Automatic semantic locking

Abstract

In this paper, we consider concurrent programs in which the shared state consists of instances of linearizable ADTs (abstract data types). We develop a novel automated approach to concurrency control that addresses a common need: the need to atomically execute a code fragment, which may contain multiple ADT operations on multiple ADT instances. In our approach, each ADT implements ADT-specific semantic locking operations that serve to exploit the semantics of ADT operations. We develop a synthesis algorithm that automatically inserts calls to these locking operations in a set of given code fragments (in a client program) to ensure that these code fragments execute atomically without deadlocks, and without rollbacks. We have implemented the synthesis algorithm and several general-purpose ADTs with semantic locking. We have applied the synthesis algorithm to several Java programs that use these ADTs. Our results show that our approach enables efficient and scalable synchronization.