What is jarnotator

Last Updated on Monday, 16 August 2010 16:48 Written by jarnotator Wednesday, 11 August 2010 12:06

What is jarnotator? First things first, the name: jarnotator it is the contraction of "jar annotator". Simple enough?

It is a static code analyser that works directly on java bytecode. Currently the analysis is centered around nullness handling in java programs.  Where necessary the bytecode is annotated with the JSR 305 annotations. This makes it possible for the static analysis tool FindBugs (TM) to use those during its analysis and obtain more relevant results.

How to use it? It processes a classes directory or jar file directly. The result are new classes files or a new jar file containing your classes but possible annotated if needed.

jarnotator is free for both individuals or commercial use. A document regarding the licensing model with but made available on this site shortly. Right now the download area is empty, but not for long 1.0 coming soon.

You can use jarnotator in your projects in 3 ways:

1. the command line tool
2. ant task
3. maven2 plugin