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Notes on Nondeterminism in Message Passing Programs
D. Kranzlmueller and M. Schulz
9th European PVM/MPI Users´ Group Meeting, Linz, Austria (pp. 357-367)
, Oct., 2002
Published in Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Springer, Berlin, Volume 2474
9th European PVM/MPI Users´ Group Meeting, Linz, Austria (pp. 357-367) , Oct., 2002
Published in Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Springer, Berlin, Volume 2474
Abstract:
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Nondeterministic program behavior can lead to the observation of
different results in subsequent program runs based on the same input
data. This kind a problem can be seen in any program, but is even
magnified in a parallel execution context due to several independent,
but sporadically communicating tasks. Even though this kind of
nondeterminism is commonplace and in many cases useful for the
implementation of applications, it often leads to sporadically
occurring errors, which are difficult to reproduce and represent a
heavy challenge for users during testing and debugging. The biggest
problem, however, may be the unawareness of users about the existence
of nondeterministic choices and their consequences. In order to
raise the awareness and to provoke discussions about this serious
problem, this paper provides an exemplary overview of
nondeterministic behavior in message passing programs. With simple
examples, it is demonstrated how nondeterminism can vigorously affect
the behavior and the final result of software.
Additionally, an outlook of existing solutions to safely deal
with and make use of nondeterminism and is given and is intended
as a base for further research.
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