Slice-based dynamic memory modelling - a case study

Program slicing is a source-code extraction technique that identifies parts of a program which have no effect upon a chosen set of variables at a point of interest. Slices can be constructed statically (with respect to no input information) or conditionally (with respect to partial input information). They can also be constructed in either a purely syntax-preserving or amorphous way. Amorphous slices tend to be smaller than their syntax-preserving counterparts but they may not be syntactically related to the original. This paper presents the results of a case study which assesses the value of static and conditioned slicing (in both syntax-preserving and amorphous formulations) upon the problem of dynamic memory analysis. The results confirmed our belief that slicing is helpful for dynamic memory analysis: syntax-preserving static slicing produced an order-of-magnitude reduction in the size of the program to be analysed. Amorphous static slicing produced a further reduction in slice size. Finally, conditioned slicing (both syntax-preserving and amorphous) produced the smallest slices (12 to 35 lines of code).