We study the problem of efficient, scalable set-sharing analysis of logic
programs. We use the idea of representing sharing information as a pair of
abstract substitutions, one of which is a worst-case sharing representation
called a clique set, which was previously proposed for the case of inferring
pair-sharing. We use the clique-set representation for (1) inferring actual
set-sharing information, and (2) analysis within a top-down framework. In
particular, we define the abstract functions required by standard top-down
analyses, both for sharing alone and also for the case of including freeness in
addition to sharing. Our experimental evaluation supports the conclusion that,
for inferring set-sharing, as it was the case for inferring pair-sharing,
precision losses are limited, while useful efficiency gains are obtained. At
the limit, the clique-set representation allowed analyzing some programs that
exceeded memory capacity using classical sharing representations.Comment: 15 pages, 0 figure
