ESfix: An Embedded Program Repair Tool for Effective Removal of Concurrency Defects

Area of Science:

• Computer Science
• Software Engineering

Background:

• Embedded systems are critical in high-security fields like aerospace and medical devices.
• Data uncertainty in these systems is quantified by entropy.
• Traditional defect repair methods introduce new issues like deadlocks and performance overhead.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose ESfix, a novel defect fixing technique for embedded software.
• To help developers reduce time and effort in fixing software defects.
• To improve data certainty and reliability in embedded systems.

Main Methods:

• ESfix locates repair regions using bug detection tool information.
• It optimizes interrupt and lock strategies to fix data races and transmission bugs.
• Atomicity violations are repaired using a reordering strategy, analyzed via control flow graphs (CFGs).

Main Results:

• ESfix reduces system entropy and information entropy.
• The technique improves data certainty, reliability, and overall performance.
• Semantic analysis ensures no new defects are introduced during repair.

Conclusions:

• ESfix effectively repairs defects in embedded software.
• The method enhances system reliability and reduces potential risks.
• ESfix offers an efficient and accurate solution for embedded software defect fixing.