Using Message Passing for Distributed Programming: Proof Rules and Disciplines

Abstract

Inference rules are derived for proving partial correctness of concurrent programs that use message passing. These rules extend the notion of a satisfaction proof, first proposed for proving correctness of programs that use synchronous message-passing, to asynchronous message-passing, rendezvous, and remote procedures. Two types of asynchronous message-passing are considered: unreliable datagrams and reliable virtual circuits. The proof rules show how interference can arise and be controlled.