Shape Analysis for Composite Data Structures

We propose a shape analysis that adapts to some of the complex composite data structures found in industrial systems-level programs. Examples of such data structures include “cyclic doubly-linked lists of acyclic singly-linked lists”, “singly-linked lists of cyclic doublylinked lists with back-pointers to head nodes”, etc. The analysis introduces the use of generic higher-order inductive predicates describing spatial relationships together with a method of synthesizing new parameterized spatial predicates which can be used in combination with the higher-order predicates. In order to evaluate the proposed approach for realistic programs we have performed experiments on examples drawn from device drivers: the analysis proved safety of the data structure manipulation of several routines belonging to an IEEE 1394 (firewire) driver, and also found several previously unknown memory safety bugs.

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2007
• Where: CAV
• Authors: Josh Berdine, Cristiano Calcagno, Byron Cook, Dino Distefano, Peter W. O'Hearn, Thomas Wies, Hongseok Yang
• Keywords: CAV 2007, Cyclic Doubly-linked Lists, Data Structure, Formal Methods, Parameterized Spatial Predicates