PATH-ANALYSIS TESTING OF CONCURRENT PROGRAMS

Abstract

Path analysis testing is a widely used approach to program testing. However, the conventional path analysis testing method is designed specifically for sequential program testing; it is inapplicable to concurrent program testing because of the existence of multi-loci of control and task synchronizations. A path analysis approach to concurrent program testing is proposed. A concurrent path model is presented to model the execution behaviour of concurrent programs. In the model, an execution of a concurrent program is seen as involving a concurrent path (which is comprised of the paths of all concurrent tasks), and the tasks' synchronizations are modelled as a concurrent route to traverse the concurrent path involved in the execution. Accordingly, testing is a process to examine the correctness of each concurrent route along all concurrent paths of concurrent programs. Examples are given to demonstrate the effectiveness of path analysis testing for concurrent programs and some practical issues of path analysis testing, namely, test path selection, test generation, and test execution, are discussed. Moreover, the errors of concurrent programs are classified into three classes: domain errors, computation errors, and missing path errors, similar to the error classification for sequential programs. Based on the error classification, the potential reliability of path analysis testing for concurrent programs is assessed.