Static analysis for safe software upgrade

Having applications accessible without downtime is no longer an exclusive requirement of mission-critical applications or traditional domains like communications. Running applications also require changes in the source code and upgrading live systems. Different approaches exist depending on the used technology. Systems implemented in Erlang can take the advantage of the underlying BEAM virtual machine and can be upgraded easily. However, source code has to be developed carefully once an upgrade is needed to not introduce run-time errors during the upgrade. We are developing a method to statically check the source code of Erlang applications for constructs that may lead to upgrading issues.