tlaplus / tlaplus/CommunityModules

VectorClock!CausalOrder does not tolerate message loss

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enhancement
Dominant language
TLA
Stars
315
Forks
48
Avg merge
13h 27m
Merged PRs (30d)
2

Description

Error: TLC threw an unexpected exception.
This was probably caused by an error in the spec or model.
See the User Output or TLC Console for clues to what happened.
The exception was a java.lang.RuntimeException
: Attempted to apply the operator overridden by the Java method
public static tlc2.value.impl.Value tlc2.overrides.VectorClocks.causalOrder(tlc2.value.impl.TupleValue,tlc2.value.impl.OpValue,tlc2.value.impl.OpValue,tlc2.value.impl.OpValue),
but it produced the following error:
Index: 16, Size: 16

Support message loss, i.e., gaps in the otherwise monotonically increasing vector clock values.

https://github.com/tlaplus/CommunityModules/blob/3fb30f52426b45cda44541b906ad9ebe16ce07c4/modules/VectorClocks.tla#L27-L56

https://github.com/tlaplus/CommunityModules/blob/3fb30f52426b45cda44541b906ad9ebe16ce07c4/modules/tlc2/overrides/VectorClocks.java#L100-L181

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First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start with modules/VectorClocks.tla lines 27-56 and the Java override in modules/tlc2/overrides/VectorClocks.java lines 100-181. Reproduce the TLC failure with message loss and trace how causalOrder handles gaps in vector-clock values. Done means the model tolerates lost messages without the reported Index: 16, Size: 16 exception.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
java
Domain
tooling
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
3/5
Estimated time
1-2 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
42/100

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