Application of the Pointer State Subgraph to Static Program Slicing

A new technique for performing static analysis of programs that contain unconstrained pointers is presented. The technique is based on the pointer state subgraph: a reduced control flow graph that takes advantage of the fact that in any program there exists a smaller program that computes only the values of pointer variables. The pointer state subgraph is useful in building static analysis tools. As an example the application of the pointer state subgraph to program slicing is considered. Finally, some experimental results, obtained using the ANSI-C slicer Unravel, are reported. These results show a clear reduction in the time taken to compute data-flow information from programs that contain pointers. They also shown a substantial reduction in the space needed to store this information. Key Words. control-flow graph; data-flow analysis; pointer-state subgraph; program slicing; static analysis tools supported in part by the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the Defen..