FindBugs is an
open source static code analyser created by
Bill Pugh and David Hovemeyer which detects possible bugs in
Java programs. Potential errors are classified in four ranks: (i) scariest, (ii) scary, (iii) troubling and (iv) of concern. This is a hint to the developer about their possible impact or severity. FindBugs operates on
Java bytecode, rather than source code. The software is distributed as a stand-alone
GUI application. There are also plug-ins available for
Eclipse,
NetBeans,
IntelliJ IDEA,
Gradle,
Hudson and
Jenkins.