Leverage the compiler
Compilers targeting the JVM generally provide warning flags for dodgy code, and a flag to turn warnings into errors: Use them. The compiler is your first line of defense against code issues.
For example, add these flags with javac:
-
-Werror— turn warnings into errors, and fails the build -
-Xlint:all,-processing— enable all warnings excluding annotation processing
Be judicious in disabling compiler warnings: they usually warn you for good
reasons.
For javac, disabled warnings might include serial or deprecation.
JVM compilers support -Werror (eg, javac, kotlinc, scalac, et al);
enabling/disabling specific warnings may be compiler-specific.
- Consider using Error Prone. Error Prone is an excellent compiler plugin to fail problems earlier: fail at compile-time rather than a runtime, however it can be overly strict.
- Lombok annotation processing fails
-Xlint:all. Use-Xlint:all,-processingto bypass warnings about annotation processing. In addition, using Lombok's configuration to add suppression annotations on generated code (so other tools will ignore generated code) needs the older Spotbugs annotations provided as a dependency.
ErrorProne is an excellent quality-checking tool from Google that extends the standard Java compiler (via compiler plugins), and has optional features to automatically fix problems in code. It is worth time investigating if it is right for your project. Internally, Google uses ErrorProne in Java projects to avoid common coding mistakes and pitfalls.
See the code repo for working examples.
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