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PPA - Intro

DFA

RDA

Reaching Definitions Analysis (or more properly, Reaching Assignment Analysis):

An assignment (or definition) of form l: x := a may reach a certain program point if there is an execution of the program where x was last assigned a value of l when the point is reached.

So, $RD(l) = (RD_{entry}, RD_{exit})$, in which $RD_{entry}$ is the set of pair $(x, l_x)$ means that assignment to $x$ at line $l_x$ may reach $l$'s entry and likely for exit.

Exmaple:

1: y := x
2: z := 1
3: while y > 1 do
4:      z := z * y
5:      y := y - 1
6: y := 0
$l$ $RD_{entry}(l)$ $RD_{exit}(l)$
1 (x,?), (y,?), (z,?) (x,?), (y,1), (z,?)
2 (x,?), (y,1), (z,?) (x,?), (y,?), (z,2)
3 (x,?), (y,1), (y,5), (z,2), (z,4) (x,?), (y,1), (y,5), (z,2), (z,4)
4 (x,?), (y,1), (y,5), (z,2), (z,4) (x,?), (y,1), (y,5), (z,4)
5 (x,?), (y,1), (y,5), (z,4) (x,?), (y,5), (z,4)
6 (x,?), (y,1), (y,5), (z,2), (z,4) (x,?), (y,6), (z,2), (z,4)

Equational Approach

Based on the flow information, we have two rules:

  1. For an assignment l: x := a, we exclude all pairs $(x, l_0)$ from $RD_{entry}(l)$ and add $(x, l)$ to obtain $RD_{exit}(l)$; For non-assignment statement at $l$, $RD_{exit}(l) = RD_{entry}(l)$
  2. $RD_{entry}(l) = \cup_{i}RD_{exit}(l_i)$, in which $l_i \in$ all the labels from which control might pass to $l$; For the first statement, $RD_{entry}(1) = {(x, ?)\,|\, x \in Var}$

About least solution: The above system can be viewed as a function $F: [RD] \rightarrow [RD]$, which is a iterative process; so we can continue the process until reachability information doesn't change anymore, which is "least solution".

Constraint Approach

For an assignment l: z := a,

For non-assignment $l$, $RD_{exit}(l) \supseteq RD_{entry}(l)$

For any $l$, $RD_{entry}(l) \supseteq RD_{exit}(l_x)$ if $l_x$'s control might pass to $l$

And $RD_{entry}(1) \supseteq { (x, ?) \,|\, x \in Var}$

The "least solution" idea also applies to this method.