Supported C Language Features¶
The table below summarizes the supported C language features pymwp can analyze.
Note on C file parsing
pymwp uses pycparser to process the C input file. Any limitation of pycparser is also a limitation in pymwp. From pycparser website: "pycparser aims to support the full C99 language (according to the standard ISO/IEC 9899). Some features from C11 are also supported."
What happens if the C program contains unsupported syntax?
- By default, the analysis skips unsupported statements and raises a warning.
- In strict mode (
--strict), analysis skips whole constructs ("programs") that contain unsupported syntax.
The strict mode is sound, but not very informative in case of an unsupported program. The default handling is more useful for developing the analysis.
- Legend
-
🟩 ready — fully implemented and ready to use
-
🟧 in progress — implementation in progress, but not ready
-
⬜ planned — implementation is in a planning stage
| Description | State | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Basic data types | ||
Integer types (incl. signed, unsigned) |
🟩 | char, short, int, long, long long |
| Floating point types | 🟩 | float, double, long double |
| Declarations | ||
| Variable declarations | 🟩 | int x; |
| Constant declarations | 🟩 | const int x; |
| Assignment | 🟩 | x = y |
| Compound assignment | ⬜ | x += 1 |
| Arithmetic operations | ||
Unary operations (\(+, -, ++,--,!\), sizeof) |
🟩 | ++x, x--, sizeof(x) |
| Binary operations (\(+, \times, -\))1 | 🟩 | x = y + z |
| N-ary/nested operation | ⬜ | y + (++z) * w |
| Casting (limited support) | 🟧 | x = (int)x |
| Conditional statements | ||
| if statement | 🟩 | if(x > 0) { ... } |
| if-else statement | 🟩 | if(x > 0) { ... } else { ... } |
| Nested conditional | 🟩 | if(x > 0) { if (y > 0) { ... } } |
| Repetition statements | ||
while loop2 |
🟩 | while(x < 20) { ... } |
for loop2 |
🟩 | for (i = 0; i < x; ++i) { ... } |
Jump statements (excl. goto) |
🟩 | break, continue, return x |
| Functions | 🟧 | foo(arg1, arg2) |
Pointers (*, & address-of) |
⬜ | |
| Arrays | ⬜ | |
| Header files inclusion | 🟩 | #include <stdio.h> |
| Comments (single-line, delimited) | 🟩 | // comment, /* comment */ |
| assume and assert macros | 🟩 | assert (x == y) |