Coverity Uncovers Concurrency Errors
By Jennifer deJong
February 1, 2006 —
San Francisco-based Coverity has updated its source code analyzer, enabling it to detect errors associated with concurrent programming.
Prevent 3.2, which the San Francisco-based company announced late last year, finds errors such as double locks, missing locks and incorrect lock ordering in C/C++ source code, said Coverity product manager Andy Yang. “They are not everyday types of bugs. But when they happen, they are hard to track down.”
Locks and unlocks are used to manage shared functions, variables and resources in applications that execute multiple threads concurrently. Applying locks and unlocks effectively in complex applications is difficult and requires a high degree of developer skill, said Yang. Errors are typically the result of incorrect use, he said. Prevent addresses such errors by tracking, for example, how a piece of memory is locked by function. It can follow complex paths through the code to find errors such as a missing unlock, or a lock that has been applied twice, or in the wrong order, said Yang. The tool identifies and provides information about errors, and recommends fixes.
Also new to 3.2 is integration with the Eclipse framework, IBM Rational Software Development Platform and Wind River Workbench IDE, as well as more detailed reports, which can compare, for example, defect rates across multiple builds and releases, said Yang.
A key reason why concurrent programming errors are hard to detect is that they are difficult to reproduce in the testing process. They typically don’t manifest themselves until the application is deployed, said Yang. By scanning source code, Prevent can help detect such errors early in the development process. “But we are not saying we can find all concurrency problems. That is impossible,” he said.
Coverity competitor Fortify, in Palo Alto, Calif., also can pinpoint problems associated with concurrent programming, including double locks and race conditions, which can occur when threads of operation contend for the same resources, said Fortify CTO Roger Thornton. Source code analysis is not the only way to find concurrent errors. For instance, testing tools such as Compuware’s DevPartner Studio can detect how parts of an application are locking different resources, said Ken Cowan, a product line manager for the Detroit-based company.
Share this link: http://sdt.bz/29121
Most Read Latest News Blog Resources
Taking enterprise architecture to the business side
Startup Corso is bringing out a cloud-based planning platform that ties into business plans
|
|
Zeichick’s Take: Radio moves from analog waveforms to digital packets
Streaming radio highlights the need for streaming applications to be designed to take up as little bandwidth as possible
|
|
Appcelerator Acquires Cocoafish to Add Instant Mobile Cloud Capabilities to its Industry Leading Titanium Platform
Appcelerator Offers Messaging, Social, Location and Storage Mobile Cloud Services to All Mobile App Publishers
|
|
ComponentOne Releases a Collection of 40+ UI Widgets Powered by HTML5 and jQuery
ComponentOne has announced the 2012 release of Wijmo: a kit of UI widgets for HTML5 and jQuery development
|
Taking enterprise architecture to the business side
Startup Corso is bringing out a cloud-based planning platform that ties into business plans
|
|
Top five apps to manage your workload
Web applications offer new ways to track your “to-do” lists
|
|
Not so fast when it comes to testing in the cloud
Developers face outsourcing, virtual lab management and mobile devices as obstacles
|
|
Xceed releases UX-focused suite for Microsoft’s WPF
"Blendables" helps match user experiences to developer visions
|
Are you at risk for burnout?
Burnout is a severe problem and it can strike at any time. Here's how to tell if you are nearing the edge.
|
|
Agility, mom, and apple pie
If we're to evaluate the state-of-the-art in software development, we should start with the values espoused in the Agile Manifesto.
|
|
RIM woos developers with free tablet
How do you get more apps ported to the BlackBerry PlayBook? By giving every developer a free tablet, of course!
|
|
GitHire: Use Headhunters to Find Your Perfect Programmer
Are you a hiring manager tired of scouring the job boards? Check out this new service that will find 5 people interested in your jobs.
|
The Hidden Costs of Software Licensing
Moving beyond paper-based software licensing to more flexible, software-based licensing is a business decision. There is a growing trend tow...
|
|
Case Study: You May Need a Development Mechanic
As a contractor for a major financial player in Germany, SOBEGE, a German-based consultancy specializing in embedded IT and web services, wa...
|
|
Ensuring Software Quality at a Major International Bank
One of the world’s leading international banks has adopted AgitarOne technology for delivering generated unit tests for their Java software...
|
|
Load Testing Adobe Flex Applications
Adobe Flex applications may be different from applications you’ve worked with before. For classic HTML web applications, the server does all...
|