--%>

Scalability aspects of a Java PathFinder

Scalability of program model checkers such as JPF encompasses two aspects:

  • How large a program can be model checked, and
  • Once a defect has been detected, how readily meaningful debugging information can be derived from trace.

How large a program JPF can model check is highly dependent on the structure and amount of nondeterminism in the application. For example, UI applications or certain Web applications which have a central control loop (i.e., reactive state machines) that reacts to user input or signals from the environment are amenable to model checking. We have applied JPF successfully to multithreaded Mars Rover software which was around ten thousand lines of code (10 KLOC.) We have also applied JPF successfully to multithreaded UI programs with 33 KLOC of application source plus many more lines of code in the libraries. At this point, the largest program checked by JPF is a commercial Web application of several hundred thousand lines of code, in which JPF found a deadlock involving about 20 threads; JPF executed more than 200 million byte code instructions of the target application in about 4 hours. 

The second aspect of scalability is the ability to derive meaningful debugging information from an execution trace that manifests a defect. This sense of scalability can represent a severe limitation if the defect occurs long into the program execution. JPF provides limited capabilities here—for example, JPF’s DeadlockAnalyzer and ChoiceTracker, which are used in user interface applications to generate trace reports showing only user-input events. They are used also in analyzing Unified Modeling Language (UML) to limit trace reports to showing only state-machine environment events.

   Related Questions in Programming Languages

  • Q : Define User Datagram Protocol User

    User Datagram Protocol: The User Datagram Protocol (abbreviated as UDP) is a set of rules which permit communication among two processes across a network. The protocol is unreliable, that means that information is not guaranteed to be

  • Q : Define PS3 Debug/TEST/Prototype

    Define PS3 Debug/TEST/Prototype Consoleroduction deployment.

  • Q : Explain the relationship between XHTML

    Explain the relationship between XHTML and URL?

  • Q : Define Iteration Iteration : The

    Iteration: The repetition of a set of statements, generally employing a looping control structure, like a while loop, for loop and do loop.

  • Q : Define class Define class?

    Define class?

  • Q : Define Stream class Stream class : An

    Stream class: An input stream class is one which delivers data from its source (frequently the file system as a series of bytes. Likewise, an output stream class will write byte-level data. The stream classes must be contrasted with the operation of r

  • Q : Task decomposition and Data

    Discuss the idea of task decomposition and data decomposition within the perspective of parallel programming.

  • Q : Explain Semantic error Semantic error:

    Semantic error: It is an error in the meaning of program. A statement might contain no syntax errors, however might still break the rules of Java language. For example, when ivar is an int variable, the shown statement is syntactically correct

  • Q : Property Specifications of Java

    Property Specifications: The most straightforward way to specify and check simple safety properties in JPF is to use Java assertions inside the application under analysis. This allows the specification of properties that only depend on the application

  • Q : Explain the steps to design product If

    If not in production, how far did you obey the design and why did not you notice it in production?