Cecil: a sequencing constraint language for automatic static analysis generation

Abstract

A flexible and general mechanism for specifying problems relating to the sequencing of events and mechanically translating them into dataflow analysis algorithms capable of solving those problems is presented. Dataflow analysis has been used for quite some time in compiler code optimization. Most static analyzers have been custom-built to search for fixed and often quite limited classes of dataflow conditions. It is shown that the range of sequences for which it is interesting and worthwhile to search in actually quite broad and diverse. A formalism for specifying this diversity of conditions is created. It is shown that these conditions can be modeled essentially as dataflow analysis problems for which effective solutions are known. It is also shown how these solutions can be exploited to serve as the basis for mechanical creation of analyzers for these conditions.