Identifying DEF/USE information of statements that construct and traverse dynamic recursive data structures

Pointer analysis is essential for optimizing and parallelizing compilers. It examines pointer assignment statements and estimates pointer-induced aliases among pointer variables or possible shapes of dynamic recursive data structures. However, previously proposed techniques perform pointer analysis without the knowledge of traversal patterns of dynamic recursive data structures to be constructed. This paper presents an algorithm to identify the traversal patterns of recursive data structures and propagate this information back to those statements that define the data structures. This approach recognizes the DEF/USE relationships between the statements that define and traverse dynamic recursive data structures. The outcome of this technique will be useful for pointer analysis and parallelization. Algorithms to perform pointer analysis and dependence test using the knowledge of traversal patterns will also be presented.