Comparing Source Sets and Persistent Sets for Partial Order Reduction

Abstract

Partial order reduction has traditionally been based on persistent sets, ample sets, stubborn sets, or variants thereof. Recently, we have presented a strengthening of this foundation, using source sets instead of persistent/ample/stubborn sets. Source sets subsume persistent sets and are often smaller than persistent sets. We introduced source sets as a basis for Dynamic Partial Order Reduction (DPOR), in a framework which assumes that processes are deterministic and that all program executions are finite. In this paper, show how to use source sets for partial order reduction in a framework which does not impose these restrictions. We also compare source sets with persistent sets, providing some insights into conditions under which source sets and persistent sets do or do not differ.