Structural testing criteria for message-passing parallel programs

摘要

Parallel programs present some features such as concurrency, communication and synchronization that make the test a challenging activity. Because of these characteristics, the direct application of traditional testing is not always possible and adequate testing criteria and tools are necessary. In this paper we investigate the challenges of validating message-passing parallel programs and present a set of specific testing criteria. We introduce a family of structural testing criteria based on a test model. The model captures control and data flow of the message-passing programs, by considering their sequential and parallel aspects. The criteria provide a coverage measure that can be used for evaluating the progress of the testing activity and also provide guidelines for the generation of test data. We also describe a tool, called ValiPar, which supports the application of the proposed testing criteria. Currently, ValiPar is configured for parallel virtual machine (PVM) and message-passing interface (MPI). Results of the application of the proposed criteria to MPI programs are also presented and analyzed.