Evaluating the effectiveness of pointer alias analyses

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. c © 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.