Data race detection with per-thread memory protection

A system for detecting data races in a multi-threaded program comprising one or more critical sections and a plurality of shared memory objects, the system comprising:

• a computer processor supporting per-thread memory protection;
• and
• computer memory storing a plurality of software components each comprising instructions for execution by the computer processor, the software components comprising:
• a memory allocator configured to assign the plurality of shared memory objects to respective virtual memory pages each storing only one of the plurality of shared memory objects, each shared memory object being protectable by a memory protection key assigned to the respective virtual memory page;
• synchronization wrapper functions associated with the one or more critical sections to provide to a thread, upon entry of the thread into one of the one or more critical sections, for each of the plurality of shared memory objects that is accessed within the critical section, the respective memory protection key, provided that no other thread holds the memory protection key, wherein an attempt by the thread to access any of the shared memory objects without holding the respective memory protection key causes a protection fault;
• and
• a fault handler to receive and process any protection fault raised by access to one or the memory objects without the respective memory protection key.

A method for data race detection during execution of a multi-threaded program, the method comprising:

• maintaining a first set of access keys available for acquisition;
• maintaining multiple second sets of access keys held by respective ones of multiple threads, the first set of access keys and the multiple second sets of access keys collectively containing an entirety of keys, wherein an access key is removed from the first set of keys upon acquisition by any of the multiple threads and added back to the first set of keys upon release by that thread;
• maintaining one or more third sets of access keys for one or more respective critical sections of the program, each access key within one of the one or more third sets of access keys being one of the keys of the entirety of keys and being associated with a memory object to be accessed within the respective critical section;
• and
• registering a data race upon an attempt of any of the multiple threads to access a memory object whose associated access key is held by another one of the multiple threads.