Re: [cocci] Searching for repeated source code with SmPL?

[Markus Elfring <Markus.Elfring@web.de>]

>> Source code parts can occasionally be repeated.
>>
>> * Loops
>>   The control flow can contain ordinary loops.
>>
>> * Recursion
>>   A function may be called by itself.
>>
>>
>> Such constructs trigger special consequences also for further data processing
>> with higher level technologies.
>>
>> + Computation tree logic
>>
>> + Linear temporal logic
>>
>>
>> I am still looking for clarifications so that the Coccinelle software
>> can be applied in safer ways.
>>
>>
>> Regular expressions support some search operators for quantification.
>> A notation is accordingly supported for the specification of a minimum number
>> of matches which would be bigger than one item.
>>
>> I imagine that such functionality would be helpful also for the semantic patch language.
>> How will the chances evolve to extend corresponding quantifiers anyhow?
>> https://gitlab.inria.fr/coccinelle/coccinelle/-/blob/23f7738a7881b02d016d278ee293cfd4a126fcab/docs/manual/cocci_syntax.tex#L793
>> https://github.com/coccinelle/coccinelle/blob/755250323b80f27701e78d325cc83509197b33b1/docs/manual/cocci_syntax.tex#L793
>>
>> I would appreciate if multiple occurrences of code elements can be better detected
>> and transformed.
>
> I have no intention of adding regular expressions.

Please take another look at provided information from my clarification approach
so that undesirable misunderstandings can be better avoided.

* Regular expressions are supported already by the Coccinelle software.

  + They can be applied for advanced SmPL constraints.

  + Embedded scripts for programming languages like “OCaml” and “Python”
    occasionally benefit from this technique.


> Be more concrete about what you are not able to do.

The semantic patch language supports a few “Dot variants” so far.
I am looking for further possibilities according to item quantification.
How should a search be performed for source code which would occur twice at least
(without taking repetition because of loops and recursion into account)?

How would a notation “{2,}” look like in SmPL?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_expression#Basic_concepts

Regards,
Markus