Printing SPARSE errors during Linux Kernel Compilation
" Sparse, the semantic parser, provides a compiler frontend capable of parsing most of ANSI C as well as many GCC extensions, and a collection of sample compiler backends, including a static analyzer also called "sparse". Sparse provides a set of annotations designed to convey semantic information about types, such as what address space pointers point to, or what locks a function acquires or releases. " There is more about SPARSE here . To check files that will be compiled with SPARSE: $ make C=1 To check all files with SPARSE, even the ones that will not be compiled: $ make C=2