Extended interface grammars for automated stub generation

  • Authors:

  • Graham Hughes;Tevfik Bultan

  • Affiliations:

  • University of California, Santa Barbara, CA;University of California, Santa Barbara, CA

  • Venue:
  • Proceedings of the second workshop on Automated formal methods
  • Year:
  • 2007

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Abstract

An important challenge in software verification is the ability to verify different software components in isolation. Achieving modularity in software verification requires development of innovative interface specification languages. In this paper we focus on the idea of using grammars for specification of component interfaces. In our earlier work, we investigated characterizing method call sequences using context free grammars. Here, we extend this approach by adding support for specification of complex data structures. An interface grammar for a component specifies the sequences of method invocations that are allowed by that component. Our current extension provides support for specification of valid input arguments and return values in such sequences. Given an interface grammar for a component, our interface compiler automatically generates a stub for that component that 1) checks the ordering of the method calls to that component, 2) checks that the input arguments are valid, and 3) generates appropriate return values based on the interface grammar specification. These automatically generated stubs can be used for modular verification and/or testing. We demonstrate the feasibility of this approach by experimenting with the Java Path Finder (JPF) using the stubs generated by our interface compiler.