DUCT: An Interactive Define-Use Chain Navigation Tool for Relative Debugging

TL;DR

This paper introduces DUCT, an interactive tool leveraging MSIL to facilitate define-use chain navigation across various .NET languages, aiding relative debugging in large codebases.

Contribution

It presents a novel MSIL-based approach for language-agnostic define-use chain navigation supporting relative debugging.

Findings

DUCT effectively supports large codebases.

It works across multiple languages without modification.

The case study demonstrates practical utility.

Abstract

This paper describes an interactive tool that facilitates following define-use chains in large codes. The motivation for the work is to support relative debugging, where it is necessary to iteratively refine a set of asser-tions between different versions of a program. DUCT is novel because it exploits the Microsoft Intermediate Language (MSIL) that underpins the .NET Framework. Accordingly, it works on a wide range of programming languages without any modification. The paper describes the design and implementation of DUCT, and then illustrates its use with a small case study.