%0 Journal Article %1 Felgentreff:2017 %A Felgentreff, Tim %A Perscheid, Michael %A Hirschfeld, Robert %D 2017 %J Science of Computer Programming %K Debugging Distribution Optimization Record Refine Replay %P 4--18 %R 10.1016/j.scico.2015.11.006 %T Implementing record and refinement for debugging timing-dependent communication %U http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167642315003585 %V 134 %X Distributed applications are hard to debug because timing-dependent network communication is a source of non-deterministic behavior. Current approaches to debug non-deterministic failures include post-mortem debugging as well as record and replay. However, the first impairs system performance to gather data, whereas the latter requires developers to understand the timing-dependent communication at a lower level of abstraction than they develop at. Furthermore, both approaches require intrusive core library modifications to gather data from live systems. In this paper, we present the Peek-At-Talk debugger for investigating non-deterministic failures with low overhead in a systematic, top-down method, with a particular focus on tool-building issues in the following areas: First, we show how our debugging framework Path Tools guides developers from failures to their root causes and gathers run-time data with low overhead. Second, we present Peek-At-Talk, an extension to our Path Tools framework to record non-deterministic communication and refine behavioral data that connects source code with network events. Finally, we scope changes to the core library to record network communication without impacting other network applications.

@article{Felgentreff:2017, abstract = {Distributed applications are hard to debug because timing-dependent network communication is a source of non-deterministic behavior. Current approaches to debug non-deterministic failures include post-mortem debugging as well as record and replay. However, the first impairs system performance to gather data, whereas the latter requires developers to understand the timing-dependent communication at a lower level of abstraction than they develop at. Furthermore, both approaches require intrusive core library modifications to gather data from live systems. In this paper, we present the Peek-At-Talk debugger for investigating non-deterministic failures with low overhead in a systematic, top-down method, with a particular focus on tool-building issues in the following areas: First, we show how our debugging framework Path Tools guides developers from failures to their root causes and gathers run-time data with low overhead. Second, we present Peek-At-Talk, an extension to our Path Tools framework to record non-deterministic communication and refine behavioral data that connects source code with network events. Finally, we scope changes to the core library to record network communication without impacting other network applications.}, added-at = {2018-05-03T16:23:53.000+0200}, author = {Felgentreff, Tim and Perscheid, Michael and Hirschfeld, Robert}, biburl = {https://www.bibsonomy.org/bibtex/2f057cf5105c82b8baa5b6498cdd2646b/gron}, description = {Implementing record and refinement for debugging timing-dependent communication - ScienceDirect}, doi = {10.1016/j.scico.2015.11.006}, interhash = {e786122d50460812ece19ba2a39eabaf}, intrahash = {f057cf5105c82b8baa5b6498cdd2646b}, issn = {0167-6423}, journal = {Science of Computer Programming}, keywords = {Debugging Distribution Optimization Record Refine Replay}, note = {6th issue of Experimental Software and Toolkits (EST-6)}, pages = {4--18}, timestamp = {2018-05-03T16:23:53.000+0200}, title = {{Implementing record and refinement for debugging timing-dependent communication}}, url = {http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167642315003585}, volume = 134, year = 2017 }