Static Backward Program Slicing for Safety-Critical Systems

Static program slicing is a technique to detect the program parts (i.e. the “slice”) of the given program possibly affecting a given property. The technique is of interest for analysing safety-critical software, since it can identify the program parts that may affect various safety properties. Verification efforts can then be directed towards those parts, leading to a more efficient verification process. We have developed a novel method for static backward program slicing. The method works for well-structured programs, as commonly demanded by coding standards for safety-critical software. It utilises the program structure to obtain a highly efficient slicing process, where control dependencies are inferred from the program structure, and the slicing is done on-the-fly concurrently with the data dependence analysis. We have evaluated our method experimentally. For applications that require few slices to be taken, like checking for a set of safety properties, we obtain large sp...

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2015
• Where: ADAEUROPE
• Authors: Husni Khanfar, Björn Lisper, Abu Naser Masud
• Keywords: ADAEUROPE 2015, Software Engineering