Debugging Invariant Issues in Pseudo Embedded Program: an Analytical Approach

TL;DR

This paper presents an analytical debugging approach for embedded programs using invariant analysis on pseudo code, leveraging Daikon to identify bugs during development, especially in resource-constrained embedded systems.

Contribution

It introduces a novel invariant-based debugging methodology for embedded software, enhancing bug detection during development with minimal resource overhead.

Findings

Successfully applied to BusyBox debugging scenario

Effective in identifying bugs in embedded pseudo code

Integrates with Daikon for invariant analysis

Abstract

Debugging is an unavoidable and most crucial aspect of software development life cycle. Especially when it comes the turn of embedded one. Due to the requirements of low code size and less resource consumption, the embedded softwares need to be upgraded all the time involving obvious change of code during development phase. This leads the huge risk of intrusion of bugs into the code at production time. In this paper we propose an approach of debugging embedded program in pseudo format, incorporating invariant analysis. Our methodology works on top of Daikon, a popular invariant analyzer. We have experimented with a simplified code snippet [1], used during debugging a reported error in BusyBox which is a de-facto standard for Linux in embedded systems.