salle A. Turing CE4
13 mai 2014 - 15h30
Significance of Liveness based approach to Pointer Analysis
par Sudakshina Das de Oxford University
Abstract: A flow and context sensitive pointer analysis is known to be very precise but is also
infamous to be highly inefficient. Almost all approaches to pointer analysis are done with
approximations that is with either flow or context sensitivity but seldom with both. In fact
GCC’s pointer analysis pass ′ pta ′ is done with neither. But what if we look at this with a
completely new perpective? The fundamental problem with a flow and context sensitive
pointer analysis is scalability and information blow up. But what if we ask ourselves
whether the copious amount of pointer information that is calculated and propagated,
which causes the failure is even required? The answer is NO and a liveness based analysis
shows us how we can discard information which is associated with dead variables and hence
argue that approximations are not only undesirable but also unnecessary for performance.
