Exception analysis and points-to analysis: better together

Exception analysis and points-to analysis are typically done in complete separation. Past algorithms for precise exception analysis (e.g., pairing throw clauses with catch statements) use precomputed points-to information. Past points-to analyses either unsoundly ignore exceptions, or conservatively compute a crude approximation of exception throwing (e.g., considering an exception throw as an assignment to a global variable, accessible from any catch clause). We show that this separation results in significant slowdowns or vast imprecision. The two kinds of analyses are interdependent: neither can be performed accurately without the other. The interdependency leads us to propose a joint handling for performance and precision. We show that our exception analysis is expressible highly elegantly in a declarative form, and can apply to points-to analyses of varying precision. In fact, our specification of exception analysis is “fully precise”, as it models closely the Java exceptio...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2009
• Where: ISSTA
• Authors: Martin Bravenboer, Yannis Smaragdakis
• Keywords: Exception Analysis, ISSTA 2009, Points-to Analyses, Precise Exception Analysis, Software Engineering