[hofa] CFA2 on arXiv

[David Van Horn]

http://arxiv.org/abs/1102.3676

CFA2: a Context-Free Approach to Control-Flow Analysis
Dimitrios Vardoulakis, Olin Shivers
(Submitted on 17 Feb 2011)

     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 precision-degrading 
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 CFA2 as an abstract interpretation of programs in 
continuation-passing style and describe a sound and complete 
summarization algorithm for our abstract semantics. A preliminary 
evaluation shows that CFA2 gives more accurate data-flow information 
than 0CFA and 1CFA.