Abstract
Model checking is a fully automatic technique for checking concurrent software properties in which the states of a concurrent system are explored in an explicit or implicit way. The main drawback of this technique is the high memory consumption, which limits the size of the programs that can be checked. In the last years, some researchers have focused on the application of guided non-complete stochastic techniques to the search of the state space of such concurrent programs. In this paper, we compare five metaheuristic algorithms for this problem. The algorithms are Simulated Annealing, Ant Colony Optimization, Particle Swarm Optimization and two variants of Genetic Algorithm. To the best of our knowledge, it is the first time that Simulated Annealing has been applied to the problem. We use in the comparison a benchmark composed of 17 Java concurrent programs. We also compare the results of these algorithms with the ones of deterministic algorithms.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsPreview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Clarke, E.M., Grumberg, O., Peled, D.A.: Model Checking. MIT Press, Cambridge (2000)
Clarke, E.M., Grumberg, O., Minea, M., Peled, D.: State space reduction using partial order techniques. International Journal on Software Tools for Technology Transfer (STTT) 2(3), 279–287 (1999)
Lafuente, A.L.: Symmetry reduction and heuristic search for error detection in model checking. In: Workshop on Model Checking and Artificial Intelligence (2003)
Holzmann, G.J.: The SPIN Model Checker. Addison-Wesley, Reading (2004)
Burch, J., Clarke, E., Long, D., McMillan, K., Dill, D.: Symbolic model checking for sequential circuit verification. IEEE Transactions on Computer-Aided Design of Integrated Circuits and Systems 13(4), 401–424 (1994)
Bradbury, J.S., Cordy, J.R., Dingel, J.: Comparative assessment of testing and model checking using program mutation. In: Proceedings of the 3rd Workshop on Mutation Analysis (MUTATION 2007), Windsor, UK, pp. 210–222 (2007)
Blum, C., Roli, A.: Metaheuristics in combinatorial optimization: Overview and conceptual comparison. ACM Comput. Surv. 35(3), 268–308 (2003)
Godefroid, P., Khurshid, S.: Exploring very large state spaces using genetic algorithms. International Journal on Software Tools for Technology Transfer 6(2), 117–127 (2004)
Alba, E., Chicano, F.: Finding safety errors with ACO. In: Proceedings of the Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference, pp. 1066–1073. ACM Press, London (2007)
Staunton, J., Clark, J.A.: Searching for safety violations using estimation of distribution algorithms. In: International Workshop on Search-Based Software Testing, pp. 212–221. IEEE Computer Society, Los Alamitos (2010)
Groce, A., Visser, W.: Heuristics for model checking java programs. International Journal on Software Tools for Technology Transfer (STTT) 6(4), 260–276 (2004)
Manna, Z., Pnueli, A.: The temporal logic of reactive and concurrent systems. Springer-Verlag New York, Inc., New York (1992)
Alba, E., Chicano, F., Ferreira, M., Gomez-Pulido, J.: Finding deadlocks in large concurrent java programs using genetic algorithms. In: Proceedings of Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference, pp. 1735–1742. ACM, New York (2008)
Ferreira, M., Chicano, F., Alba, E., Gómez-Pulido, J.A.: Detecting protocol errors using particle swarm optimization with java pathfinder. In: Smari, W.W. (ed.) ISHPC 2000, pp. 319–325 (2008)
Kirkpatrick, S., Gelatt, C.D., Vecchi, M.P.: Optimization by simulated annealing. Science 220(4598), 671–680 (1983)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2011 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this paper
Cite this paper
Chicano, F., Ferreira, M., Alba, E. (2011). Comparing Metaheuristic Algorithms for Error Detection in Java Programs. In: Cohen, M.B., Ó Cinnéide, M. (eds) Search Based Software Engineering. SSBSE 2011. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 6956. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-23716-4_11
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-23716-4_11
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-23715-7
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-23716-4
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)