Date Awarded
1991
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
Department
Computer Science
Advisor
Phil Kearns
Abstract
We present an integrated approach to the specification, verification and testing of distributed programs. We show how "global" properties defined by transition axiom specifications can be interpreted as definitions of causal relationships between process states. We explain why reasoning about causal rather than global relationships yields a clearer picture of distributed processing.;We present a proof system for showing the partial correctness of CSP programs that places strict restrictions on assertions. It admits no global assertions. A process annotation may reference only local state. Glue predicates relate pairs of process states at points of interprocess communication. No assertion references auxiliary variables; appropriate use of control predicates and vector clock values eliminates the need for them. Our proof system emphasizes causality. We do not prove processes correct in isolation. We instead track causality as we write our annotations. When we come to a send or receive, we consider all the statements that could communicate with it, and use the semantics of CSP message passing to derive its postcondition. We show that our CSP proof system is sound and relatively complete, and that we need only recursive assertions to prove that any program in our fragment of CSP is partially correct. Our proof system is, therefore, as powerful as other proof systems for CSP.;We extend our work to develop proof systems for asynchronous communication. For each proof system, our motivation is to be able to write proofs that show that code satisfies its specification, while making only assertions we can use to define the aspects of process state that we should trace during test runs, and check during postmortem analysis. We can trace the assertions we make without having to modify program code or add synchronization or message passing.;Why, if we verify correctness, would we want to test? We observe that a proof, like a program, is susceptible to error. By tracing and analyzing program state during testing, we can build our confidence that our proof is valid.
DOI
https://dx.doi.org/doi:10.21220/s2-mzq4-e171
Rights
© The Author
Recommended Citation
Lloyd, William Samuel, "Causal reasoning about distributed programs" (1991). Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects. William & Mary. Paper 1539623806.
https://dx.doi.org/doi:10.21220/s2-mzq4-e171
