Static Program Analysis
Course Information
Software Analysis or Static Program Analysis is a course of Nanjing University developed by Tian Tan and Yue Li in Spring 2020. In this course, we will learn about static program analysis, a useful technique for improving the reliability, security and performance of software, and it becomes increasingly impactful in industries nowadays. The course covers two parts: theory and practice. In theory, various materials will be introduced: from the foundations of classical data-flow and pointer analyses to some advanced topics such as security analysis and soundiness. In practice, a brand new static program analysis framework called Tai-e was designed, on top of which we'll implement a series of assignments including live variable analysis, constant propagation, dead code detection, CHA call graph construction, context-insensitive and context-sensitive pointer analyses, and taint analysis.
Prerequisites
As prerequisites, you need to understand data structures and algorithms, and to be familiar with a programming language (Java would be better than others as our assignments are implemented in it). Compiler is not a prerequisite despite that understanding it would be preferable. The course is intended for advanced undergraduates as well as graduate students at all levels.
Lectures
| Lecture | Instructor | Slides (PDF) | Videos (Chinese) | Assignments |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Course Introduction | Yue Li | Intro.pdf | ||
| 2. Intermediate Representation | Yue Li | IR.pdf | ||
| 3. Data Flow Analysis - Applications I | Yue Li | DFA-AP (I, II).pdf | ||
| 4. Data Flow Analysis - Applications II | Yue Li | A1 | ||
| 5. Data Flow Analysis - Foundations I | Yue Li | DFA-FD (I, II).pdf | ||
| 6. Data Flow Analysis - Foundations II | Yue Li | A2 A3 | ||
| 7. Interprocedural Analysis | Tian Tan | Inter.pdf | A4 | |
| 8. Pointer Analysis | Tian Tan | PTA.pdf | ||
| 9. Pointer Analysis - Foundations I | Tian Tan | PTA-FD (I, II).pdf | ||
| 10. Pointer Analysis - Foundations II | Tian Tan | A5 | ||
| 11. Pointer Analysis - Context Sensitivity I | Tian Tan | PTA-CS (I, II).pdf | ||
| 12. Pointer Analysis - Context Sensitivity II | Tian Tan | A6 A7 | ||
| 13. Static Analysis for Security | Tian Tan | Security.pdf | A8 | |
| 14. Datalog-Based Program Analysis | Tian Tan | Datalog.pdf | ||
| 15. CFL-Reachability and IFDS | Yue Li | IFDS.pdf | ||
| 16. Soundness and Soundiness | Yue Li | Soundiness.pdf |
Lecture slides (PPT), and the solutions and more complete test cases of all programming assignments are available to teachers by request (sending emails to [email protected] with subject “Request of SPA teaching package”).
Reference Materials
- Compilers: Principles, Techniques, and Tools (2nd), by Alfred V. Aho, Monica S. Lam, Ravi Sethi and Jeffrey D. Ullman
- Static Program Analysis, by Anders Møller and Michael I. Schwartzbach
- Principles of Program Analysis, by Flemming Nielson, Hanne R. Nielson and Chris Hankin
We appreciate the researchers in the community of static program analysis for their inspiring lectures, papers, and tools, which provide us great materials to build this course.