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Foreword
This revision to the third edition of the MISRA C Guidelines consolidates two updates to MISRA C:2012,
reecting ongoing work within the Working Group:
• MISRA C:2012 Amendment 1, Additional security guidelines for MISRA C:2012 [40]
• MISRA C:2012 Technical Corrigendum 1 [41]
This revision also makes reference to the enhanced guidance on achieving compliance with MISRA C,
as provided by MISRA Compliance:2016 [42]. While this guidance remains optional for MISRA C:2012,
it will become an integral part of the MISRA C Guidelines in due course. I encourage all users and all
organizations to consider adoption at the earliest opportunity.
Andrew Banks MIET FBCS CITP
Chairman, MISRA C Working Group
Foreword to third edition
At rst sight, this third edition of the MISRA C Guidelines may seem somewhat daunting. Since it is
roughly twice the size of the previous edition, one might think that it contains twice as many guidelines,
and that compliance with those guidelines might take twice as much eort.
In fact, the increase in the number of guidelines is relatively modest at around 10%. The remainder of
the increase in size is due to improvements in the guidance given, such as:
• Better rationales for guidelines;
• More precise descriptions;
• Code examples, showing compliance and non-compliance, for most of the guidelines;
• More detailed guidance on compliance checking, and the deviation procedure;
• Checklists that can be used to support a compliance statement.
Finally, I would like to draw attention to the introductory sections of the document. These not only
contain practical guidance on how to use MISRAC but, at the same time, have been made more
concise than their predecessors. I encourage all users to familiarize themselves with this material.
Steve Montgomery MA (Cantab), PhD
Chairman 2008–2013, MISRA C Working Group
