Using clone detection to identify bugs in concurrent software

Abstract

In this paper we propose an active testing approach that uses clone detection and rule evaluation as the foundation for detecting bug patterns in concurrent software. If we can identify a bug pattern as being present then we can localize our testing effort to the exploration of interleavings relevant to the potential bug. Furthermore, if the potential bug is indeed a real bug, then targeting specific thread interleavings instead of examining all possible executions can increase the probability of the bug being detected sooner.