Clone Detection by Comparing Abstract Memory States

In this paper, we propose a new semantic clone detection technique by comparing programs' abstract memory states, which are computed by a semantic-based static an- alyzer. Our experimental study using three large-scale open source projects shows that our technique can detect semantic clones that existing syntactic- or semantic-based clone detectors miss. Our technique can help developers identify inconsistent clone changes, nd refactoring candidates, and understand software evolution related to semantic clones.