Randomized testing within transactional execution

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016306718-A1
Application number	US-201615192565-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Jun 24, 2016
Priority date	Jun 15, 2012
Publication date	Oct 20, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

Task specific diagnostic controls are provided to facilitate the debugging of certain types of abort conditions. The diagnostic controls may be set to cause transactions to be selectively aborted, allowing a transaction to drive its abort handler routine for testing purposes. The controls include, for instance, a transaction diagnostic scope and a transaction diagnostic control. The transaction diagnostic scope indicates when the transaction diagnostic control is to be applied, and the transaction diagnostic control indicates whether transactions are to selectively aborted.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A computer program product for controlling execution of transactions in a computing environment, said computer program product comprising:
a computer readable storage medium readable by a processing circuit and storing instructions for execution by the processing circuit for performing a method comprising:
initiating a transaction in a computing environment; and
determining, by a processor, whether the transaction is to be aborted, the determining employing one or more controls of a control register used by the processor, the one or more controls to indicate whether transactions are to be randomly selected to be aborted for testing purposes.

2 . The computer program product of claim 1 , wherein the control register comprises a transaction diagnostic control, wherein a first value of the transaction diagnostic control indicates transactions are not to be aborted based on the transaction diagnostic control, a second value of the transaction diagnostic control indicates each transaction is to be aborted based on the transaction diagnostic control, and a third value of the transaction diagnostic control indicates transactions are to be randomly selected to be aborted.

3 . The computer program product of claim 2 , wherein the control register further comprises a transaction diagnostic scope to indicate whether the transaction diagnostic control is to be applied.

4 . The computer program product of claim 3 , wherein a first value of the transaction diagnostic scope indicates the transaction diagnostic control is to be applied based on the processor being in a problem state or a supervisor state, and a second value of the transaction diagnostic scope indicates the transaction diagnostic control is to be applied exclusive to the processor being in the problem state.

5 . The computer program product of claim 1 , wherein the determining comprises based on the one or more controls indicating transactions are to be randomly selected to be aborted, determining whether the transaction is to be selected for aborting, and wherein the method further comprises based on the determining indicating the transaction is to be selected for aborting, aborting the transaction.

6 . The computer program product of claim 5 , wherein the determining whether the transaction is to be selected for aborting comprises checking a selection control to determine whether the transaction is selected for aborting.

7 . The computer program product of claim 5 , wherein the aborting comprises aborting the transaction at a selected instruction within the transaction.

8 . The computer program product of claim 5 , wherein the aborting further comprises executing an abort handler to provide testing associated with the aborting.

9 . The computer program product of claim 1 , wherein the one or more controls are task specific in that the one or more controls are for a specific task and are set based on user-provided information, the specific task to include the transaction.

10 . The computer program product of claim 1 , wherein the testing purposes includes debugging certain types of abort conditions.

11 . A computer system for controlling execution of transactions in a computing environment, said computer system comprising:
a memory; and a processor in communication with the memory, wherein the computer system is configured to perform a method, said method comprising:
initiating a transaction in a computing environment; and
determining, by the processor, whether the transaction is to be aborted, the determining employing one or more controls of a control register used by the processor, the one or more controls to indicate whether transactions are to be randomly selected to be aborted for testing purposes.

12 . The computer system of claim 11 , wherein the control register comprises a transaction diagnostic control, wherein a first value of the transaction diagnostic control indicates transactions are not to be aborted based on the transaction diagnostic control, a second value of the transaction diagnostic control indicates each transaction is to be aborted based on the transaction diagnostic control, and a third value of the transaction diagnostic control indicates transactions are to be randomly selected to be aborted.

13 . The computer system of claim 12 , wherein the control register further comprises a transaction diagnostic scope to indicate whether the transaction diagnostic control is to be applied.

14 . The computer system of claim 13 , wherein a first value of the transaction diagnostic scope indicates the transaction diagnostic control is to be applied based on the processor being in a problem state or a supervisor state, and a second value of the transaction diagnostic scope indicates the transaction diagnostic control is to be applied exclusive to the processor being in the problem state.

15 . The computer system of claim 11 , wherein the determining comprises based on the one or more controls indicating transactions are to be randomly selected to be aborted, determining whether the transaction is to be selected for aborting, and wherein the method further comprises based on the determining indicating the transaction is to be selected for aborting, aborting the transaction.

16 . A computer-implemented method of controlling execution of transactions in a computing environment, said method comprising:
initiating a transaction in a computing environment; and determining, by a processor, whether the transaction is to be aborted, the determining employing one or more controls of a control register used by the processor, the one or more controls to indicate whether transactions are to be randomly selected to be aborted for testing purposes.

17 . The computer-implemented method of claim 16 , wherein the control register comprises a transaction diagnostic control, wherein a first value of the transaction diagnostic control indicates transactions are not to be aborted based on the transaction diagnostic control, a second value of the transaction diagnostic control indicates each transaction is to be aborted based on the transaction diagnostic control, and a third value of the transaction diagnostic control indicates transactions are to be randomly selected to be aborted.

18 . The computer-implemented method of claim 17 , wherein the control register further comprises a transaction diagnostic scope to indicate whether the transaction diagnostic control is to be applied.

19 . The computer-implemented method of claim 18 , wherein a first value of the transaction diagnostic scope indicates the transaction diagnostic control is to be applied based on the processor being in a problem state or a supervisor state, and a second value of the transaction diagnostic scope indicates the transaction diagnostic control is to be applied exclusive to the processor being in the problem state.

20 . The computer-implemented method of claim 16 , wherein the determining comprises based on the one or more controls indicating transactions are to be randomly selected to be aborted, determining whether the transaction is to be selected for aborting, and wherein the method further comprises based on the determining indicating the transaction is to be selected for aborting, aborting the transaction.

Assignees

• IBM

Inventors

• Greiner Dan F
• Jacobi Christian
• Slegel Timothy J

Classifications

• G06F9/466

  Transaction processing · CPC title

• G06F11/3688

  for test execution, e.g. scheduling of test suites · CPC title

• G06F9/3861

  Recovery, e.g. branch miss-prediction, exception handling (error detection or correction G06F11/00) · CPC title

• G06F11/1474 Primary

  in transactions (updating of structured data in databases G06F16/23) · CPC title

• G06F9/467

  Transactional memory (G06F9/528 takes precedence) · CPC title