Semantic code clone detection for Internet of Things applications using reaching definition and liveness analysis

• Published in: The Journal of supercomputing Vol. 74; no. 9; pp. 4199 - 4226
• Main Authors: Tekchandani, Rajkumar, Bhatia, Rajesh, Singh, Maninder
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 01.09.2018; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Compilers; Computer Science; Data flow analysis; Equivalence; Fragments; Internet; Internet of Things; Interpreters; Processor Architectures; Programming Languages; Reengineering; Semantics; Control flow; Liveness analysis; Code clones; Reaching definition; Data flow
• ISSN: 0920-8542; 1573-0484
• DOI: 10.1007/s11227-016-1832-6

Knowledge extraction from existing software resources for maintenance, re-engineering and bug removal through code clone detection is an integral part of most of the internet-enabled devices. Similar code fragments which are live at different locations are called code clones. These Internet-enabled devices are used for knowledge sharing and data extraction to execute various applications related to code clone detection. However, most of the existing semantic code clone detection techniques are unable to provide heuristic solution for problems such as statement reordering, inversion of control predicates and insertion of irrelevant statements which may cause a performance bottleneck in this environment. To address these issues, we propose a novel approach that finds semantic code clones in a program or procedure using data flow analysis on the basis of reaching definition and liveness analysis. The algorithm based on reaching definition and liveness analysis is designed to find similar code fragments which are structurally divergent, but semantically equivalent. The results obtained demonstrate that the proposed approach using reaching definition and liveness analysis is effective in detection of semantic code clones for various applications running on the Internet-enabled devices. We have found 5831 semantically equivalent clone pairs on subject systems taken from DeCapo benchmark after elimination of 29,029 dead codes/statements having 2,16,579 line of code (LOC).