Perturbation Analysis: A Static Analysis Approach for the Non-Intrusive Monitoring of Distributed Programs

Programs written in distributed programming languages are often non-deterministic in nature and hence the execution of such programs is not only dependent upon the program input, but also on the timing of the execution. Thus, an attempt to monitor the run-time behavior of a non-deterministic distributed program through code instrumentation, such as during debugging, can potentially alter the program´s behavior. In this paper we introduce notions of non-intrusion that are useful for the monitoring of non-deterministic programs. We develop static perturbation analysis techniques to analyze the affect of run-time monitoring activities on the outcome of a non-deterministic event and identify points in a program at which monitoring activities can be performed non-intrusively.