Specifying and proving properties of sentinel processes
Krithivasan Ramamritham, Robert Keller · International Conference on Software Engineering · 1981
This paper presents a technique for specifying and verifying properties of “sentinels”—a high-level language construct for synchronizing access to shared resources. Statements in the specification language possess formal temporal semantics. As a prelude to proving the correctness of sentinels, the semantics of constructs used in sentinels is given. The proof technique involves showing that the temporal behavior of a sentinel conforms to that defined by the specification. The methodology is illustrated by applying it to a typical synchronization problem.