MAVEN: Modular Aspect Verification

Abstract

Abstract. Aspects are program modules that include descriptions of key events (called joinpoints) and code segments (called advice) to be executed at those key events when the aspect is bound (woven) to an underlying system. The MAVEN tool verifies the correctness of an aspect relative to its specification, independently of any specific underlying system to which it may be woven. The specification includes assumptions about properties of the underlying system, and guaranteed properties of any system after the aspect is woven into it. The approach is based on model checking of a single state machine constructed using the linear temporal logic (LTL) description of the assumptions, a description of the joinpoints, and the state machine of the aspect advice. The tableau of the LTL assumption is used in a unique way, as a representative of any underlying system satisfying the assumptions. This is the first technique for once-and-for-all verification of an aspect relative to its specification, thereby increasing the modularity of proofs for systems with aspects.

Procedure-modular verification of control flow safety properties

“…Maven is a modular verification tool addressing temporal properties of procedural languages, but in the context of aspects [7].…”

Aspects preserving properties

“…So, each aspect must be analyzed contrary to our approach that considers categories of aspects. This work is extended by Goldman and Katz [10] for weakly invasive aspects (weak intruders).…”

Reasoning about aspects with common sense

“…In contrast, the goal of this work is to consider AOP in its full generality, but find a more modular explanation of AOP than weaving. The MAVEN tool [11] and the approach by Krishnamurthi et al [18] aim at modular verification of aspects, but these works focus on temporal properties expressed in LTL that are checked via model checkers, and not general equational reasoning.…”