WADS 1993: Algorithms and Data Structures pp 471-482 | Cite as

Detecting race conditions in parallel programs that use one semaphore

  • Hsueh -I Lu
  • Philip N. Klein
  • Robert H. B. Netzer
Conference paper
First Online:
Part of the Lecture Notes in Computer Science book series (LNCS, volume 709)

Abstract

We address a problem arising in debugging parallel programs, detecting race conditions in programs using a single semaphore for synchronization. It is NP-complete to detect races in programs that use many semaphores. For the case of a single semaphore, we give an algorithm that takes O(n1.5p) time, where p is the number of processors and n is the total number of semaphore operations executed. Our algorithm constructs a representation from which one can determine in constant time whether a race exists between two given events.

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Copyright information

© Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 1993

Authors and Affiliations

  • Hsueh -I Lu
    • 1
  • Philip N. Klein
    • 1
  • Robert H. B. Netzer
    • 1
  1. 1.Department of Computer ScienceBrown UniversityProvidenceUSA

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