Understanding Concurrency Bugs in Real-World Programs with Kotlin Coroutines
This program is tentative and subject to change.
Kotlin language has recently become prominent for developing both Android and server-side applications. These programs are typically designed to be fast and responsive, with asynchrony and concurrency at their core. To enable developers to write asynchronous and concurrent code safely and concisely, Kotlin provides built-in coroutines support. However, developers unfamiliar with the coroutines concept may write programs with subtle concurrency bugs and face unexpected program behaviors. Besides the traditional concurrency bug patterns, such as data races and deadlocks, these bugs may exhibit patterns related to the coroutine semantics. Understanding these coroutine-specific bug patterns in real-world Kotlin applications is essential in avoiding common mistakes and writing correct programs.
In this paper, we present the first study of real-world concurrency bugs related to Kotlin coroutines. We examined 55 concurrency bug cases selected from 7 popular open-source repositories that use Kotlin coroutines, including IntelliJ IDEA, Firefox, and Ktor, and analyzed their bug characteristics and root causes. We identified common bug patterns related to asynchrony and Kotlin’s coroutine semantics, presenting them with their root causes, misconceptions that led to the bugs, and strategies for their automated detection. Overall, this study provides insight into programming with Kotlin coroutines concurrency and its pitfalls, aiming to shed light on common bug patterns and foster further research and development of concurrency analysis tools for Kotlin programs.
This program is tentative and subject to change.
Wed 18 SepDisplayed time zone: Amsterdam, Berlin, Bern, Rome, Stockholm, Vienna change
15:30 - 16:45 | |||
15:30 15mTalk | Understanding Concurrency Bugs in Real-World Programs with Kotlin Coroutines Technical Papers Bob Brockbernd Delft University of Technology, Nikita Koval JetBrains, Arie van Deursen Delft University of Technology, Burcu Kulahcioglu Ozkan Delft University of Technology | ||
15:45 15mTalk | Runtime Instrumentation for Reactive Components Technical Papers Luca Aceto Reykjavik University, Duncan Paul Attard University of Glasgow, Adrian Francalanza University of Malta, Anna Ingolfsdottir Reykjavik University | ||
16:00 15mTalk | The Fault in our Stars: Designing Reproducible Large-scale Code Analysis Experiments Technical Papers Petr Maj Czech Technical University, Stefanie Muroya Lei Institute of Science and Technology in Austria, Konrad Siek Czech Technical University in Prague, Luca Di Grazia University of Stuttgart, Jan Vitek Northeastern University | ||
16:15 15mTalk | HOBBIT: Hashed Object Based InTegrity Technical Papers Matthias Bernad μCSRL, CODE Research Institute, University of the Bundeswehr Munich, Stefan Brunthaler Bundeswehr University Munich | ||
16:30 15mTalk | Mutation-based Lifted Repair of Software Product Lines Technical Papers Aleksandar S. Dimovski Mother Teresa University, Skopje |