A Survey on Model Checking Java Programs

Due to the recent advancements of the Internet, Java has become a dominant programming language, especially for coding concurrent applications. Finite state verification is a powerful technique for detecting subtle errors in a program. This paper reviews recent attempts to transform Java source code into a model that can be checked using verification tools. Two classes of techniques are reviewed. The first is translating Java source code into a known modeling language such as Promela. The second is building a finite state model based on the source and performing state reductions. Once state reductions are performed and the model size reduced, the resulting model can be checked for desired properties.