Abstract
Highly available software systems occasionally need to be updated while avoiding downtime. Dynamic software updates reduce downtime, but still require the system to reach a quiescent state in which a global update can be performed. This can be difficult for multi-threaded systems. We present a novel approach to dynamic updates using first-class contexts, called Theseus. First-class contexts make global updates unnecessary: existing threads run to termination in an old context, while new threads start in a new, updated context; consistency between contexts is ensured with the help of bidirectional transformations. We show how first-class contexts offer a practical and flexible approach to incremental dynamic updates, with acceptable overhead.
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Wernli, E., Lungu, M., Nierstrasz, O. (2012). Incremental Dynamic Updates with First-Class Contexts. In: Furia, C.A., Nanz, S. (eds) Objects, Models, Components, Patterns. TOOLS 2012. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 7304. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-30561-0_21
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-30561-0_21
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