Pointer analysis for Java programs : novel techniques and applications

This dissertation presents a pointer analysis for Java programs, together with several practical analysis applications. For each program point, the analysis is able to construct a points-to graph that describes how local variables and object fields point to objects. Each points-to graph also contains escape information that identifies the objects that are reachable from outside the analysis scope. Our pointer analysis can extract correct information by analyzing only parts of a whole program. First, our analysis analyzes a method without requiring information about its calling context. Instead, our analysis computes parameterized results that are later instantiated for each relevant call site. Second, our analysis correctly handles calls to unanalyzable methods (e.g., native methods). Hence, our analysis can trade precision for speed without sacrificing correctness: if the analysis of a call to a specific callee requires too much time, the analysis can treat that callee as unanalyzable. The results of our analysis enable standard program optimizations like the stack allocation of local objects. More interestingly, this dissertation explains how to extend the analysis to detect pure methods.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2006

Author dc:creator

• Sălcianu, Alexandru D. (Alexandru Doru), 1975-

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Martin C. Rinard.

• Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/38311

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/38311