JAAT: A Practical Alias Analysis Tool for Java Programs

When an expression refers to a memory location that is referred to by another expression, we say that there is an alias relation between those expressions. Alias analysis, i.e, the extraction of such relations is essential for efficient maintenance of object-oriented programs. Although many researchers have already proposed analysis methods and implemented prototype tools for object-oriented programs, difficulties still remain in applying such methods to practical tools in the sense of precision, extensibility, and scalability. Focusing mainly on practical implementation, we propose an alias analysis method for object-oriented programs. This method employs a two-phase, on-demand, instance-based, and extensible algorithm. We have implemented the proposed method as JAAT. JAAT can analyze large programs such as Java Developer’s Kit (JDK) class library. We have applied JAAT to various large Java programs and confirmed JAAT’s performance.