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Separate Computation of Alias Information for Reuse
IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering
vol. 22, no. 7, June 1996, pp. 442-460
Mary Jean Harrold and Gregg Rothermel
Abstract
Interprocedural dataflow information is useful for many
software testing and analysis techniques, including dataflow testing,
regression testing, program slicing and impact analysis. For
programs with aliases, these testing and analysis techniques can
yield invalid results, unless the dataflow information accounts for
aliasing effects. Recent research provides algorithms for performing
interprocedural dataflow analysis in the presence of aliases;
however, these algorithms are expensive, and achieve precise results
only on complete programs. This paper presents an algorithm for
performing alias analysis on incomplete programs, that lets individual
software components such as library routines, subroutines, or subsystems
be independently analyzed. The paper also presents an algorithm for
reusing the results of this separate analysis when linking the individual
software components with calling modules. The primary advantage of our
algorithms is that they let us analyze frequently used software components,
such as library routines or classes, independently, and reuse the results
of that analysis when analyzing calling programs, without incurring the
expense of completely reanalyzing each calling program.
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