[$] Kernel building with GCC plugins
It has long been understood that static-analysis tools can be useful infinding (and defending against) bugs and security problems in code. One ofthe best places to implement such tools is in the compiler itself, since much of the work required toanalyze a program is already done in the compilation process. Despite thefact that GCC has had the ability to support security-oriented plugins forsome years, the mainline kernel has never adopted any such plugins. Thatsituation looks likely to change with the 4.8 kernel release, though.