Synchronization Algorithm Verificator for C++0x

From:
"Dmitriy V'jukov" <dvyukov@gmail.com>
Newsgroups:
comp.programming.threads,comp.lang.c++
Date:
Sat, 2 Aug 2008 09:47:59 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID:
<51a36d85-2fc6-4bd6-af64-29950ce5ab6a@59g2000hsb.googlegroups.com>
I want to announce tool called Relacy Race Detector, which I've
developed. It's synchronization algorithm verificator for C++0x's
relaxed memory model. The tool is implemented in the form of header-
only library for C++03, which can be used for efficient execution of
unit-tests for synchronization algorithms. The tool executes unit-test
many times under control of special scheduler, on every execution
scheduler models different interleaving between threads, at the same
time every execution is exhaustively analyzed for data races, accesses
to freed memory, failed assertions etc. If no errors found then
verification terminates when particular number of interleavings are
verified (for random scheduler), or when all possible interleavings
are verified (for full search scheduler). If error is found then tool
outputs detailed execution history which leads to
error and terminates.
The tool was designed for verification of algorithms like memory
management, memory reclamation for lock-free algorithms, multithreaded
containers (queues, stacks, maps), mutexes, eventcounts and so on.
My personal subjective feeling to date is that tool is capable of
finding extremely subtle algorithmic errors, memory fence placement
errors and memory fence type errors within a second. And after error
is detected error fixing is relatively trivial, because one has
detailed execution history which leads to error.

Main features:
 - Relaxed ISO C++0x Memory Model. Relaxed/acquire/release/acq_rel/
seq_cst memory operations and fences. The only non-supported feature
is memory_order_consume, it's simulated with memory_order_acquire.
 - Exhaustive automatic error checking (including ABA detection).
 - Full-fledged atomics library (with spurious failures in
compare_exchange()).
 - Arbitrary number of threads.
 - Detailed execution history for failed tests.
 - Before/after/invariant functions for test suites.
 - No false positives.

Types of detectable errors:
 - Race condition (according to ISO C++0x definition)
 - Access to uninitialized variable
 - Access to freed memory
 - Double free
 - Memory leak
 - Deadlock
 - Livelock
 - User assert failed
 - User invariant failed

You can get some more information (tutorial, examples etc) here:
http://groups.google.com/group/relacy/web

And here is dedicated news group/discussion forum:
http://groups.google.com/group/relacy/topics

If you want to get a copy of the tool, please, contact me via
dvyukov@gmail.com.

Any feedback, comments, suggestions are welcome.

Relacy Race Detector is free for open-source, non-commercial
development; research with non-patented, published results;
educational purposes; home/private usage. Please contact me
(dvyukov@gmail.com) about other usages.

--------------------------------------------------------
Here is quick example.
Code of unit-test:

#include <relacy/relacy_std.hpp>

// template parameter '2' is number of threads
struct race_test : rl::test_suite<race_test, 2>
{
    std::atomic<int> a;
    rl::var<int> x;

    // executed in single thread before main thread function
    void before()
    {
        a($) = 0;
        x($) = 0;
    }

    // main thread function
    void thread(unsigned thread_index)
    {
        if (0 == thread_index)
        {
            // code executed by first thread
            x($) = 1;
            a($).store(1, rl::memory_order_relaxed);
        }
        else
        {
            // code executed by second thread
            if (1 == a($).load(rl::memory_order_relaxed))
                x($) = 2;
        }
    }

    // executed in single thread after main thread function
    void after()
    {
    }

    // executed in single thread after every
    // 'visible' action in main threads.
    // disallowed to modify any state
    void invariant()
    {
    }
};

int main()
{
    // start simulation
    rl::simulate<race_test>();
}

And here is output of the tool:

struct race_test
DATA RACE
iteration: 8

execution history:
[0] 0: <00366538> atomic store, value=0, (prev value=0),
order=seq_cst, in race_test::before, test.cpp(14)
[1] 0: <0036655C> store, value=0, in race_test::before, test.cpp(15)
[2] 0: <0036655C> store, value=1, in race_test::thread, test.cpp(23)
[3] 0: <00366538> atomic store, value=1, (prev value=0),
order=relaxed, in race_test::thread, test.cpp(24)
[4] 1: <00366538> atomic load, value=1, order=relaxed, in
race_test::thread, test.cpp(28)
[5] 1: <0036655C> store, value=0, in race_test::thread, test.cpp(29)
[6] 1: data race detected, in race_test::thread, test.cpp(29)

thread 0:
[0] 0: <00366538> atomic store, value=0, (prev value=0),
order=seq_cst, in race_test::before, test.cpp(14)
[1] 0: <0036655C> store, value=0, in race_test::before, test.cpp(15)
[2] 0: <0036655C> store, value=1, in race_test::thread, test.cpp(23)
[3] 0: <00366538> atomic store, value=1, (prev value=0),
order=relaxed, in race_test::thread, test.cpp(24)

thread 1:
[4] 1: <00366538> atomic load, value=1, order=relaxed, in
race_test::thread, test.cpp(28)
[5] 1: <0036655C> store, value=0, in race_test::thread, test.cpp(29)
[6] 1: data race detected, in race_test::thread, test.cpp(29)
--------------------------------------------------------

Dmitriy V'jukov

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