Jaca: A reflective fault injection tool based on patterns

Eliane Martins, Cecilia M.F. Rubira , Nelson G.M.Leme 
Institute of Computing - State University of Campinas (UNICAMP)
PO Box 6176 - Campinas  - SP  - Brazil
Email: {eliane, cmrubira, nelsongm}@ic.unicamp.br

Abstract

   Jaca  is  a  software  fault  injection  tool  that validates OO 
applications written in Java. Jaca's major goal is to inject faults 
using  high-level programming features during runtime by corrupting 
attribute  values,  methods  parameters  or  return values.  Jaca's 
design was based on a set of patterns - the Fault Injection Pattern 
System.  This pattern describes a generic architecture defined from 
recurrent design aspects present in most fault injection tools. The 
objective  was  to  reduce  tool  development  time while enhancing 
qualities   such   as  portability,   extensibility,   reusability, 
efficiency and robustness.   The paper presents the pattern set and 
its  use  in  Jaca's development.  An extension of Jaca to consider 
injection  at  assembly level is also presented to show how easy it 
is to add new features to the tool.

Keywords: 
software fault injection - fault model -  reflective programming - 
         design patterns