"What's in a name?" going beyond allocation site names in heap analysis

Abstract

A points-to analysis computes a sound abstraction of heap memory conventionally using a name-based abstraction that summarizes runtime memory by grouping locations using the names of allocation sites: All concrete heap locations allocated by the same statement are grouped together. The locations in the same group are treated alike i.e., a pointer to any one location of the group is assumed to point to every location in the group leading to an over-approximation of points-to relations.