We propose a shape analysis that adapts to some of the complex composite data structures found in industrial systems-level programs. Examples of such data structures include "cyclic doubly-linked lists of acyclic singly-linked lists", "singly-linked lists of cyclic doubly-linked lists with back-pointers to head nodes", etc. The analysis introduces the use of generic higher-order inductive predicates describing spatial relationships together with a method of synthesizing new parameterized spatial predicates which can be used in combination with the higher-order predicates. In order to evaluate the proposed approach for realistic programs we have performed experiments on examples drawn from device drivers: the analysis proved safety of the data structure manipulation of several routines belonging to an IEEE 1394 (firewire) driver, and also found several previously unknown memory safety bugs.

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In: Computer Aided Verification, 19th International Conference, CAV 2007, Berlin, Germany, July 3-7, 2007, Proceedings

Publisher: Springer

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Josh Berdine, Cristiano Calcagno, Byron Cook, Dino Distefano, Peter O'Hearn, Thomas Wies, and Hongseok Yang. Shape Analysis for Composite Data Structures, Springer-Verlag, January 2007.