Error Handling Techniques for Robust Mission Critical Software

We will study the feasibility to build a tool, called HandlErr, which automatically enhances readable but non-robust programs with code to handle unhandled errors, according to user-specified error handling policies, thus making the programs robust. HandlErr performs a static analysis of the given program via data flow analysis, complemented by automated reasoning tools, to detect potentially unhandled errors. HandlErr reads declarative error handling policies that are specified by the user using a domain-specific language to be developed as part of HandlErr. HandlErr automatically enhances the program with error handling code to handle unhandled errors according to the user-specified policies. If the input program includes annotations like loop invariants and pre/post-conditions (e.g. as resulting from a formal refinement process of the program from high-level specifications), HandlErr performs a more accurate analysis of unhandled errors; however, annotations are not required.