Abstract: The invention provides a method for improving the precision of interprocedural alias analysis by efficiently qualifying (naming) dynamically allocated storage locations with call path information and identifying as identical qualified name pairs, one of which is a prefix substring of another. The invention also provides a compact method for representing alias information which improves the efficiency and in some cases, the precision, of alias analysis, by eliminating alias relations that involve more than one level of dereferencing and by eliminating all alias relations that do not contain at least one dereferenced object.

Abstract: By novel use of the Program Call Graph representation of computer programs, this method and apparatus provides a general analysis method for interprocedural bidirection data flow problems in computer software programs. The invention has many uses, including the determination of interprocedural alias analysis of computer software programs which contain pointers.The method starts by constructing a Program Call Graph representation of a computer program with each node of the graph representing a routine of the program. An internal representation of each node is then constructed and initial interprocedural values are associated with appropriate nodes. An interprocedural traversal of the Program Call Graph is performed in which each node is visited; an intraprocedural propagation is performed to develop a new set of interim solution values; and the new interim solution values are interprocedurally propagated. The new interim solution is propagated in a forward and backward direction in one pass of the traversal.