Dynamic object process graphs

A trace is a record of the execution of a computer program, showing the sequence of operations executed. A trace may be obtained through static or dynamic analysis. An object trace contains only those operations that relate to a particular object.Traces can be very large for longer system executions. Moreover, they lack structure because they do not show the control dependencies and completely unfold loops. Object process graphs are a finite concise description of dynamic object traces. They offer the advantage of representing control dependencies and loops explicitly.This article describes a new technique to extract object process graphs through dynamic analysis and discusses several applications, in particular program understanding and protocol recovery. A case study is described that illustrates and demonstrates use and feasibility of the technique. Finally, statically and dynamically derived object process graphs are compared.