Breakpoints and Time in Distributed Computations
This paper investigates how vector time can be used to set breakpoints in
distributed computations for the purpose of analyzing and debugging
distributed programs. A breakpoint is represented by a set of events in
one or more processes. One interesting state in which a distributed
computation can be halted is the earliest global state reflecting all
events in a breakpoint. A simple expression in terms of vector time is
derived to determine this state. Another state of interest is the global
state reflecting only events preceding any of the breakpoint events, but
reflecting none of the breakpoint events themselves. Two alternative
expressions are presented for this state. The first one is in terms of
vector time and a derived notion called reversed vector time. The second
expression uses vector time and the convex closure of a set of events.
(postscript /
pdf version of the complete paper)
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