Re: Info on software for data flow analysis of C programs

Peter C.J. Graham <pgraham@nickel.cs.umanitoba.ca> wrote:
>I have an MSc student that is in need of some software to do some basic DFA
>of C programs for a research project he is doing. Can anyone recommend such
>software (likely as part of a PD C compiler) which is relatively easy to
>understand and work with. What he is most interested in is getting the DF
>graph out in some usable form (both for further manipulation and for viewing
>using DFLO or some similar tool). Many thank in advance. Peter


I am not sure whether or not this tool is too BIG for your purpose.
However, there is a compiler framework, called SUIF, which was
designed and implemented by Stanford University. It provides the
front-end parsing among other capabilities. I have been using it to
generate control flow graphs. Here is the brief README file provided
with the software. For more information, please read
http://suif.stanford.edu.


Disclaimer: Dr. Monica Lam didn't pay my for this "commercial"!!


Enjoy!


CS
====
This is the README file for the Stanford SUIF compiler system.




TABLE OF CONTENTS:


Copyright notice
WHAT SUIF IS / WHAT SUIF IS NOT
                HOW SUIF IS DISTRIBUTED
                CURRENT PACKAGES
OTHER SOFTWARE THAT YOU WILL NEED
SUIF SUPPORT / MAILING LISTS
GETTING STARTED WITH SUIF


**********************************************************************


This software is Copyright (C) 1994,95 Stanford University


        All rights reserved.


        NOTICE: This software is provided ``as is'', without any
        warranty, including any implied warranty for merchantability or
        fitness for a particular purpose. Under no circumstances shall
        Stanford University or its agents be liable for any use of, misuse
        of, or inability to use this software, including incidental and
        consequential damages.


        License is hereby given to use, modify, and redistribute this
        software, in whole or in part, for any purpose, commercial or
        non-commercial, provided that the user agrees to the terms of this
        copyright notice, including disclaimer of warranty, and provided
        that this copyright notice, including disclaimer of warranty, is
        preserved in the source code and documentation of anything derived
        from this software. Any redistributor of this software or
        anything derived from this software assumes responsibility for
        ensuring that any parties to whom such a redistribution is made
        are fully aware of the terms of this license and disclaimer.


        "SUIF" is a trademark of Stanford University.


**********************************************************************


WHAT SUIF IS


SUIF is a collection of programs and libraries, mostly written in C++,
that allow researchers to investigate issues in scalar and parallel
optimization. The SUIF distribution contains all the pieces necessary
for a working compiler that will translate C or FORTRAN into either a
MIPS (R3000) executable or back into C code (suitable for compiling
with a native compiler). It contains passes to do a variety of
transformations including parallel loop detection, parallel code
generation, cache-based loop transformations, and scalar
optimizations. The SUIF system will correctly compile most major
benchmark suites. SUIF also provides a set of core libraries that (we
hope) allow people to easily write new SUIF passes to investigate
their favorite compiler research topic.




WHAT SUIF IS NOT


SUIF is not a production compiler. It is not suitable for replacing
your native compiler. Don't even attempt to compile a kernel with it.
SUIF does not have many code generators. SUIF will not generate
scalar code that's as good as your native compiler (unless you use the
"C" backend and actually compile with your native compiler...) If you
are running a machine that is not MIPS-based, you will have to use the
"C" backend and feed the result into your native C compiler (SUIF will
do this automatically). SUIF is not supported software. It is
distributed without warranty. We will do what we can to help you with
problems, but in the end you're on your own. See the end of this file
for information on mailing lists about SUIF.


**********************************************************************


HOW SUIF IS DISTRIBUTED


The SUIF system is now distributed in several different pieces. Some
pieces are more stable and others less so. For example, the basic
parallelization system is separated from the base SUIF system, so
those who are interested in only the basic compiler infrastructure
don't have to deal with all the overhead and greater instability of
the parallelizer. This allows frequently changing releases of the
more experimental parts without affecting the continuity of the more
stable parts of the system. It also allows researchers at other sites
to maintain and release their own pieces without having to coordinate
with Stanford.


**********************************************************************


CURRENT PACKAGES


Here are the packages currently available (note that if you got this
file from the basesuif package, the list here may not be the most
recent one, since the basesuif package is not changed for every
release of another SUIF package -- the current version of this
README.suif file is available by anonymous ftp from
suif.stanford.edu:/pub/suif/README.suif):


                basesuif 1.1.0
                        The base SUIF system, required before any of the other
                        packages can be used.


                simplesuif 1.0.0.beta.1
                        A simplified interface for SUIF for teaching compiler
                        courses; requires basesuif.


                suifbuilder 1.0.0.beta.1
                        A library built on top of SUIF providing another interface
                        for building SUIF code; requires basesuif.


                baseparsuif 1.0.0.beta.1
                        The basic SUIF parallelization system; requires basesuif
                        and suifbuilder.


                fortback 1.0.0.beta.1
                        A SUIF-to-Fortran converter, to convert to a combination
                        of Fortran and C to improve performance over conversion to
                        C alone; requires basesuif.


                suifcookbook 1.0.0.beta.1
                        An introduction to construction of SUIF passes in
                        ``cookbook'' form, going through several examples;
                        requires basesuif, suifbuilder, and baseparsuif.


                oldsuif 6.0.0.beta.1
                        Some remenants of an obsolete old SUIF system, with
                        converters between ``old SUIF'' and modern SUIF, to
                        provide some functionality that exists in the old system
                        but not yet in modern SUIF in quite the same way; requires
                        basesuif.


NOTE: the versions that include ``beta'' in the version label are
``beta test'' quality, i.e. less stable and probably more buggy than
regular releases.


These packages are available by anonymous ftp from
suif.stanford.edu:/pub/suif. The filename is in the form
<package-name>-<version>.tar.{gz|Z}. Signed pgp certificates for all
packages are also available in the same directory with the suffix .asc
appended to the compressed tar file name.


**********************************************************************


OTHER SOFTWARE THAT YOU WILL NEED


The SUIF system uses a lot of software from the GNU project. Although
you may be able to adapt it to work with other compilers, you'll save
yourself a lot of trouble by using the programs specified below.
These programs are available by anonymous ftp from one of the GNU ftp
servers, such as prep.ai.mit.edu or gatekeeper.dec.com. Note that
most of these packages have been compressed with the gzip program; you
will have to compile and install gzip before you can uncompress the
others. This is explained in greater detail in the README files on
the ftp servers. The version numbers below reflect the versions that
we are currently using.


                gzip 1.2.4


                bison 1.22
                gmake 3.73


As a C/C++ compiler system you'll need either one of the following:


                gcc/g++ 2.6.3 (or 2.7.0 -- see below)
                libg++ 2.6.2


or (for Silicon Graphics systems only)


                SGI IRIX 5.3 C/C++ compiler


Also the GNU debugger will be helpful if you design your own SUIF
applications:


                gdb 4.14


IMPORTANT NOTE: Recently, new releases of gcc/g++ have NOT been
backward compatible with immediately preceeding releases. When a new
release of gcc/g++ has come out, existing SUIF code has generally not
worked on that release and has had to be ported to the new gcc/g++.
Please make sure you get the version of gcc/g++ specified above or
check with the SUIF group that your version of gcc/g++ will actually
work with this particular release of SUIF.


Note on gcc/g++ 2.7.0: the basesuif, simplesuif, and suifbuilder
packages compile uner 2.7.0, though they haven't been heavily tested.
The baseparsuif, fortback, suifcookbook, and oldsuif packages haven't
yet been ported to 2.7.0.


**********************************************************************


SUIF SUPPORT / MAILING LISTS


The SUIF compiler system is released without warranty or promise of
support. Essentially you are on your own. However, there are a
number of mailing lists devoted to SUIF that you may join. We
recommend that you join at least the suif-announce mailing list, as
notices of patch releases or new versions will be sent to this list.


suif-talk@suif.stanford.edu is for the discussion of anything related
to SUIF. It is for the use of SUIF users to talk amongst themselves.


suif-bugs@suif.stanford.edu is for the submission of bugs to the SUIF
development team. There is no guarantee that submitting a bug will
cause that bug to be fixed. Users may add themselves to the suif-bugs
list if they wish to monitor other users' bug reports.


suif-announce@suif.stanford.edu is for the announcement of new
versions of SUIF.


To join any of these lists, send mail to "majordomo@suif.stanford.edu"
with the body:


subscribe list-name


Sending a message with the body:


help


will send info on other commands you may use.




The SUIF team also maintains a World Wide Web server that includes
information about SUIF, hypertext versions of the SUIF documentation,
and published papers written by members of the SUIF team. If you have
access to a Web browser, such as NCSA Mosaic, you can use the URL:


http://suif.stanford.edu


**********************************************************************


GETTING STARTED WITH SUIF


If you haven't already, you should obtain the basesuif package and
untar it. Then look in the src/basesuif diretory for the
README.basesuif file and follow the instructions found therein.


**********************************************************************


The Stanford Compiler Group
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