Mechanisms are provided for generating a new compilable program from an instruction trace. The mechanisms receive a trace file for an original program whose execution on computing hardware has been traced and perform analysis of the trace file to identify a hot function, symbol information corresponding to the hot function, and initialization parameters for the hot function. The mechanisms generate a trace control flow graph based on the identified hot function and the symbol information corresponding to the hot function. The mechanisms identify, based on the trace control flow graph, pathways in the original program to the hot function, represented in the trace file. The mechanisms generate a reconstructed program based on the trace control flow graph, the pathways to the hot function, and the initialization parameters, and output the reconstructed program.