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Concurrency bugs in multithreaded software: modeling and analysis using Petri nets

Discrete Event Dynamic Systems volume 23, pages 157–195 (2013)Cite this article

Abstract

In this paper, we apply discrete-event system techniques to model and analyze the execution of concurrent software. The problem of interest is deadlock avoidance in shared-memory multithreaded programs. We employ Petri nets to systematically model multithreaded programs with lock acquisition and release operations. We define a new class of Petri nets, called Gadara nets, that arises from this modeling process. We investigate a set of important properties of Gadara nets, such as liveness, reversibility, and linear separability. We propose efficient algorithms for the verification of liveness of Gadara nets, and report experimental results on their performance. We also present modeling examples of real-world programs. The results in this paper lay the foundations for the development of effective control synthesis algorithms for Gadara nets.

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Notes

  1. It should also be noticed that, in the particular case that the identified RIDM siphon is actually unreachable, the monitor places resulting from the MPLE synthesis do not compromise the maximal permissiveness of the synthesized control logic.

  2. Technically, the notation M 0 in Eq. 6 should be substituted by \(M_0^c\).

  3. Constraint (21) does not completely characterize the correct pricing of A(p, t) for all arcs. But what we need for liveness verification (and RIDM siphon construction) is the correct pricing of \(\overline{M}(p)\), which is guaranteed by the nature and role of the objective function (16).

  4. For a given Gadara net, if the iterative control technique converges before the pre-selected random number of iterations are completed, we output the converged net and disregard the remaining iterations.

  5. Sample statistics are based on log-scale data.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Ahmed Nazeem, Manjunath Kudlur, and the reviewers for many helpful comments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109, USA

    Hongwei Liao, Hyoun Kyu Cho, Jason Stanley, Stéphane Lafortune & Scott Mahlke

  2. HP Labs, Palo Alto, CA, 94303, USA

    Yin Wang & Terence Kelly

  3. School of Industrial & Systems Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, 30332, USA

    Spyros Reveliotis

Authors
  1. Hongwei Liao
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  2. Yin Wang
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  3. Hyoun Kyu Cho
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  4. Jason Stanley
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  5. Terence Kelly
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  6. Stéphane Lafortune
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  7. Scott Mahlke
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  8. Spyros Reveliotis
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Hongwei Liao.

Additional information

This work was partially supported by NSF grant CCF-0819882 and an award from HP Labs Innovation Research Program (University of Michigan) and by NSF grants CMMI-0619978 and CMMI-0928231 (Georgia Institute of Technology).

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Liao, H., Wang, Y., Cho, H.K. et al. Concurrency bugs in multithreaded software: modeling and analysis using Petri nets. Discrete Event Dyn Syst 23, 157–195 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10626-012-0139-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10626-012-0139-x

Keywords

  • Concurrent software
  • Deadlock analysis
  • Modeling
  • Petri nets