Flow sensitive-insensitive pointer analysis based memory safety for multithreaded programs

Abstract

The competency of pointer analysis is crucial for many compiler optimizations, transformations, and checks like memory safety. The potential interaction between threads in multithreaded programs complicates their pointer analysis and memory-safety check. The trade-off between accuracy and scalability remains a main issue when studying these analyses. In this work, we present novel approaches for the pointer analysis and memory safety of multithreaded programs as simply structured type systems. In order to balance accuracy and scalability, the type system proposed for pointer analysis of multithreaded programs is flow-sensitive and it invokes another flow-insensitive type system for parallel constructs. Therefore the proposed pointer analysis is described as flow sensitive-insensitive. The third type system presented in this paper takes care of memory safety of multithreaded programs and is an extension of the type system of pointer analysis. Programs having types in memory-safety type system, are guaranteed to be memory safe. Type derivations serve as proofs for correctness of the result of every pointer analysis and memory-safety check. Such proofs are required in the area of proof-carrying code. © 2011 Springer-Verlag.