Control-flow analysis of dynamic languages via pointer analysis

Abstract

We demonstrate how to map a control-flow analysis for a higher-order language (dynamic languages are typically higher-order) into a pointer analysis for a first-order language, such as C. This allows us to use existing pointer analysis tools to perform a control-flow analysis, exploiting their technical advancements and the engineering effort that went into developing them. We compare the results of two recent parallel pointer analysis tools with a parallel control-flow analysis tool. While it has been known that a control-flow analysis of higher-order languages and a pointer analysis of first-order languages are very similar, we demonstrate that these two analyses are actually more similar than previously thought. We present the first mapping between a high-order control-flow analysis and a pointer analysis.