EAGER: Systematic and Scalable Testing of Concurrent Software in the Cloud

虽然多核、多核和GPU处理器提高了计算速度，但为它们编写的并发和并行程序越来越复杂，难以验证，难以测试。所谓的“并发bug”很难发现，因为需要检查大量的线程交错，以找到可能发生bug的环境。在顺序程序中查找错误的技术不适用于并发程序，特别是对于具有数据输入和共享内存的程序，这需要更严格和详尽的测试。该项目将研究一种将符号执行与时间表探索形式相结合的方法，以找到有效的解决方案。可伸缩性是通过寻求在云平台上并行执行来实现的，这是向并发软件测试的云服务迈出的一步。迫切需要能够对并发程序进行可伸缩和有效测试的工具，如果在广泛可用的服务中实现，将对软件质量和正确性产生重大影响。这项EAGER拨款将探索这种高风险、潜在高回报方法的可行性。

While multicore and many core and GPU processors increase computing speed, the concurrent and parallel programs written for them are increasingly complex, hard to verify, and difficult to test. So-called "concurrency bugs" are very hard to find, because of the huge number of thread interleavings that need to be examined to find the circumstances in which a bug might occur. Techniques for finding bugs in sequential programs do not scale to concurrent programs, especially for programs with data inputs and shared memory, which require more rigor and exhaustive testing. The project will investigate an approach that combines symbolic execution with a form of schedule exploration to find efficient solutions. Scalability is pursued by seeking to parallelize the execution on a cloud platform, which is a step toward a cloud service for concurrent software testing. There is a dire need for tools capable of doing scalable and efficient testing of concurrent programs, which will have a high impact on software quality and correctness if implemented in a widely available service. This EAGER grant will explore the feasibility of this high-risk, potentially high-reward approach.