From Model Checking to Runtime Verification and Back
This work provides a method for reusing model checking tools in runtime verification, which is incremental as it builds on existing techniques.
The authors tackled the problem of adapting software model checkers for precise runtime verification, enabling communication with external environments, and demonstrated that this approach can improve coverage for parallel programs without significant overhead.
We describe a novel approach for adapting an existing software model checker to perform precise runtime verification. The software under test is allowed to communicate with the wider environment (including the file system and network). The modifications to the model checker are small and self-contained, making this a viable strategy for re-using existing model checking tools in a new context. Additionally, from the data that is gathered during a single execution in the runtime verification mode, we automatically re-construct a description of the execution environment which can then be used in the standard, full-blown model checker. This additional verification step can further improve coverage, especially in the case of parallel programs, without introducing substantial overhead into the process of runtime verification.