Automatic Verification Of TLA+ Proof Obligations With SMT Solvers

International audienceTLA+ is a formal specification language that is based on ZF set theory and the Temporal Logic of Actions TLA. The TLA+ proof system TLAPS assists users in deductively verifying safety properties of TLA+ specifications. TLAPS is built around a proof manager, which interprets the TLA+ proof language, generates corresponding proof obligations, and passes them to backend verifiers. In this paper we present a new backend for use with SMT solvers that supports elementary set theory, functions, arithmetic, tuples, and records. Type information required by the solvers is provided by a typing discipline for TLA+ proof obligations, which helps us disambiguate the translation of expressions of (untyped) TLA+, while ensuring its soundness. Preliminary results show that the backend can help to significantly increase the degree of automation of certain interactive proofs

Encoding TLA+ set theory into many-sorted first-order logic

We present an encoding of Zermelo-Fraenkel set theory into many-sorted first-order logic, the input language of state-of-the-art SMT solvers. This translation is the main component of a back-end prover based on SMT solvers in the TLA+ Proof System

Verifying Safety Properties With the TLA+ Proof System

TLAPS, the TLA+ proof system, is a platform for the development and mechanical verification of TLA+ proofs written in a declarative style requiring little background beyond elementary mathematics. The language supports hierarchical and non-linear proof construction and verification, and it is independent of any verification tool or strategy. A Proof Manager uses backend verifiers such as theorem provers, proof assistants, SMT solvers, and decision procedures to check TLA+ proofs. This paper documents the first public release of TLAPS, distributed with a BSD-like license. It handles almost all the non-temporal part of TLA+ as well as the temporal reasoning needed to prove standard safety properties, in particular invariance and step simulation, but not liveness properties

TLA+ Proofs

TLA+ is a specification language based on standard set theory and temporal logic that has constructs for hierarchical proofs. We describe how to write TLA+ proofs and check them with TLAPS, the TLA+ Proof System. We use Peterson's mutual exclusion algorithm as a simple example to describe the features of TLAPS and show how it and the Toolbox (an IDE for TLA+) help users to manage large, complex proofs.Comment: A shorter version of this article appeared in the proceedings of the conference Formal Methods 2012 (FM 2012, Paris, France, Springer LNCS 7436, pp. 147-154

BEval: A Plug-in to Extend Atelier B with Current Verification Technologies

This paper presents BEval, an extension of Atelier B to improve automation in the verification activities in the B method or Event-B. It combines a tool for managing and verifying software projects (Atelier B) and a model checker/animator (ProB) so that the verification conditions generated in the former are evaluated with the latter. In our experiments, the two main verification strategies (manual and automatic) showed significant improvement as ProB's evaluator proves complementary to Atelier B built-in provers. We conducted experiments with the B model of a micro-controller instruction set; several verification conditions, that we were not able to discharge automatically or manually with AtelierB's provers, were automatically verified using BEval.Comment: In Proceedings LAFM 2013, arXiv:1401.056

Harnessing SMT Solvers for TLA+ Proofs

International audienceTLA+ is a language based on Zermelo-Fraenkel set theory and linear temporal logic designed for specifying and verifying concurrent and distributed algorithms and systems. The TLA+ proof system TLAPS allows users to interactively verify safety properties of these systems. At the core of TLAPS, a proof manager interprets the proof language, generates corresponding proof obligations and passes them to backend provers. We recently developed a backend that relies on a typing discipline to encode (untyped) TLA+ formulas into multi-sorted first-order logic for SMT solvers. In this paper we present a different encoding of TLA+ formulas that does not require explicit type inference for TLA+ expressions. We also present a number of techniques based on rewriting in order to simplify the resulting formulas

Towards certification of TLA+ proof obligations with SMT solvers

International audienceTLA+ is a formal specification language that is based on Zermelo-Fränkel set theory and the Temporal Logic of Actions TLA. The TLA+ proof system TLAPS assists users in deductively verifying safety properties of TLA+ specifications. TLAPS is built around a proof manager, which interprets the TLA+ proof language, generates corresponding proof obligations, and passes them to backend verifiers. In this paper we present a new backend for use with SMT solvers that supports elementary set theory, functions, arithmetic, tuples, and records. We introduce a typing discipline for TLA+ proof obligations, which helps us to disambiguate the translation of expressions of (untyped) TLA+, while ensuring its soundness. Our work is a first step towards the certification of proofs generated by proof-producing SMT solvers in Isabelle/TLA+, which is intended to be the only trusted component of TLAPS

Extending ACL2 with SMT Solvers

We present our extension of ACL2 with Satisfiability Modulo Theories (SMT) solvers using ACL2's trusted clause processor mechanism. We are particularly interested in the verification of physical systems including Analog and Mixed-Signal (AMS) designs. ACL2 offers strong induction abilities for reasoning about sequences and SMT complements deduction methods like ACL2 with fast nonlinear arithmetic solving procedures. While SAT solvers have been integrated into ACL2 in previous work, SMT methods raise new issues because of their support for a broader range of domains including real numbers and uninterpreted functions. This paper presents Smtlink, our clause processor for integrating SMT solvers into ACL2. We describe key design and implementation issues and describe our experience with its use.Comment: In Proceedings ACL2 2015, arXiv:1509.0552

Encoding TLA+ into unsorted and many-sorted first-order logic

International audienceTLA+ is a specification language designed for the verification of concurrent and distributed algorithms and systems. We present an encoding of a non-temporal fragment of TLA+ into (unsorted) first-order logic and many-sorted first-order logic, the input languages of first-order automated theorem provers. The non-temporal subset of TLA+ is based on untyped set theory and includes functions, arithmetic expressions, and Hilbert's choice operator. The translation, based on encoding techniques such as boolification, injection of unsorted expressions into sorted languages, term rewriting, and abstraction, is the core component of a back-end prover based on first-order theorem provers and SMT solvers for the TLA+ Proof System