# Module proper_statem

- Description
- Data Types
- Function Index
- Function Details

This module defines the `proper_statem` behaviour, useful for testing stateful reactive systems whose internal state and side-effects are specified via an abstract state machine.

Copyright © 2010-2016 Manolis Papadakis, Eirini Arvaniti and Kostis Sagonas

Version: Jan 2 2021 16:13:05

Authors: Eirini Arvaniti.

## Description

This module defines the `proper_statem` behaviour, useful for testing stateful reactive systems whose internal state and side-effects are specified via an abstract state machine. Given a callback module implementing the `proper_statem` behaviour (i.e. defining an abstract state machine of the system under test), PropEr can generate random symbolic sequences of calls to that system. As a next step, generated symbolic calls are actually performed, while monitoring the system's responses to ensure it behaves as expected. Upon failure, the shrinking mechanism attempts to find a minimal sequence of calls provoking the same error.

When including the `"proper/include/proper.hrl"` header file, all API functions of proper_statem are automatically imported, unless `PROPER_NO_IMPORTS` is defined.

#### The role of commands

Testcases generated for testing a stateful system are lists of symbolic API calls to that system. Symbolic representation has several benefits, which are listed here in increasing order of importance:

- Generated testcases are easier to read and understand.
- Failing testcases are easier to shrink.
- The generation phase is side-effect free and this results in repeatable testcases, which is essential for correct shrinking.

Since the actual results of symbolic calls are not known at generation time, we use symbolic variables (`symbolic_var()`) to refer to them. A command (`command()`) is a symbolic term, used to bind a symbolic variable to the result of a symbolic call. For example:

          [{set, {var,1}, {call,erlang,put,[a,42]}},
           {set, {var,2}, {call,erlang,erase,[a]}},
           {set, {var,3}, {call,erlang,put,[b,{var,2}]}}]

is a command sequence that could be used to test the process dictionary. In this example, the first call stores the pair `{a,42}` in the process dictionary, while the second one deletes it. Then, a new pair `{b,{var,2}}` is stored. `{var,2}` is a symbolic variable bound to the result of `erlang:erase/1`. This result is not known at generation time, since none of these operations is performed at that time. After evaluating the command sequence at runtime, the process dictionary will eventually contain the pair `{b,42}`.

#### The abstract model-state

In order to be able to test impure code, we need a way to track its internal state (at least the useful part of it). To this end, we use an abstract state machine representing the possible configurations of the system under test. When referring to the model state, we mean the state of the abstract state machine. The model state can be either symbolic or dynamic:

- During command generation, we use symbolic variables to bind the results of symbolic calls. Therefore, the model state might (and usually does) contain symbolic variables and/or symbolic calls, which are necessary to operate on symbolic variables. Thus, we refer to it as symbolic state. For example, assuming that the internal state of the process dictionary is modeled as a proplist, the model state after generating the previous command sequence will be `[{b,{var,2}}]`.
- During runtime, symbolic calls are evaluated and symbolic variables are replaced by their corresponding real values. Now we refer to the state as dynamic state. After running the previous command sequence, the model state will be `[{b,42}]`.

#### The callback functions

The following functions must be exported from the callback module implementing the abstract state machine:

- `initial_state() ->` `symbolic_state()`

  Specifies the symbolic initial state of the state machine. This state will be evaluated at command execution time to produce the actual initial state. The function is not only called at command generation time, but also in order to initialize the state every time the command sequence is run (i.e. during normal execution, while shrinking and when checking a counterexample). For this reason, it should be deterministic and self-contained.

- `command(S::``symbolic_state()``) ->` `proper_types:type()`

  Generates a symbolic call to be included in the command sequence, given the current state `S` of the abstract state machine. However, before the call is actually included, a precondition is checked. This function will be repeatedly called to produce the next call to be included in the test case.

- `precondition(S::``symbolic_state()``, Call::``symbolic_call()``) -> boolean()`

  Specifies the precondition that should hold so that `Call` can be included in the command sequence, given the current state `S` of the abstract state machine. In case precondition doesn't hold, a new call is chosen using the `command/1` generator. If preconditions are very strict, it will take a lot of tries for PropEr to randomly choose a valid command. Testing will be stopped in case the `constraint_tries` limit is reached (see the 'Options' section in the `proper` module documentation). Preconditions are also important for correct shrinking of failing testcases. When shrinking command sequences, we try to eliminate commands that do not contribute to failure, ensuring that all preconditions still hold. Validating preconditions is necessary because during shrinking we usually attempt to perform a call with the system being in a state different from the state it was when initially running the test.

- `postcondition(S::``dynamic_state()``, Call::``symbolic_call()``, Res::term()) -> boolean()`

  Specifies the postcondition that should hold about the result `Res` of performing `Call`, given the dynamic state `S` of the abstract state machine prior to command execution. This function is called during runtime, this is why the state is dynamic.

- `next_state(S::``symbolic_state()` `|` `dynamic_state()``, Res::term(), Call::``symbolic_call()``) ->` `symbolic_state()` `|` `dynamic_state()`

  Specifies the next state of the abstract state machine, given the current state `S`, the symbolic `Call` chosen and its result `Res`. This function is called both at command generation and command execution time in order to update the model state, therefore the state `S` and the result `Res` can be either symbolic or dynamic.

#### The property used

Each test consists of two phases:

- As a first step, PropEr generates random symbolic command sequences deriving information from the callback module implementing the abstract state machine. This is the role of `commands/1` generator.
- As a second step, command sequences are executed so as to check that the system behaves as expected. This is the role of `run_commands/2`, a function that evaluates a symbolic command sequence according to an abstract state machine specification.

These two phases are encapsulated in the following property, which can be used for testing the process dictionary:

          prop_pdict() ->
              ?FORALL(Cmds, proper_statem:commands(?MODULE),
                      begin
                          {_History, _State, Result} = proper_statem:run_commands(?MODULE, Cmds),
                          cleanup(),
                          Result =:= ok
                      end).

When testing impure code, it is very important to keep each test self-contained. For this reason, almost every property for testing stateful systems contains some clean-up code. Such code is necessary to put the system in a known state, so that the next test can be executed independently from previous ones.

### Parallel testing

After ensuring that a system's behaviour can be described via an abstract state machine when commands are executed sequentially, it is possible to move to parallel testing. The same state machine can be used to generate command sequences that will be executed in parallel to test for race conditions. A parallel testcase (`parallel_testcase()`) consists of a sequential and a parallel component. The sequential component is a command sequence that is run first to put the system in a random state. The parallel component is a list containing 2 command sequences to be executed in parallel, each of them in a separate newly-spawned process.

Generating parallel test cases involves the following actions. Initially, we generate a command sequence deriving information from the abstract state machine specification, as in the case of sequential statem testing. Then, we parallelize a random suffix (up to 12 commands) of the initial sequence by splitting it into 2 subsequences that will be executed concurrently. Limitations arise from the fact that each subsequence should be a valid command sequence (i.e. all commands should satisfy preconditions and use only symbolic variables bound to the results of preceding calls in the same sequence). Furthermore, we apply an additional check: we have to ensure that preconditions are satisfied in all possible interleavings of the concurrent tasks. Otherwise, an exception might be raised during parallel execution and lead to unexpected (and unwanted) test failure. In case these constraints cannot be satisfied for a specific test case, the test case will be executed sequentially. Then an `f` is printed on screen to inform the user. This usually means that preconditions need to become less strict for parallel testing to work.

After running a parallel testcase, PropEr uses the state machine specification to check if the results observed could have been produced by a possible serialization of the parallel component. If no such serialization is possible, then an atomicity violation has been detected. In this case, the shrinking mechanism attempts to produce a counterexample that is minimal in terms of concurrent operations. Properties for parallel testing are very similar to those used for sequential testing.

          prop_parallel_testing() ->
              ?FORALL(Testcase, proper_statem:parallel_commands(?MODULE),
                      begin
                          {_Sequential, _Parallel, Result} = proper_statem:run_parallel_commands(?MODULE, Testcase),
                          cleanup(),
                          Result =:= ok
                      end).

Please note that the actual interleaving of commands of the parallel component depends on the Erlang scheduler, which is too deterministic. For PropEr to be able to detect race conditions, the code of the system under test should be instrumented with `erlang:yield/0` calls to the scheduler.

## Data Types

### command()

    command() =
        {set, symbolic_var(), symbolic_call()} |
        {init, symbolic_state()}

### command_list()

    command_list() = [command()]

### dynamic_state()

abstract datatype: `dynamic_state()`

### history()

    history() = [{dynamic_state(), term()}]

### mod_name()

    mod_name() = atom()

### parallel_history()

    parallel_history() = [{command(), term()}]

### parallel_testcase()

    parallel_testcase() = {command_list(), [command_list()]}

### statem_result()

    statem_result() =
        ok | initialization_error |
        {precondition, false | proper:exception()} |
        {postcondition, false | proper:exception()} |
        proper:exception() |
        no_possible_interleaving

### symbolic_call()

abstract datatype: `symbolic_call()`

### symbolic_state()

abstract datatype: `symbolic_state()`

### symbolic_var()

    symbolic_var() = {var, pos_integer()}

## Function Index

command_names/1 | Extracts the names of the commands from a given command sequence, in the form of MFAs.
commands/1 | A special PropEr type which generates random command sequences, according to an abstract state machine specification.
commands/2 | Similar to `commands/1`, but generated command sequences always start at a given state.
more_commands/2 | Increases the expected length of command sequences generated from `CmdType` by a factor `N`.
parallel_commands/1 | A special PropEr type which generates parallel testcases, according to an absract state machine specification.
parallel_commands/2 | Similar to `parallel_commands/1`, but generated command sequences always start at a given state.
run_commands/2 | Evaluates a given symbolic command sequence `Cmds` according to the state machine specified in `Mod`.
run_commands/3 | Similar to `run_commands/2`, but also accepts an environment, used for symbolic variable evaluation during command execution.
run_parallel_commands/2 | Runs a given parallel testcase according to the state machine specified in `Mod`.
run_parallel_commands/3 | Similar to `run_parallel_commands/2`, but also accepts an environment used for symbolic variable evaluation, exactly as described in `run_commands/3`.
state_after/2 | Returns the symbolic state after running a given command sequence, according to the state machine specification found in `Mod`.
zip/2 | Behaves like `lists:zip/2`, but the input lists do no not necessarily have equal length.

## Function Details

### command_names/1

    command_names(Cmds :: command_list() | parallel_testcase()) ->
                     [mfa()]

Extracts the names of the commands from a given command sequence, in the form of MFAs. It is useful in combination with functions such as `proper:aggregate/2` in order to collect statistics about command execution.

### commands/1

    commands(Mod :: mod_name()) -> proper_types:type()

A special PropEr type which generates random command sequences, according to an abstract state machine specification. The function takes as input the name of a callback module, which contains the state machine specification. The initial state is computed by `Mod:initial_state/0`.

### commands/2

    commands(Mod :: mod_name(), InitialState :: symbolic_state()) ->
                proper_types:type()

Similar to `commands/1`, but generated command sequences always start at a given state. In this case, the first command is always `{init,InitialState}` and is used to correctly initialize the state every time the command sequence is run (i.e. during normal execution, while shrinking and when checking a counterexample). In this case, `Mod:initial_state/0` is never called.

### more_commands/2

    more_commands(N :: pos_integer(), CmdType :: proper_types:type()) ->
                     proper_types:type()

Increases the expected length of command sequences generated from `CmdType` by a factor `N`.

### parallel_commands/1

    parallel_commands(Mod :: mod_name()) -> proper_types:type()

A special PropEr type which generates parallel testcases, according to an absract state machine specification. The function takes as input the name of a callback module, which contains the state machine specification. The initial state is computed by `Mod:initial_state/0`.

### parallel_commands/2

    parallel_commands(Mod :: mod_name(),
                      InitialState :: symbolic_state()) ->
                         proper_types:type()

Similar to `parallel_commands/1`, but generated command sequences always start at a given state.

### run_commands/2

    run_commands(Mod :: mod_name(), Cmds :: command_list()) ->
                    {history(), dynamic_state(), statem_result()}

Evaluates a given symbolic command sequence `Cmds` according to the state machine specified in `Mod`. The result is a triple of the form
`{History, DynamicState, Result}`, where:

- `History` contains the execution history of all commands that were executed without raising an exception. It contains tuples of the form {`dynamic_state()`, `term()`}, specifying the state prior to command execution and the actual result of the command.
- `DynamicState` contains the state of the abstract state machine at the moment when execution stopped. In case execution has stopped due to a false postcondition, `DynamicState` corresponds to the state prior to execution of the last command.
- `Result` specifies the outcome of command execution. It can be classified in one of the following categories:
  - ok

    All commands were successfully run and all postconditions were true.

  - initialization error

    There was an error while evaluating the initial state.

  - postcondition error

    A postcondition was false or raised an exception.

  - precondition error

    A precondition was false or raised an exception.

  - exception

    An exception was raised while running a command.

### run_commands/3

    run_commands(Mod :: mod_name(),
                 Cmds :: command_list(),
                 Env :: proper_symb:var_values()) ->
                    {history(), dynamic_state(), statem_result()}

Similar to `run_commands/2`, but also accepts an environment, used for symbolic variable evaluation during command execution. The environment consists of `{Key::atom(), Value::term()}` pairs. Keys may be used in symbolic variables (i.e. `{var,Key}`) whithin the command sequence `Cmds`. These symbolic variables will be replaced by their corresponding `Value` during command execution.

### run_parallel_commands/2

    run_parallel_commands(Mod :: mod_name(),
                          Testcase :: parallel_testcase()) ->
                             {history(),
                              [parallel_history()],
                              statem_result()}

Runs a given parallel testcase according to the state machine specified in `Mod`. The result is a triple of the form
`{Sequential_history, Parallel_history, Result}`, where:

- `Sequential_history` contains the execution history of the sequential component.
- `Parallel_history` contains the execution history of each of the concurrent tasks.
- `Result` specifies the outcome of the attemp to serialize command execution, based on the results observed. It can be one of the following:
  - `ok`
  - `no_possible_interleaving`

### run_parallel_commands/3

    run_parallel_commands(Mod :: mod_name(),
                          X2 :: parallel_testcase(),
                          Env :: proper_symb:var_values()) ->
                             {history(),
                              [parallel_history()],
                              statem_result()}

Similar to `run_parallel_commands/2`, but also accepts an environment used for symbolic variable evaluation, exactly as described in `run_commands/3`.

### state_after/2

    state_after(Mod :: mod_name(), Cmds :: command_list()) ->
                   symbolic_state()

Returns the symbolic state after running a given command sequence, according to the state machine specification found in `Mod`. The commands are not actually executed.

### zip/2

    zip(X :: [A], Y :: [B]) -> [{A, B}]

Behaves like `lists:zip/2`, but the input lists do no not necessarily have equal length. Zipping stops when the shortest list stops. This is useful for zipping a command sequence with its (failing) execution history.

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