Collaborative Research: CSR: Core: Medium: Scaling Unix/Linux Shell Programs

“外壳”是将现代计算机系统连接在一起的粘合剂：它是连接组件和管理系统的编程语言；它是编写科学工作流程和数据分析的快速而粗糙的语言；它是控制舱口，为熟练的用户提供直接访问计算机内部工作的机会。Shell编程仍然无处不在——稳定地排在十大最流行的编程语言之列——部分原因是它允许非专业的开发人员将任何编程语言中可用的组件组合在一起，而对其内部结构几乎一无所知。不幸的是，这种与语言无关的黑盒组合阻碍了shell程序的自动加速。这个项目将开发加速shell程序的技术，而不需要shell程序员的输入，也不需要单个组件的作者的输入。这项工作的方法(1)建立在pi先前研究的现实世界成功的基础上（需要更多的用户输入），(2)汇集了计算机科学的几个子领域的专业知识-并行和分布式系统，编程语言和形式化方法-以及(3)提供协同作用。每个单独的技术都提供了显著的好处，但产生了一个变革性的整体。通过对现实世界中普遍使用的编程语言进行实际的、按键式的增强，提议的工作有望显著地加速现有的和新的shell程序，而不需要开发人员付出任何努力，不需要对现有的基础设施进行任何更改，同时保持与先前结果的兼容性。shell的无处不在意味着这些加速将产生广泛的影响，特别是在使用计算作为工具来解决各自领域问题的学科中，例如生物信息学、数据科学和经济学。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The ‘shell’ is the glue that holds modern computer systems together: It is the programming language that connects components and manages systems; it is the quick-and-dirty language for writing scientific workflows and data analysis; it is the control hatch that offers skilled users direct access to their computer's inner-workings. Shell programming remains ubiquitous —steadily in the top 10 most popular programming languages— partly because it allows non-expert developers to combine components available in any programming language with little-to-no understanding of their internals. Unfortunately, this black-box, language-agnostic composition hinders automated acceleration of shell programs. This project will develop techniques to accelerate shell programs without requiring input from shell programmers and little-to-no input from the authors of individual components. This work's approach (1) builds on the real-world success of prior research by the PIs (that requires more user input), (2) brings together expertise in several subfields of computer science —parallel and distributed systems, programming languages, and formal methods— and (3) offers synergy. The individual techniques each offer significant benefits, but yield a transformative whole.By enabling practical, push-button enhancement of a real-world, pervasively-used programming language, the proposed work promises to significantly accelerate existing and new shell programs without any effort from their developers, without any changes to existing infrastructure, and while maintaining compatibility with prior results. The shell's ubiquity means these speedups will have broad impact, especially in disciplines that use computing as a tool to solve problems in their respective fields, e.g., bioinformatics, data science, and economics.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.