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Tutorial: Designing Distributed Software in mCRL2

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Formal Techniques for Distributed Objects, Components, and Systems (FORTE 2021)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNPSE,volume 12719))

Abstract

Distributed software is very tricky to implement correctly as some errors only occur in peculiar situations. For such errors testing is not effective. Mathematically proving correctness is hard and time consuming, and therefore, it is rarely done. Fortunately, there is a technique in between, namely model checking, that, if applied with skill, is both efficient and able to find rare errors.

  In this tutorial we show how to create behavioural models of parallel software, how to specify requirements using modal formulas, and how to verify these. For that we use the mCRL2 language and toolset (www.mcrl2.org/). We discuss the design of an evolution of well-known mutual exclusion protocols, and how model checking not only provides insight in their behaviour and correctness, but also guides their design.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    In this paper, for the sake of brevity, we generally refer to parallel or distributed software just using the term distributed software. The techniques discussed in this paper apply equally in both situations.

  2. 2.

    In [12], variables \( LA \) and \( LB \) are used as flags, and a Boolean variable \( AP \) is used in the place of \( turn \).

  3. 3.

    Note that, alternatively, the multi-actions in mCRL2 could be used to combine fetching the value and evaluating the condition, see, e.g., [5].

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, The Netherlands

    Jan Friso Groote & Jeroen J. A. Keiren

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  1. Jan Friso Groote
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  2. Jeroen J. A. Keiren
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Correspondence to Jeroen J. A. Keiren .

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  1. TU Darmstadt, Darmstadt, Germany

    Kirstin Peters

  2. Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, The Netherlands

    Tim A. C. Willemse

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Groote, J.F., Keiren, J.J.A. (2021). Tutorial: Designing Distributed Software in mCRL2. In: Peters, K., Willemse, T.A.C. (eds) Formal Techniques for Distributed Objects, Components, and Systems. FORTE 2021. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 12719. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-78089-0_15

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-78089-0_15

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