As with other software development artifacts, model transformations are not bug-free and so must be systematically verified. Their nature, however, means that transformations require specialist verification techniques. This paper brings together current research on model transformation verification by classifying existing approaches along two dimensions. Firstly, we present a coarse-grained classification based on the technical details of the approach (e.g., testing, theorem proving, model checking). Secondly, we present a finer-grained classification which categorizes approaches according to criteria such as level of formality, transformation language, properties verified. The purpose of the survey is to bring together research in model transformation verification to act as a resource for the community. Furthermore, based on the survey, we identify a number of trends in current and past research on model transformation verification.

A survey of approaches for verifying model transformations

This paper presents a study of Linux API usage across all applications and libraries in the Ubuntu Linux 15.04 distribution. We propose metrics for reasoning about the importance of various system APIs, including system calls, pseudo-files, and libc functions. Our metrics are designed for evaluating the relative maturity of a prototype system or compatibility layer, and this paper focuses on compatibility with Linux applications. This study uses a combination of static analysis to understand API usage and survey data to weight the relative importance of applications to end users. This paper yields several insights for developers and researchers, which are useful for assessing the complexity and security of Linux APIs. For example, every Ubuntu installation requires 224 system calls, 208 ioctl, fcntl, and prctl codes and hundreds of pseudo files. For each API type, a significant number of APIs are rarely used, if ever. Moreover, several security-relevant API changes, such as replacing access with faccessat, have met with slow adoption. Finally, hundreds of libc interfaces are effectively unused, yielding opportunities to improve security and efficiency by restructuring libc.

https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/2901318.2901341

A study of modern Linux API usage and compatibility: what to support when you're supporting

As production automation systems have been
and are becoming more and more complex, the task of quality assurance is
increasingly challenging. Model-based testing is a research field addressing
this challenge and many approaches have been suggested for different
applications. The goal of this paper is to review these approaches regarding
their suitability for the domain of production automation in order to identify
current trends and research gaps. The different approaches are classified and
clustered according to their main focus which is either testing and test case
generation from some form of model automatons, test case generation from
models used within the development process of production automation systems,
test case generation from fault models or test case selection and regression
testing.

/pdf/review-of-model-based-testing-approaches-in-production-1fiag68x6a.pdf

Review of Model-Based Testing Approaches in Production Automation and Adjacent Domains—Current Challenges and Research Gaps

Production code generation with Model-Based Design has successfully replaced manual coding across various industries and application domains. Furthermore, code generated from executable graphical models is increasingly being deployed in high-integrity embedded applications.

To validate the model-to-code translation process, generated software components and its precursory stages (i.e. models) should be subjected to an appropriate combination of quality assurance measures. For high-integrity applications, compliance with safety standards such as IEC 61508 needs to be demonstrated as well.

On principle, translation validation of generated code could be carried out in the same manner as for manually written code. However, this would not leverage the advantages of Model-Based Design and w.r.t. process efficiency this would leave something to be desired. Therefore, engineering methods and tools for effective and efficient translation validation of generated code are highly desirable. As a step towards this goal, a workflow for verification and validation of models and generated code will be proposed and as far as possible mapped onto the objectives of IEC 61508-3. A cornerstone of this workflow is testing for numerical equivalence between models and generated code.

Testing-based translation validation of generated code in the context of IEC 61508

Model: The abstract syntax of a model representing its essence: entities, relations, and properties that conform to a metamodel. Always-Online: A system where users are connected to the cloud all the time, as opposed to offline. Domain-Specific Language: A modeling language that is adapted to a particular application domain, where models are described using a notation fit exactly to the domain. Metamodel: A model that defines the abstract syntax of a modeling language. Multi-View Modeling: Modeling activities that users can perform through one or more views. Node: A computation resource, such as a computer machine, a CPU, or a process. View: A projection of an abstract model, showing parts or all elements of the model in a specific concrete syntax representation.

Modern Software Engineering Methodologies for Mobile and Cloud Environments

This paper presents a novel testing approach for model-based design tools, termed GraphOTK, and applies it to the optimizing component of a code generator for Simulink and Stateflow models.

Automatic Test Generation for Model-Based Code Generators

This paper presents an approach aimed at simplifying development of portable Linux applications, suggesting a method of detecting compatibility problems between any Linux application and distribution by means of static analysis of executable files and shared libraries.

In the paper we concern the idea of successful launching of application in a distribution. A formal model is constructed that describes interfaces invoked during the program launching. A set of conditions is derived that should be satisfied by application's and distribution's files in order to make it possible for application to successfully launch in distribution. The Linux Application Checker tool is described that supports the approach and allows to detect portability problems of applications at early stage of development.

/pdf/improving-portability-of-linux-applications-by-early-3pp7q3wk5n.pdf

Improving portability of Linux applications by early detection of interoperability issues

The paper is devoted to the problem of portability of applications between different software-hardware platforms. A survey of approaches to solving this problem is given, and analysis of their advantages and disadvantages is presented. Application domains of the existing approaches are discussed.

Ensuring portability of software

A shared library is a file that contains library code and data in binary form. Application built against the library references the data via symbols and the contents of what’s being referenced get known only during the application startup. Library is shipped with header file(s) the program is compiled with. The problem of the binary compatibility (sometimes called ,,backward compatibility”) arises when the new version of library is installed into system and the program, having not been recompiled, is attempted to run in the environment with the new library. The incompatibility may result in fatal errors during the startup or even during the runtime. In this article we deduce the rules that must be followed in order to keep the binary compatibility of a shared library. Unlike most of researches in this area, we also assume that the library may contain its own restrictions upon its usage, more powerful than restrictions of C++ language itself. So the possible restrictions are analyzed as well, and we attempt to weaken the rules of binary compatibility when such restrictions are enforced. As a conclusion we list the rules a programmer should follow to keep his or her library binary compatible. We also conclude that possible restrictions limiting the use of library allow to weaken these rules in relatively small number of cases. For the purpose of this study, we create formal notation for the process of building and using a library, introduce formal definitions of source and binary compatibility and of program behavior. We base the assumptions about mapping source code entities to binary level on the Itanium C++ ABI standard, which describes gcc’s way of emitting binary code and data.

/pdf/binary-compatibility-of-shared-libraries-implemented-in-c-on-4sv2eho7kf.pdf

Binary Compatibility of Shared Libraries Implemented in C++ on GNU / Linux Systems

The use of hardware virtualization for ensuring information security is discussed. A review of various approaches to improving the security of software systems based on virtualization is given. A review of possible scenarios of using virtualization by intruders is also presented. The application domains and limitations of the available solutions and perspectives of future development in the field are discussed.

Denis Silakov

Papers

Automatic Test Generation for Model-Based Code Generators

Improving portability of Linux applications by early detection of interoperability issues

Ensuring portability of software

Binary Compatibility of Shared Libraries Implemented in C++ on GNU / Linux Systems

The use of hardware virtualization in the context of information security