Mysteries of DropBox: Property-Based Testing of a Distributed Synchronization Service

Abstract

File synchronization services such as Dropbox are used by hundreds ofmillions of people to replicate vital data. Yet rigorous models of theirbehavior are lacking. We present the first formal -- and testable -- model ofthe core behavior of a modern file synchronizer, and we use it to discoversurprising behavior in two widely deployed synchronizers. Our model isbased on a technique for testing nondeterministic systems that avoidsrequiring that the system's internal choices be made visible to the testing framework.