ’d’);
• dereferenced null pointers;
• incomplete statements;
• misuse of iterators when iterating through a container;
• dereferencing of erased iterators;
• use of invalidated vector iterators/pointers;

This package contains the command-line interface for cppcheck.

There are three methods to install cppcheck on Ubuntu. We can use apt-get, apt and aptitude. In the following sections we will describe each method. You can choose one of them.

Install cppcheck Using apt-get

Update apt database with apt-get using the following command.

sudo apt-get update

After updating apt database, We can install cppcheck using apt-get by running the following command:

sudo apt-get -y install cppcheck

Install cppcheck Using apt

Update apt database with apt using the following command.

sudo apt update

After updating apt database, We can install cppcheck using apt by running the following command:

sudo apt -y install cppcheck

Install cppcheck Using aptitude

If you want to follow this method, you might need to install aptitude first since aptitude is usually not installed by default on Ubuntu. Update apt database with aptitude using the following command.

sudo aptitude update

After updating apt database, We can install cppcheck using aptitude by running the following command:

sudo aptitude -y install cppcheck

How To Uninstall cppcheck on Ubuntu

To uninstall only the cppcheck package we can use the following command:

sudo apt-get remove cppcheck

Uninstall cppcheck And Its Dependencies

To uninstall cppcheck and its dependencies that are no longer needed by Ubuntu, we can use the command below:

sudo apt-get -y autoremove cppcheck

Remove cppcheck Configurations and Data

To remove cppcheck configuration and data from Ubuntu we can use the following command:

sudo apt-get -y purge cppcheck

Remove cppcheck configuration, data, and all of its dependencies

We can use the following command to remove cppcheck configurations, data and all of its dependencies, we can use the following command:

sudo apt-get -y autoremove --purge cppcheck

Dependencies

cppcheck have the following dependencies:

• libc6
• libgcc-s1
• libpcre3
• libstdc++6
• libtinyxml2-9
• libz3-4
• python3

References

• cppcheck website

Summary

In this tutorial we learn how to install cppcheck package on Ubuntu using different package management tools: apt, apt-get and aptitude.