In a reversible language, any forward computation can be undone by a finite sequence of backward steps. Reversible computing has been studied in the context of different programming languages and formalisms, where it has been used for testing and verification, among others. In this paper, we consider a subset of Erlang, a functional and concurrent programming language based on the actor model. We present a formal semantics for reversible computation in this language and prove its main properties, including its causal consistency. We also build on top of it a rollback operator that can be used to undo the actions of a process up to a given checkpoint.

Programming languages based on the actor model, such as Erlang, avoid some concurrency bugs by design. However, other concurrency bugs, such as message order violations and livelocks, can still show up in programs. These hard-to-find bugs can be more easily detected by using causal-consistent reversible debugging, a debugging technique that allows one to traverse a computation both forward and backward. Most notably, causal consistency implies that, when going backward, an action can only be undone provided that its consequences, if any, have been undone beforehand. To the best of our knowledge, we present the first causal-consistent reversible debugger for Erlang, which may help programmers to detect and fix various kinds of bugs, including message order violations and livelocks.

Debugging of concurrent systems is a tedious and error-prone activity. A main issue is that there is no guarantee that a bug that appears in the original computation is replayed inside the debugger. This problem is usually tackled by so-called replay debugging, which allows the user to record a program execution and replay it inside the debugger. In this paper, we present a novel technique for replay debugging that we call controlled causal-consistent replay. Controlled causal-consistent replay allows the user to record a program execution and, in contrast to traditional replay debuggers, to reproduce a visible misbehavior inside the debugger including all and only its causes. In this way, the user is not distracted by the actions of other, unrelated processes.

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Causal-consistent reversible debugging is an innovative technique for debugging concurrent systems. It allows one to go back in the execution focusing on the actions that most likely caused a visible misbehavior. When such an action is selected, the debugger undoes it, including all and only its consequences. This operation is called a causal-consistent rollback. In this way, the user can avoid being distracted by the actions of other, unrelated processes. In this work, we introduce its dual notion: causal-consistent replay. We allow the user to record an execution of a running program and, in contrast to traditional replay debuggers, to reproduce a visible misbehavior inside the debugger including all and only its causes. Furthermore, we present a unified framework that combines both causal-consistent replay and causal-consistent rollback. Although most of the ideas that we present are rather general, we focus on a popular functional and concurrent programming language based on message passing: Erlang.