Runtime error detection is a
software verification Software verification is a discipline of software engineering, programming languages, and theory of computation whose goal is to assure that software satisfies the expected requirements.
Broad scope and classification
A broad definition of verif ...
method that analyzes a software application as it executes and reports
defects that are detected during that execution. It can be applied during
unit testing
Unit testing, component or module testing, is a form of software testing by which isolated source code is tested to validate expected behavior.
Unit testing describes tests that are run at the unit-level to contrast testing at the Integration ...
,
component testing
Unit testing, component or module testing, is a form of software testing by which isolated source code is tested to validate expected behavior.
Unit testing describes tests that are run at the unit-level to contrast testing at the Integration ...
,
integration testing
Integration testing is a form of software testing in which multiple software components, modules, or services are tested together to verify they work as expected when combined. The focus is on testing the interactions and data exchange between i ...
,
system testing
System testing, a.k.a. end-to-end (E2E) testing, is testing conducted on a complete software system.
System testing describes testing at the system level to contrast to testing at the system integration, integration or unit level.
System t ...
(automated/scripted or manual), or
penetration test
A penetration test, colloquially known as a pentest, is an authorized simulated cyberattack on a computer system, performed to evaluate the security of the system; this is not to be confused with a vulnerability assessment. The test is perform ...
ing.
Runtime error detection can identify defects that manifest themselves only at runtime (for example, file overwrites) and zeroing in on the root causes of the application crashing, running slowly, or behaving unpredictably. Defects commonly detected by runtime error detection include:
*
Race condition
A race condition or race hazard is the condition of an electronics, software, or other system where the system's substantive behavior is dependent on the sequence or timing of other uncontrollable events, leading to unexpected or inconsistent ...
s
*
Exceptions
*
Resource leak
In computer science, a resource leak is a particular type of resource consumption by a computer program where the program does not release resources it has acquired. This condition is normally the result of a bug in a program. Typical resource lea ...
s
*
Memory leak
In computer science, a memory leak is a type of resource leak that occurs when a computer program incorrectly manages memory allocations in a way that memory which is no longer needed is not released. A memory leak may also happen when an objec ...
s
*
Security attack vulnerabilities (e.g.,
SQL injection
In computing, SQL injection is a code injection technique used to attack data-driven applications, in which malicious SQL statements are inserted into an entry field for execution (e.g. to dump the database contents to the attacker). SQL injec ...
)
*
Null pointers
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Uninitialized memory
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Buffer overflows
Runtime error detection tools can only detect errors in the executed control flow of the application.
MUST: A Scalable Approach to Runtime Error Detection in MPI Programs
by Tobias Hilbrich, Martin Schulz, Bronis R. de Supinski, Matthias S. Müller, in Tools for High Performance Computing 2009
See also
* Development testing
* Software testing
Software testing is the act of checking whether software satisfies expectations.
Software testing can provide objective, independent information about the Quality (business), quality of software and the risk of its failure to a User (computin ...
* Memory debugger
A memory debugger is a debugger for finding software memory problems such as memory leaks and buffer overflows. These are due to bugs related to the allocation and deallocation of dynamic memory. Programs written in languages that have garba ...
* BoundsChecker
BoundsChecker is a memory checking and API call validation tool used for C++ software development with Microsoft Visual C++. It was created by NuMega in the early 1990s. When NuMega was purchased by Compuware in 1997, BoundsChecker became part o ...
* Runtime verification Runtime verification is a computing system analysis and execution approach based on extracting information from a running system and using it to detect and possibly react to observed behaviors satisfying or violating certain properties. Some very p ...
References
Software testing
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