Cross-Compiler Behavioral Divergence Analysis for Undefined Behavior

While Gerasimov et al. (2024) highlighted how undefined behaviors in C can manifest radically differently across compilers and platforms (e.g., GCC vs. Visual Studio), there’s no systematic framework for uncovering or leveraging these divergences. This idea proposes building an automated tool that feeds a suite of undefined or borderline cases to multiple compilers (and versions), recording and categorizing behavioral outcomes (crash, warning, silent error, etc.). The tool would analyze divergence patterns and generate insights/hints for both developers and compiler engineers. Unlike existing work that focuses on one compiler’s warnings (Gerasimov et al.) or on performance anomalies (Kong et al., 2023), this approach brings cross-compiler verification into the realm of undefined behavior, guiding safer coding practices and more robust compiler diagnostics. The impact could be a new “meta-verification” step in CI pipelines, especially valuable for safety-critical or cross-platform codebases.

References:

1. Collie: Finding Performance Anomalies in RDMA Subsystems. Xinhao Kong, Yibo Zhu, Huaping Zhou, Zhuo Jiang, Jianxi Ye, Chuanxiong Guo, Danyang Zhuo (2023). Symposium on Networked Systems Design and Implementation.
2. Access to struct members and undefined behavior of C code. Gerasimov Volodymyr, Karpenko Nadiia, Skuratovskyi Ihor (2024). Systems and Technologies.