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I'm currently working on a large and old C++ application that has had many developers before me. There is a lot of "dead code" in the project, classes and functions that aren't used by anyone anymore.
What tools are available for C++ to make a analysis of large code base to detect and refactor dead code? Note: I'm not talking about test coverage tool like gcov.
How do you find dead code in your project?
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One approach is to use "Find All References" context menu item on class and function names. If a class/function is only referenced in itself, it is almost certainly dead code. Another approach, based on the same idea, is to remove(comment out) files/functions from project and see what error messages you will get.
The quickest way to find dead code is to use a good IDE. Delete unused code and unneeded files. In the case of an unnecessary class, Inline Class or Collapse Hierarchy can be applied if a subclass or superclass is used. To remove unneeded parameters, use Remove Parameter.
The no-unused-vars ESLint rule is an excellent tool for dead code detection. Its usage is strongly recommended both for local development and as part of a continuous integration pipeline.
Removing such code has several benefits: it shrinks program size and it allows the running program to avoid executing irrelevant operations, which reduces its running time. It can also enable further optimizations by simplifying program structure. This dead code optimizer also removes code after next or break calls.
You'll want to use a static analysis tool
The main gotcha I've run into is that you have to be careful that any libraries aren't used from somewhere that you don't control/have. If you delete a function from a class that gets used by referencing a library in your project you can break something that you didn't know used the code.
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