Towards Fully Automatic Execution Monitoring

UFO is a new application framework in which programs written in FORMAN, a declarative assertion language, are compiled into execution monitors that run on a virtual machine with extensive monitoring capabilities provided by the Alamo monitor architecture. FORMAN provides an event trace model in which precedence and inclusion relations define a DAG structure that abstracts execution behavior. Compiling FORMAN assertions into hybrid run-time/post-mortem monitors allows substantial speed and size improvements over post-mortem analyzers. The UFO compiler generates code that computes the minimal projection of the DAG necessary for a given set of assertions. UFO enables fully automatic execution monitoring of real programs. The approach is non-intrusive with respect to program source code and provides a high level of abstraction for monitoring and debugging activities. The ability to compile suites of debugging rules into efficient monitors, and apply them generically to different programs, enables long-overdue breakthroughs in program debugging.