Trail-directed model checking

HSF-SPIN is a Promela model checker based on heuristic search strategies. It utilizes heuristic estimates in order to direct the search for finding software bugs in concurrent systems. As a consequence, HSF-SPIN is able to find shorter trails than blind depth-first search. This paper contributes an extension to the paradigm of directed model checking to shorten already established unacceptable long error trails. This approach has been implemented in HSF-SPIN. For selected benchmark and industrial communication protocols experimental evidence is given that trail-directed model-checking effectively shortcuts existing witness paths