Interprocedural constant propagation

Abstract

In a compiling system that attempts to improve code for a whole program by optimizing across procedures, the compiler can generate better code for a specific procedure if it knows which variables will have constant values, and what those values will be, when the procedure is invoked. This paper presents a general algorithm for determining for each procedure in a given program the set of inputs that will have known constant values at run time. The precision of the answers provided by this method are dependent on the precision of the local analysis of individual procedures in the program. Since the algorithm is intended for use in a sophisticated software development environment in which local analysis would be provided by the source editor, the quality of the answers will depend on the amount of work the editor performs. Several reasonable strategies for local analysis with different levels of complexity and precision are suggested and the results of a prototype implementation in a vectorizing Fortran compiler are presented.