This paper describes an empirical comparison of the e ectiveness of six context-insensitive pointer analysis algorithms that use varying degrees of ow-sensitivity. Four of the algorithms are ow-insensitive, one is ow-sensitive, and another is ow-insensitive, but uses precomputed ow-sensitive information. The e ectiveness of each analysis is quanti ed in terms of compile-time e ciency and precision. E ciency is reported by measuring CPU time and memory consumption of each analysis. Precision is reported by measuring the computed solutions at the program points where a pointer is dereferenced. The results of this paper will help implementors determine which pointer analysis is appropriate for their application.
Hind and Pioli REF implemented six context-insensitive alias analysis algorithms and compared their precision, time and memory consumption on 24 programs up to 30 K lines of code.
Evaluating the Effectiveness of Pointer Alias Analyses
SCIENCE OF COMPUTER PROGRAMMING
Computer Science