PROJECT-LEVEL C-TO-RUST TRANSLATION VIA POINTER KNOWLEDGE GRAPHS

Our C-Rust Pointer KG builds on a code-dependency graph as the structural backbone, and is further enriched with C-Rust pointer semantics, including pointer-usage information and Rust-oriented annotations. In particular, our KG focuses on the pointers in function parameters, function return values, and members of structs and unions, as these pointers define module interfaces, which are crucial for inter-module semantic consistency.

PTRTRANS leverages the constructed C-Rust Pointer KG to guide LLMs to automatically translate a given C project into Rust. Unlike existing approaches that rely solely on LLMs to infer implicit pointer semantics knowledge in C code [7, 17, 21, 32, 58, 60], PTRTRANS leverages explicit pointer semantics from the pointer KG to assist LLMs in generating idiomatic Rust code.

During error correction, PTRTRANS leverages the Rust copy of our pointer KG to provide LLMs with project-level semantic context, rather than relying solely on compiler error messages as in prior methods [7, 17, 32, 44, 58, 60]. The KG assists repair in two main ways: (1) its dependency relations enable precise identification of code units involved in a given error, clarifying inter-component interactions; and (2) each node is enriched with Rust-oriented annotations (e.g., ownership and mutability), which supply precise program semantics that guide LLMs toward effective fixes and prevent them from getting stuck in unproductive repair loops.