README.md

Method Inspector

What is Method Inspector?

Method Inspector is a simple Maven plugin that classifies each method in a project according to its metadata and structure as:

• Empty

      public void method() {}

• Native

  public static native void nativeMethod();

• Abstract (Any abstract method in abstract classes or methods with no default implementation in interfaces.)
• Hash Code

      public int hashCode() {
          //Regular hashCode method
          ...
      }

• Synthetic (Compiler generated methods marked as such)
• To string methods

  @Override
  public String toString() {...}
  

• Accessible to elements of the same package. (Any public or protected method inside a public or protected class)
• Delegation pattern

  public class A {
  
      B b;
  
      ...
  
      public int mA(String arg) {
          return b.mB(arg);
      }
      ...
  }
  

• Deprecated. (Any method annotated as @Deprecated or any method inside a class annotated as @Deprecated as well.)
• Constructor
• Enum methods. (Compiler generated methods values and valueOf to support enum types. These are not marked as synthetic.)
• Simple getter

  public class Ac {
      int a;
      ...
      public getA() {
          return a;
      }
      ...
  }
  

• Simple setter

  public class Ac {
      int a;
      ...
      public setA(int a) {
          this.a = a;
      }
      ...
  }
  

• Returns a constant

      public int getThree() { return 3; }

• Returns null (As a specialization of the previous class)

  public Object getNull() { return null; }

• Static initializers

  class A {
      static {
          ...
      }
  }

The information gathered is stored in a JSON file that contains an entry for every method inspected in a project. Each entry contains also in which the method is located in the original source code. Test classes and methods are not considered in the inspection. The plugin also works with Maven multi-module projects.

How to use

To use, run the following command in the project's directory.

mvn fr.inria.stamp.plugins.inspector:method-inspector-maven-plugin:inspect

It can also be used as a stand-alone console application. When the project is built, a jar file with all dependencies bundled is created. Then, the application can be used as follows:

java -jar method-inspector.jar <folder with .class files> [<path to output file>]

How to build

Clone the repository and build locally as follows:

git clone https://github.com/STAMP-project/method-inspector
cd method-inspector
mvn clean install

More

The main purpose of this project is to support the experimentation with Descartes Most of these categories are used to discover methods which are not generally targeted by developers in their test suites.

License

Method Inspector is published under the LGPL-3.0 license (see [LICENSE.md]).

Funding

This project is partially funded by research project STAMP (European Commission - H2020)