From Low-Level Pointers to High-Level Containers

TL;DR

This paper introduces a method to automatically convert low-level pointer manipulations in C programs into high-level container operations, improving understandability and analysis suitability.

Contribution

It presents a novel approach that transforms annotated C code with shape invariants into high-level container operation code, enhancing program analysis capabilities.

Findings

Successful implementation and testing on list-based containers

Improved program analysis by separating shape and data analysis

Enhanced code understandability and maintainability

Abstract

We propose a method that transforms a C program manipulating containers using low-level pointer statements into an equivalent program where the containers are manipulated via calls of standard high-level container operations like push_back or pop_front. The input of our method is a C program annotated by a special form of shape invariants which can be obtained from current automatic shape analysers after a slight modification. The resulting program where the low-level pointer statements are summarized into high-level container operations is more understandable and (among other possible benefits) better suitable for program analysis. We have implemented our approach and successfully tested it through a number of experiments with list-based containers, including experiments with simplification of program analysis by separating shape analysis from analysing data-related properties.