8,232 research outputs found
Deductive Verification of Parallel Programs Using Why3
The Message Passing Interface specification (MPI) defines a portable
message-passing API used to program parallel computers. MPI programs manifest a
number of challenges on what concerns correctness: sent and expected values in
communications may not match, resulting in incorrect computations possibly
leading to crashes; and programs may deadlock resulting in wasted resources.
Existing tools are not completely satisfactory: model-checking does not scale
with the number of processes; testing techniques wastes resources and are
highly dependent on the quality of the test set.
As an alternative, we present a prototype for a type-based approach to
programming and verifying MPI like programs against protocols. Protocols are
written in a dependent type language designed so as to capture the most common
primitives in MPI, incorporating, in addition, a form of primitive recursion
and collective choice. Protocols are then translated into Why3, a deductive
software verification tool. Source code, in turn, is written in WhyML, the
language of the Why3 platform, and checked against the protocol. Programs that
pass verification are guaranteed to be communication safe and free from
deadlocks.
We verified several parallel programs from textbooks using our approach, and
report on the outcome.Comment: In Proceedings ICE 2015, arXiv:1508.0459
Pabble: parameterised Scribble
© 2014, The Author(s).Many parallel and distributed message-passing programs are written in a parametric way over available resources, in particular the number of nodes and their topologies, so that a single parallel program can scale over different environments. This article presents a parameterised protocol description language, Pabble, which can guarantee safety and progress in a large class of practical, complex parameterised message-passing programs through static checking. Pabble can describe an overall interaction topology, using a concise and expressive notation, designed for a variable number of participants arranged in multiple dimensions. These parameterised protocols in turn automatically generate local protocols for type checking parameterised MPI programs for communication safety and deadlock freedom. In spite of undecidability of endpoint projection and type checking in the underlying parameterised session type theory, our method guarantees the termination of end point projection and type checking
Future-based Static Analysis of Message Passing Programs
Message passing is widely used in industry to develop programs consisting of
several distributed communicating components. Developing functionally correct
message passing software is very challenging due to the concurrent nature of
message exchanges. Nonetheless, many safety-critical applications rely on the
message passing paradigm, including air traffic control systems and emergency
services, which makes proving their correctness crucial. We focus on the
modular verification of MPI programs by statically verifying concrete Java
code. We use separation logic to reason about local correctness and define
abstractions of the communication protocol in the process algebra used by
mCRL2. We call these abstractions futures as they predict how components will
interact during program execution. We establish a provable link between futures
and program code and analyse the abstract futures via model checking to prove
global correctness. Finally, we verify a leader election protocol to
demonstrate our approach.Comment: In Proceedings PLACES 2016, arXiv:1606.0540
Behavioral types in programming languages
A recent trend in programming language research is to use behav- ioral type theory to ensure various correctness properties of large- scale, communication-intensive systems. Behavioral types encompass concepts such as interfaces, communication protocols, contracts, and choreography. The successful application of behavioral types requires a solid understanding of several practical aspects, from their represen- tation in a concrete programming language, to their integration with other programming constructs such as methods and functions, to de- sign and monitoring methodologies that take behaviors into account. This survey provides an overview of the state of the art of these aspects, which we summarize as the pragmatics of behavioral types
A Formal Model For Real-Time Parallel Computation
The imposition of real-time constraints on a parallel computing environment-
specifically high-performance, cluster-computing systems- introduces a variety
of challenges with respect to the formal verification of the system's timing
properties. In this paper, we briefly motivate the need for such a system, and
we introduce an automaton-based method for performing such formal verification.
We define the concept of a consistent parallel timing system: a hybrid system
consisting of a set of timed automata (specifically, timed Buchi automata as
well as a timed variant of standard finite automata), intended to model the
timing properties of a well-behaved real-time parallel system. Finally, we give
a brief case study to demonstrate the concepts in the paper: a parallel matrix
multiplication kernel which operates within provable upper time bounds. We give
the algorithm used, a corresponding consistent parallel timing system, and
empirical results showing that the system operates under the specified timing
constraints.Comment: In Proceedings FTSCS 2012, arXiv:1212.657
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