research-article

Hang analysis: fighting responsiveness bugs

Authors:

Zheng ZhangAuthors Info & Claims

Eurosys '08: Proceedings of the 3rd ACM SIGOPS/EuroSys European Conference on Computer Systems 2008

Pages 177 - 190

https://doi.org/10.1145/1352592.1352612

Published: 01 April 2008 Publication History

Abstract

Soft hang is an action that was expected to respond instantly but instead drives an application into a coma. While the application usually responds eventually, users cannot issue other requests while waiting. Such hang problems are widespread in productivity tools such as desktop applications; similar issues arise in server programs as well. Hang problems arise because the software contains blocking or time-consuming operations in graphical user interface (GUI) and other time-critical call paths that should not.

This paper proposes HangWiz to find hang bugs in source code, which are difficult to eliminate before release by testing, as they often depend on a user's environment. HangWiz finds hang bugs by finding hang points: an invocation that is expected to complete quickly, such as a GUI action, but calls a blocking function. HangWiz collects hang patterns from runtime traces supplemented with expert knowledge, and feed these patterns into a static analysis framework that searches exhaustively for hang points that involve potential hang bugs.

Experiments with several large, real-world software packages (including a source control client, a graphics editor and a web server) show that there are several hang bugs in these applications, and that HangWiz is effective in finding them. The experiments also demonstrate that HangWiz is scalable and can analyze millions of lines of code. We further discuss related techniques and report our experience on fixing hang bugs.

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He JDai TGu XJin GFonseca RDelimitrou COoi B(2020)HangFixProceedings of the 11th ACM Symposium on Cloud Computing10.1145/3419111.3421288(344-357)Online publication date: 12-Oct-2020
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3419111.3421288
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Index Terms

Hang analysis: fighting responsiveness bugs
1. General and reference
  1. Cross-computing tools and techniques
    1. Performance
2. Software and its engineering
  1. Software creation and management
    1. Designing software
    2. Software verification and validation
  2. Software organization and properties
    1. Contextual software domains
      1. Operating systems
    2. Extra-functional properties
      1. Software performance

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Published In

cover image ACM Conferences

Eurosys '08: Proceedings of the 3rd ACM SIGOPS/EuroSys European Conference on Computer Systems 2008

April 2008

346 pages

ISBN:9781605580135

DOI:10.1145/1352592

General Chair:
Joe Sventek
University of Glasgow, UK
,
Program Chair:
Steven Hand
University of Cambridge, UK

ACM SIGOPS Operating Systems Review Volume 42, Issue 4
EuroSys '08
May 2008
321 pages
ISSN:0163-5980
DOI:10.1145/1357010
Issue’s Table of Contents

Copyright © 2008 ACM.

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Published: 01 April 2008

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April 1 - 4, 2008

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Cited By

Gao YShi XLin HZhang HWu HLi RYang MLiu AMuccini H(2023)An Empirical Study on Quality Issues of Deep Learning PlatformProceedings of the 45th International Conference on Software Engineering: Software Engineering in Practice10.1109/ICSE-SEIP58684.2023.00052(455-466)Online publication date: 17-May-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1109/ICSE-SEIP58684.2023.00052
He JDai TGu XJin GFonseca RDelimitrou COoi B(2020)HangFixProceedings of the 11th ACM Symposium on Cloud Computing10.1145/3419111.3421288(344-357)Online publication date: 12-Oct-2020
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3419111.3421288
Brocanelli MWang XOliveira RFelber PHu Y(2018)Hang doctorProceedings of the Thirteenth EuroSys Conference10.1145/3190508.3190525(1-15)Online publication date: 23-Apr-2018
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3190508.3190525
Beierle NKruse PVos T(2017)GUI-Profiling for Performance and Coverage Analysis2017 IEEE International Symposium on Software Reliability Engineering Workshops (ISSREW)10.1109/ISSREW.2017.78(28-31)Online publication date: Oct-2017
https://doi.org/10.1109/ISSREW.2017.78
Dean DWang PGu XEnck WJin G(2015)Automatic Server Hang Bug DiagnosisProceedings of the 2015 IEEE International Conference on Autonomic Computing10.1109/ICAC.2015.52(127-132)Online publication date: 7-Jul-2015
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1109/ICAC.2015.52
Gunawi HHao MLeesatapornwongsa TPatana-anake TDo TAdityatama JEliazar KLaksono ALukman JMartin VSatria ALazowska ETerry DArpaci-Dusseau RGehrke J(2014)What Bugs Live in the Cloud? A Study of 3000+ Issues in Cloud SystemsProceedings of the ACM Symposium on Cloud Computing10.1145/2670979.2670986(1-14)Online publication date: 3-Nov-2014
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Xiao XHan SZhang DXie TPezzè MHarman M(2013)Context-sensitive delta inference for identifying workload-dependent performance bottlenecksProceedings of the 2013 International Symposium on Software Testing and Analysis10.1145/2483760.2483784(90-100)Online publication date: 15-Jul-2013
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Karna AYuting Chen (2013)Anticrasher: Predicting and preventing impending crashes on runtime at user end2013 International Conference on Advances in Computing, Communications and Informatics (ICACCI)10.1109/ICACCI.2013.6637213(448-453)Online publication date: Aug-2013
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Zhu YLi YXue JTan TShi JShen YMa C(2012)What Is System Hang and How to Handle ItProceedings of the 2012 IEEE 23rd International Symposium on Software Reliability Engineering10.1109/ISSRE.2012.12(141-150)Online publication date: 27-Nov-2012
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1109/ISSRE.2012.12
Jovic MHauswirth M(2010)Performance Testing of GUI ApplicationsProceedings of the 2010 Third International Conference on Software Testing, Verification, and Validation Workshops10.1109/ICSTW.2010.27(247-251)Online publication date: 6-Apr-2010
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