Open this publication in new window or tab >>2018 (English)Doctoral thesis, comprehensive summary (Other academic)
Abstract [en]
Stateless model checking is a technique for testing and verifying concurrent programs, based on exploring the different ways in which operations executed by the processes of a concurrent program can be scheduled. The goal of the technique is to expose all behaviours that can be a result of scheduling non-determinism. As the number of possible schedulings is huge, however, techniques that reduce the number of schedulings that must be explored to achieve verification have been developed. Dynamic partial order reduction (DPOR) is a prominent such technique.
This dissertation presents a number of improvements to dynamic partial order reduction that significantly increase the effectiveness of stateless model checking. Central among these improvements are the Source and Optimal DPOR algorithms (and the theoretical framework behind them) and a technique that allows the observability of the interference of operations to be used in dynamic partial order reduction. Each of these techniques can exponentially decrease the number of schedulings that need to be explored to verify a concurrent program. The dissertation also presents a simple bounding technique that is compatible with DPOR algorithms and effective for finding bugs in concurrent programs, if the number of schedulings is too big to make full verification possible in a reasonable amount of time, even when the improved algorithms are used.
All improvements have been implemented in Concuerror, a tool for applying stateless model checking to Erlang programs. In order to increase the effectiveness of the tool, the interference of the high-level operations of the Erlang/OTP implementation is examined, classified and precisely characterized. Aspects of the implementation of the tool are also described. Finally, a use case is presented, showing how Concuerror was used to find bugs and verify key correctness properties in repair techniques for the CORFU chain replication protocol.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Uppsala: Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis, 2018. p. 56
Series
Digital Comprehensive Summaries of Uppsala Dissertations from the Faculty of Science and Technology, ISSN 1651-6214 ; 1602
Keywords
Concurrent, Parallel, Model Checking, Partial Order Reduction, Dynamic Partial Order Reduction, DPOR, Sleep Set Blocking, Source Sets, Source DPOR, Wakeup Trees, Optimal DPOR, Observers, Verification, Bounding, Exploration Tree Bounding, Testing, Erlang, Concuerror, Protocol, Chain Replication, CORFU
National Category
Computer Sciences
Research subject
Computer Science
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-333541 (URN)978-91-513-0160-0 (ISBN)
Public defence
2018-02-02, ITC/2446, Lägerhyddsvägen 2, 752 37, Uppsala, 13:15 (English)
Opponent
Supervisors
Projects
UPMARCRELEASE
2017-12-192017-11-222018-03-08