78,762 research outputs found
Detecting and Explaining Conflicts in Attributed Feature Models
Product configuration systems are often based on a variability model. The
development of a variability model is a time consuming and error-prone process.
Considering the ongoing development of products, the variability model has to
be adapted frequently. These changes often lead to mistakes, such that some
products cannot be derived from the model anymore, that undesired products are
derivable or that there are contradictions in the variability model. In this
paper, we propose an approach to discover and to explain contradictions in
attributed feature models efficiently in order to assist the developer with the
correction of mistakes. We use extended feature models with attributes and
arithmetic constraints, translate them into a constraint satisfaction problem
and explore those for contradictions. When a contradiction is found, the
constraints are searched for a set of contradicting relations by the
QuickXplain algorithm.Comment: In Proceedings FMSPLE 2015, arXiv:1504.0301
Probabilistic Model Checking for Energy Analysis in Software Product Lines
In a software product line (SPL), a collection of software products is
defined by their commonalities in terms of features rather than explicitly
specifying all products one-by-one. Several verification techniques were
adapted to establish temporal properties of SPLs. Symbolic and family-based
model checking have been proven to be successful for tackling the combinatorial
blow-up arising when reasoning about several feature combinations. However,
most formal verification approaches for SPLs presented in the literature focus
on the static SPLs, where the features of a product are fixed and cannot be
changed during runtime. This is in contrast to dynamic SPLs, allowing to adapt
feature combinations of a product dynamically after deployment. The main
contribution of the paper is a compositional modeling framework for dynamic
SPLs, which supports probabilistic and nondeterministic choices and allows for
quantitative analysis. We specify the feature changes during runtime within an
automata-based coordination component, enabling to reason over strategies how
to trigger dynamic feature changes for optimizing various quantitative
objectives, e.g., energy or monetary costs and reliability. For our framework
there is a natural and conceptually simple translation into the input language
of the prominent probabilistic model checker PRISM. This facilitates the
application of PRISM's powerful symbolic engine to the operational behavior of
dynamic SPLs and their family-based analysis against various quantitative
queries. We demonstrate feasibility of our approach by a case study issuing an
energy-aware bonding network device.Comment: 14 pages, 11 figure
CONFIGEN: A tool for managing configuration options
This paper introduces CONFIGEN, a tool that helps modularizing software.
CONFIGEN allows the developer to select a set of elementary components for his
software through an interactive interface. Configuration files for use by
C/assembly code and Makefiles are then automatically generated, and we
successfully used it as a helper tool for complex system software refactoring.
CONFIGEN is based on propositional logic, and its implementation faces hard
theoretical problems.Comment: In Proceedings LoCoCo 2010, arXiv:1007.083
Conflict Detection for Edits on Extended Feature Models using Symbolic Graph Transformation
Feature models are used to specify variability of user-configurable systems
as appearing, e.g., in software product lines. Software product lines are
supposed to be long-living and, therefore, have to continuously evolve over
time to meet ever-changing requirements. Evolution imposes changes to feature
models in terms of edit operations. Ensuring consistency of concurrent edits
requires appropriate conflict detection techniques. However, recent approaches
fail to handle crucial subtleties of extended feature models, namely
constraints mixing feature-tree patterns with first-order logic formulas over
non-Boolean feature attributes with potentially infinite value domains. In this
paper, we propose a novel conflict detection approach based on symbolic graph
transformation to facilitate concurrent edits on extended feature models. We
describe extended feature models formally with symbolic graphs and edit
operations with symbolic graph transformation rules combining graph patterns
with first-order logic formulas. The approach is implemented by combining
eMoflon with an SMT solver, and evaluated with respect to applicability.Comment: In Proceedings FMSPLE 2016, arXiv:1603.0857
How to Complete an Interactive Configuration Process?
When configuring customizable software, it is useful to provide interactive
tool-support that ensures that the configuration does not breach given
constraints.
But, when is a configuration complete and how can the tool help the user to
complete it?
We formalize this problem and relate it to concepts from non-monotonic
reasoning well researched in Artificial Intelligence. The results are
interesting for both practitioners and theoreticians. Practitioners will find a
technique facilitating an interactive configuration process and experiments
supporting feasibility of the approach. Theoreticians will find links between
well-known formal concepts and a concrete practical application.Comment: to appear in SOFSEM 201
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