PMD is a source code analyzer. It finds common programming flaws like unused variables, empty catch blocks, unnecessary object creation, and so forth. It supports many languages. It can be extended with custom rules. It uses JavaCC and Antlr to parse source files into abstract syntax trees (AST) and runs rules against them to find violations. Rules can be written in Java or using a XPath query.
It supports Java, JavaScript, Salesforce.com Apex and Visualforce, Modelica, PLSQL, Apache Velocity, HTML, XML and XSL. Scala is supported, but there are currently no Scala rules available.
Additionally, it includes CPD, the copy-paste-detector. CPD finds duplicated code in C/C++, C#, Dart, Fortran, Gherkin, Go, Groovy, HTML, Java, JavaScript, JSP, Kotlin, Lua, Matlab, Modelica, Objective-C, Perl, PHP, PLSQL, Python, Ruby, Salesforce.com Apex and Visualforce, Scala, Swift, T-SQL, Apache Velocity, and XML.
In the future we hope to add support for data/control flow analysis and automatic (quick) fixes where it makes sense.
Download the latest binary zip from the releases and extract it somewhere.
Execute bin/pmd check or bin\pmd.bat check.
See also Getting Started
Demo:
This shows how PMD analyses openjdk:
There are plugins for Maven and Gradle as well as for various IDEs. See Tools / Integrations
- How do I? -- Ask a question on StackOverflow or on discussions.
- I got this error, why? -- Ask a question on StackOverflow or on discussions.
- I got this error and I'm sure it's a bug -- file an issue.
- I have an idea/request/question -- create a new discussion.
- I have a quick question -- ask in our Gitter room.
- Where's your documentation? -- https://docs.pmd-code.org/latest/
Pull requests are welcome. For major changes, please open an issue first to discuss what you would like to change.
Our latest source of PMD can be found on GitHub. Fork us!
The rule designer is developed over at pmd/pmd-designer. Please see its README for developer documentation.
Become a financial contributor and help us sustain our community. Contribute
This project follows the all-contributors specification. Contributions of any kind welcome!
See credits for the complete list.