Application of Computational Redundancy in Dangling Pointers Detection

Many programmers manipulate dynamic data improperly, which may produce dynamic memory problems, such as dangling pointer. Dangling pointers can occur when a function returns a pointer to an automatic variable, or when trying to access a deleted object. The existence of dangling pointers causes the programs to behave incorrectly. Dangling pointers are common defect that are easy to commit, but are difficult to discover. In this paper we propose a dynamic approach that detects dangling pointers in computer programs. Redundant computation is an execution of a program statement(s) that does not contribute to the program output. The notion of redundant computation is introduced as a potential indicator of defects in programs. We investigate the application of redundant computation in dangling pointers detection. The results of the initial experiment show that, the redundant computation detection can help the debuggers to localize the source(s) of the dangling pointers. During the experiment, we find that, our approach may be capable of detecting other types of dynamic memory problems such as memory leaks and inaccessible objects, which we plan to investigate in our future research.