ORBS and the limits of static slicing

—Observation-based slicing is a recently-introduced, language-independent slicing technique based on the dependencies observable from program behaviour. Due to the well-known limits of dynamic analysis, we may only compute an underapproximation of the true observation-based slice. However, because the observation-based slice captures all possible dependence that can be observed, even such approximations can yield insight into the limitations of static slicing. For example, a static slice, S, that is strictly smaller than the corresponding observation based slice is potentially unsafe. We present the results of three sets of experiments on 12 different programs, including benchmarks and larger programs, which investigate the relationship between static and observation-based slicing. We show that, in extreme cases, observation-based slices can find the true minimal static slice, where static techniques cannot. For more typical cases, our results illustrate the potential for observatio...

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2015
• Where: SCAM
• Authors: David Binkley, Nicolas E. Gold, Mark Harman, Syed S. Islam, Jens Krinke, Shin Yoo
• Keywords: SCAM 2015, Software Engineering