CFA2: A Context-Free Approach to Control-Flow Analysis

Abstract. In a functional language, the dominant control-flow mechanism is function call and return. Most higher-order flow analyses, including k-CFA, do not handle call and return well: they remember only a bounded number of pending calls because they approximate programs with control-flow graphs. Call/return mismatch introduces precisiondegrading spurious control-flow paths and increases the analysis time. We describe CFA2, the first flow analysis with precise call/return matching in the presence of higher-order functions and tail calls. We formulate an abstract interpretation of programs in continuation-passing style and describe a sound and complete summarization algorithm for ract semantics. A preliminary evaluation shows that CFA2 gives more accurate data-flow information than 0CFA and 1CFA.

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2010
• Where: ESOP
• Authors: Dimitrios Vardoulakis, Olin Shivers
• Keywords: Dominant Control-flow Mechanism, ESOP 2010, Programming Languages, Spurious Control-flow Paths, first flow Analysis