This book provides a high-level description, together with a mathematical and an experimental analysis, of Java and of the Java Virtual Machine (JVM), including a standard compiler of Java programs to JVM code and the security critical bytecode verifier component of the JVM. The description is structured into language layers and machine components. It comes with a natural executable refinement which can be used for testing code. The method developed for this purpose is based on Abstract State Machines (ASMs) and can be applied to other virtual machines and to other programming languages as well. The book is written for advanced students and for professionals and practitioners in research and development who need for their work a complete and transparent definition and an executable model of the language and of the virtual machine underlying its intended implementation.

Klappentext

The origin of this book goes back to the Dagstuhl seminar on Logic for System Engineering, organized during the first week of March 1997 by S. Jiihnichen, J. Loeckx, and M. Wirsing. During that seminar, after Egon Borger's talk on How to Use Abstract State Machines in Software Engineering, Wolfram Schulte, at the time a research assistant at the University of Ulm, Germany, questioned whether ASMs provide anything special as a scientifically well founded and rigorous yet simple and industrially viable framework for high level design and analysis of complex systems, and for natural refinements of models to executable code. Wolfram Schulte argued, referring to his work with K. Achatz on A Formal Object-Oriented Method Inspired by Fusion and Object-Z [1], that with current techniques of functional programming and of axiomatic specification, one can achieve the same result. An intensive and long debate arose from this discussion. At the end of the week, it led Egon Borger to propose a collaboration on a real-life specification project of Wolfram Schulte's choice, as a comparative field test of purely functional declarative methods and of their enhancement within an integrated abstract state-based operational (ASM) approach. After some hesitation, in May 1997 Wolfram Schulte accepted the offer and chose as the theme a high-level specification of Java and of the Java Virtual Machine.

Inhalt

Introduction.- 1.1 The goals of the book.- 1.2 The contents of the book.- 1.3 Decomposing Java and the JVM.- 1.4 Sources and literature.- 2. Abstract State Machines.- 2.1 ASMs in a nutshell.- 2.2 Mathematical definition of ASMs.- 2.3 Notational conventions.- I. Java.- 3. The imperative core JavaI of Java.- 3.1 Static semantics of JavaI.- 3.2 Transition rules for JavaI.- 4. The procedural extension JavaC of JavaI.- 4.1 Static semantics of JavaC.- 4.2 Transition rules for JavaC.- 5. The object-oriented extension $${\text{Jav}}{{\text{a}}\mathcal{O}}$$ of JavaC.- 5.1 Static semantics of $${\text{Jav}}{{\text{a}}\mathcal{O}}$$.- 5.2 Transition rules for $${\text{Jav}}{{\text{a}}\mathcal{O}}$$.- 6. The exception-handling extension Java? of $${\text{Jav}}{{\text{a}}\mathcal{O}}$$.- 6.1 Static semantics of Java?.- 6.2 Transition rules for Java?.- 7. The concurrent extension JavaT of Java?.- 7.1 Static semantics of JavaT.- 7.2 Transition rules for JavaT.- 7.3 Thread invariants.- 8. Java is type safe.- 8.1 Structural properties of Java runs.- 8.2 Unreachable statements.- 8.3 Rules of definite assignment.- 8.4 Java is type safe.- II. Compilation of Java: The Trustful JVM.- 9. The JVMI submachine.- 9.1 Dynamic semantics of the JVMI.- 9.2 Compilation of JavaI.- 10. The procedural extension JVMC of JVMI.- 10.1 Dynamic semantics of the JVMC.- 10.2 Compilation of JavaC.- 11. The object-oriented extension $${\text{JV}}{{\text{M}}\mathcal{O}}$$ of JVMC.- 11.1 Dynamic semantics of the $${\text{JV}}{{\text{M}}\mathcal{O}}$$.- 11.2 Compilation of $${\text{Jav}}{{\text{a}}\mathcal{O}}$$.- 12. The exception-handling extension JVM? of $${\text{JV}}{{\text{M}}\mathcal{O}}$$.- 12.1 Dynamic semantics of the JVM?.- 12.2 Compilation of Java?.- 13. Executing the JVMN.- 14. Correctness of the compiler.- 14.1 The correctness statement.- 14.2 The correctness proof.- III. Bytecode Verification: The Secure JVM.- 15. The defensive virtual machine.- 15.1 Construction of the defensive JVM.- 15.2 Checking JVMI.- 15.3 Checking JVMC.- 15.4 Checking $${\text{JV}}{{\text{M}}\mathcal{O}}$$.- 15.5 Checking JVM?.- 15.6 Checking JVMN.- 15.7 Checks are monotonic.- 16. Bytecode type assignments.- 16.1 Problems of bytecode verification.- 16.2 Successors of bytecode instructions.- 16.3 Type assignments without subroutine call stacks.- 16.4 Soundness of bytecode type assignments.- 16.5 Certifying compilation.- 17. The diligent virtual machine.- 17.1 Principal bytecode type assignments.- 17.2 Verifying JVMI.- 17.3 Verifying JVMC.- 17.4 Verifying $${\text{JV}}{{\text{M}}\mathcal{O}}$$.- 17.5 Verifying JVM?.- 17.6 Verifying JVMN.- 18. The dynamic virtual machine.- 18.1 Initiating and defining loaders.- 18.2 Loading classes.- 18.3 Dynamic semantics of the JVMD.- A. Executable Models.- A.1 Overview.- A.2 Java.- A.3 Compiler.- A.4 Java Virtual Machine.- B. Java.- B.1 Rules.- B.2 Arrays.- C. JVM.- C.1 Trustful execution.- C.2 Defensive execution.- C.3 Diligent execution.- C.4 Check functions.- C.5 Successor functions.- C.6 Constraints.- C.7 Arrays.- C.8 Abstract versus real instructions.- D. Compiler.- D.1 Compilation functions.- D.2 maxOpd.- D.3 Arrays.- References.- List of Figures.- List of Tables.