METHODS FOR SELECTIVELY PRUNING FALSE PATHS IN GRAPHS THAT USE HIGH-PRECISION STATE INFORMATION

Methods are provided that allow a false path pruner to traverse a directed acyclic graph in conjunction with one or more checker programs that are analyzing a program for defects or other artifacts of interest. While the checkers may have ways of avoiding re-traversal of portions of the graph that have already been traversed, the false path pruner may override such decisions made by the checkers as a result of a false path in order to allow re-traversal during a future different traversal when that same defect or artifact may not lie along a false path, and therefore avoid missing a valid defect or artifact. Computer programs stored on tangible media are provided that implement the methods of the invention.