A program slicer using Def-Slice-Use tables for efficiently slicing both user-defined and library functions

Program slicing is a technique for statically analyzing a program and extra cting an executable sub-program, which is called a program slice, from the original program. This technique has been widely applied to program testing , debugging and maintenance. This paper presents a slicing method for extra cting program slices from a program that calls library functions, which are provided as object code. The method this paper presents analyzes dependenc e relationships between library functions using global data that are referr ed to by the library functions but not explicitly declared in a program. In this method, before slicing a program with respect to a slicing criterion, a Def-Slice-Use table will be generated that stores slice information for each function in the program by slicing these functions in advance, and the n the program can be efficiently sliced using this table. The paper also il lustrates some examples of program slicing using a program slicer LibSlicer that implements this method.