Type driven development of concurrent communicating systems

This work was kindly supported by SICSA (the Scottish Informatics and Computer Science Alliance) and EPSRC grant EP/N024222/1 (Type-driven Verification of Communicating Systems).Modern software systems rely on communication, for example mobile applications communicating with a central server, distributed systems coordinating a telecommunications network, or concurrent systems handling events and processes in a desktop application. However, reasoning about concurrent programs is hard, since we must reason about each process and the order in which communication might happen between processes. In this paper, I describe a type-driven approach to implementing communicating concurrent programs, using the dependently typed programming language Idris. I show how the type system can be used to describe resource access protocols (such as controlling access to a file handle) and verify that programs correctly follow those protocols. Finally, I show how to use the type system to reason about the order of communication between concurrent processes, ensuring that each end of a communication channel follows a defined protocol.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Behavioural types for non-uniform memory accesses

Concurrent programs executing on NUMA architectures consist of concurrent entities (e.g. threads, actors) and data placed on different nodes. Execution of these concurrent entities often reads or updates states from remote nodes. The performance of such systems depends on the extent to which the concurrent entities can be executing in parallel, and on the amount of the remote reads and writes. We consider an actor-based object oriented language, and propose a type system which expresses the topology of the program (the placement of the actors and data on the nodes), and an effect system which characterises remote reads and writes (in terms of which node reads/writes from which other nodes). We use a variant of ownership types for the topology, and a combination of behavioural and ownership types for the effect system.Comment: In Proceedings PLACES 2015, arXiv:1602.0325

Static Safety for an Actor Dedicated Process Calculus by Abstract Interpretation

The actor model eases the definition of concurrent programs with non uniform behaviors. Static analysis of such a model was previously done in a data-flow oriented way, with type systems. This approach was based on constraint set resolution and was not able to deal with precise properties for communications of behaviors. We present here a new approach, control-flow oriented, based on the abstract interpretation framework, able to deal with communication of behaviors. Within our new analyses, we are able to verify most of the previous properties we observed as well as new ones, principally based on occurrence counting

A hybrid type system for lock-freedom of mobile processes

We propose a type system for lock-freedom in the π-calculus, which guarantees that certain communications will eventually succeed. Distinguishing features of our type system are: it can verify lock-freedom of concurrent programs that have sophisticated recursive communication structures; it can be fully automated; it is hybrid, in that it combines a type system for lock-freedom with local reasoning about deadlockfreedom, termination, and confluence analyses. Moreover, the type system is parameterized by deadlock-freedom/termination/confluence analyses, so that any methods (e.g. type systems and model checking) can be used for those analyses. A lock-freedom analysis tool has been implemented based on the proposed type system, and tested for non-trivial programs

Types for X10 Clocks

X10 is a modern language built from the ground up to handle future parallel systems, from multicore machines to cluster configurations. We take a closer look at a pair of synchronisation mechanisms: finish and clocks. The former waits for the termination of parallel computations, the latter allow multiple concurrent activities to wait for each other at certain points in time. In order to better understand these concepts we study a type system for a stripped down version of X10. The main result assures that well typed programs do not run into the errors identified in the X10 language reference, namely the ClockUseException. The study will open, we hope, doors to a more flexible utilisation of clocks in the X10 language.Comment: In Proceedings PLACES 2010, arXiv:1110.385

Lolliproc: to Concurrency from Classical Linear Logic via Curry-Howard and Control

While many type systems based on the intuitionistic fragment of linear logic have been proposed, applications in programming languages of the full power of linear logic-including double-negation elimination-have remained elusive. Meanwhile, linearity has been used in many type systems for concurrent programs-e.g., session types-which suggests applicability to the problems of concurrent programming, but the ways in which linearity has interacted with concurrency primitives in lambda calculi have remained somewhat ad-hoc. In this paper we connect classical linear logic and concurrent functional programming in the language Lolliproc, which provides simple primitives for concurrency that have a direct logical interpretation and that combine to provide the functionality of session types. Lolliproc features a simple process calculus “under the hood” but hides the machinery of processes from programmers. We illustrate Lolliproc by example and prove soundness, strong normalization, and confluence results, which, among other things, guarantees freedom from deadlocks and race conditions

Session types in practical programming

Programs are more distributed and concurrent today than ever before, and structural communications are at the core. Constructing and debugging such programs are hard due to the lack of formal specifications and verifications of concurrency. Recent advances in type systems allow us to specify the structures of communications as session types, thus enabling static type checking of the usages of communication channels against protocols. The soundness of session type systems implies communication fidelity and absence of deadlock. This work proposes to formalize multiparty dependent session types as an expressive and practical type discipline for enforcing communication protocols. The type system is formulated in the setting of multi-threaded λ-calculus with inspirations from multirole logic. It is sound, and it provides linearity and coherence guarantees entirely statically. The type system supports recursion and polymorphism. The formulation is particularly suitable for practical implementation, and this work provides such a runtime implementation

Behavioural Types

Behavioural type systems in programming languages support the specification and verification of properties of programs beyond the traditional use of type systems to describe data processing. A major example of such a property is correctness of communication in concurrent and distributed systems, motivated by the importance of structured communication in modern software. Behavioural Types: from Theory to Tools presents programming languages and software tools produced by members of COST Action IC1201: Behavioural Types for Reliable Large-Scale Software Systems, a European research network that was funded from October 2012 to October 2016. As a survey of the most recent developments in the application of behavioural type systems, it is a valuable reference for researchers in the field, as well as an introduction to the area for graduate students and software developers