Resource Usage Analysis for the Pi-Calculus

Abstract

We propose a type-based resource usage analysis for the π-calculus extended with resource creation/access primitives. The goal of the resource usage analysis is to statically check that a program accesses resources such as files and memory in a valid manner. Our type system is an extension of previous behavioral type systems for the π-calculus, and can guarantee the safety property that no invalid access is performed, as well as the property that necessary accesses (such as the close operation for a file) are eventually performed unless the program diverges. A sound type inference algorithm for the type system is also developed to free the programmer from the burden of writing complex type annotations. Based on the algorithm, we have implemented a prototype resource usage analyzer for the π-calculus. To the authors' knowledge, ours is the first type-based resource usage analysis that deals with an expressive concurrent language like the pi-calculus.