Runtime verification of object lifetime specifications

Abstract

This thesis reports on the implementation of a runtime verification system for object lifetime specifications. This system is used to explore and evaluate the expressiveness object lifetime specifications. Object lifetime specifications are program annotations that indicate, in terms of program execution, when objects should be reclaimed. Object lifetime specifications are designed to be used within the context of an object-oriented programming language with automatic storage reclamation (i.e., garbage collection). Our runtime verification system observes program execution and reports objects that are not re-claimed before the end of their specified lifetime. We implement our system with the Java Path Finder model-checking framework. JPF supports modeling non-determinism in programs. We leverage this support to verify all possible thread interleavings when checking user programs.