Method and apparatus for analyzing software in a language-independent manner

Abstract

A software analysis system for capturing tags generated by tag statements in instrumented source code. The software analysis system includes a probe that monitors the address and data bus of the target system. When a tag statement is executed in the target system, a tag is written to a predetermined location in the address space of the target. The tag contains a tag value that is indicative of the location in the source code of the tag statement generating the tag. By monitoring the predetermined address, the probe is able to capture tags as they are written on the data bus of the target system. The source code instrumenter includes a language-dependent parser and a language-independent analyzer that records tagging data in a symbol database. The software analysis system may reference the tagging data in the symbol database while testing instrumented source code. The software analysis system performs a variety of analysis functions in essentially real time, including code coverage, function and task execution times, memory allocation, call pairs, and program tracing.

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