Causality-based Model Checking

10/10/2017

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by   Bernd Finkbeiner, et al.

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Model checking is usually based on a comprehensive traversal of the state space. Causality-based model checking is a radically different approach that instead analyzes the cause-effect relationships in a program. We give an overview on a new class of model checking algorithms that capture the causal relationships in a special data structure called concurrent traces. Concurrent traces identify key events in an execution history and link them through their cause-effect relationships. The model checker builds a tableau of concurrent traces, where the case splits represent different causal explanations of a hypothetical error. Causality-based model checking has been implemented in the ARCTOR tool, and applied to previously intractable multi-threaded benchmarks.