Disproving termination with overapproximation

When disproving termination using known techniques (e.g. recurrence sets), abstractions that overapproximate the program’s transition relation are unsound. In this paper we introduce live abstractions, a natural class of abstractions that can be combined with the recent concept of closed recurrence sets to soundly disprove termination. To demonstrate the practical usefulness of this new approach we show how programs with nonlinear, nondeterministic, and heap-based commands can be shown nonterminating using linear overapproximations

Finite Model Finding for Parameterized Verification

In this paper we investigate to which extent a very simple and natural "reachability as deducibility" approach, originated in the research in formal methods in security, is applicable to the automated verification of large classes of infinite state and parameterized systems. The approach is based on modeling the reachability between (parameterized) states as deducibility between suitable encodings of states by formulas of first-order predicate logic. The verification of a safety property is reduced to a pure logical problem of finding a countermodel for a first-order formula. The later task is delegated then to the generic automated finite model building procedures. In this paper we first establish the relative completeness of the finite countermodel finding method (FCM) for a class of parameterized linear arrays of finite automata. The method is shown to be at least as powerful as known methods based on monotonic abstraction and symbolic backward reachability. Further, we extend the relative completeness of the approach and show that it can solve all safety verification problems which can be solved by the traditional regular model checking.Comment: 17 pages, slightly different version of the paper is submitted to TACAS 201

Methods for Proving Non-termination of Programs

The search for reliable and scalable automated methods for finding counterexamples to termination or alternatively proving non-termination is still widely open. The thesis studies the problem of proving non-termination of programs and presents new methods for the same. It also provides a thorough comparison of new methods along with the previous methods. In the first method, we show how the problem of non-termination proving can be reduced to a question of underapproximation search guided by a safety prover. This reduction leads to new non-termination proving implementation strategies based on existing tools for safety proving. Furthermore, our approach leads to easy support for programs with unbounded non-determinism. In the second method, we show how Max-SMT-based invariant generation can be exploited for proving non-termination of programs. The construction of the proof of non-termination is guided by the generation of quasi-invariants - properties such that if they hold at a location during execution once, then they will continue to hold at that location from then onwards. The check that quasi-invariants can indeed be reached is then performed separately. Our technique produces more generic witnesses of non-termination than existing methods. Moreover, it can handle programs with unbounded non-determinism and is more likely to converge than previous approaches. When proving non-termination using known techniques, abstractions that overapproximate the program's transition relation are unsound. In the third method, we introduce live abstractions, a natural class of abstractions that can be combined with the concept of closed recurrence sets to soundly prove non-termination. To demonstrate the practical usefulness of this new approach we show how programs with non-linear, non-deterministic, and heap-based commands can be shown non-terminating using linear overapproximations. All three methods introduced in this thesis have been implemented in different tools. We also provide experimental results which show great performance improvements over existing methods

Proving Non-Termination via Loop Acceleration

We present the first approach to prove non-termination of integer programs that is based on loop acceleration. If our technique cannot show non-termination of a loop, it tries to accelerate it instead in order to find paths to other non-terminating loops automatically. The prerequisites for our novel loop acceleration technique generalize a simple yet effective non-termination criterion. Thus, we can use the same program transformations to facilitate both non-termination proving and loop acceleration. In particular, we present a novel invariant inference technique that is tailored to our approach. An extensive evaluation of our fully automated tool LoAT shows that it is competitive with the state of the art

Automatically Proving and Disproving Feasibility Conditions

[EN] In the realm of term rewriting, given terms s and t, a reachability condition s>>t is called feasible if there is a substitution O such that O(s) rewrites into O(t) in zero or more steps; otherwise, it is called infeasible. Checking infeasibility of (sequences of) reachability conditions is important in the analysis of computational properties of rewrite systems like confluence or (operational) termination. In this paper, we generalize this notion of feasibility to arbitrary n-ary relations on terms defined by first-order theories. In this way, properties of computational systems whose operational semantics can be given as a first-order theory can be investigated. We introduce a framework for proving feasibility/infeasibility, and a new tool, infChecker, which implements it.Supported by EU (FEDER), and projects RTI2018-094403-B-C32, PROMETEO/2019/098, and SP20180225. Also by INCIBE program "Ayudas para la excelencia de los equipos de investigación avanzada en ciberseguridad" (Raul Gutiérrez).Gutiérrez Gil, R.; Lucas Alba, S. (2020). Automatically Proving and Disproving Feasibility Conditions. Springer Nature. 416-435. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-51054-1_27S416435Andrianarivelo, N., Réty, P.: Over-approximating terms reachable by context-sensitive rewriting. In: Bojańczyk, M., Lasota, S., Potapov, I. (eds.) RP 2015. LNCS, vol. 9328, pp. 128–139. Springer, Cham (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-24537-9_12Dershowitz, N.: Termination of rewriting. J. Symb. Comput. 3(1/2), 69–116 (1987). https://doi.org/10.1016/S0747-7171(87)80022-6Giesl, J., Thiemann, R., Schneider-Kamp, P., Falke, S.: Mechanizing and improving dependency pairs. J. Autom. Reasoning 37(3), 155–203 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10817-006-9057-7Goguen, J.A., Meseguer, J.: Models and equality for logical programming. In: Ehrig, H., Kowalski, R., Levi, G., Montanari, U. (eds.) TAPSOFT 1987. LNCS, vol. 250, pp. 1–22. Springer, Heidelberg (1987). https://doi.org/10.1007/BFb0014969Gutiérrez, R., Lucas, S.: Automatic generation of logical models with AGES. In: Fontaine, P. (ed.) CADE 2019. LNCS (LNAI), vol. 11716, pp. 287–299. Springer, Cham (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-29436-6_17Kojima, Y., Sakai, M.: Innermost reachability and context sensitive reachability properties are decidable for linear right-shallow term rewriting systems. In: Voronkov, A. (ed.) RTA 2008. LNCS, vol. 5117, pp. 187–201. Springer, Heidelberg (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-70590-1_13Kojima, Y., Sakai, M., Nishida, N., Kusakari, K., Sakabe, T.: Context-sensitive innermost reachability is decidable for linear right-shallow term rewriting systems. Inf. Media Technol. 4(4), 802–814 (2009)Kojima, Y., Sakai, M., Nishida, N., Kusakari, K., Sakabe, T.: Decidability of reachability for right-shallow context-sensitive term rewriting systems. IPSJ Online Trans. 4, 192–216 (2011)Lucas, S.: Analysis of rewriting-based systems as first-order theories. In: Fioravanti, F., Gallagher, J.P. (eds.) LOPSTR 2017. LNCS, vol. 10855, pp. 180–197. Springer, Cham (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-94460-9_11Lucas, S.: Context-sensitive computations in functional and functional logic programs. J. Funct. Logic Program. 1998(1) (1998). http://danae.uni-muenster.de/lehre/kuchen/JFLP/articles/1998/A98-01/A98-01.htmlLucas, S.: Proving semantic properties as first-order satisfiability. Artif. Intell. 277 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.artint.2019.103174Lucas, S.: Using well-founded relations for proving operational termination. J. Autom. Reasoning 64(2), 167–195 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10817-019-09514-2Lucas, S., Gutiérrez, R.: Use of logical models for proving infeasibility in term rewriting. Inf. Process. 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Sci. 96, 74–106 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcss.2018.04.002Lucas, S., Meseguer, J., Gutiérrez, R.: The 2D dependency pair framework for conditional rewrite systems—Part II: advanced processors and implementation techniques. J. Autom. Reasoning (2020, in press)McCune, W.: Prover9 and Mace4. https://www.cs.unm.edu/~mccune/mace4/Meßner, F., Sternagel, C.: nonreach – a tool for nonreachability analysis. In: Vojnar, T., Zhang, L. (eds.) TACAS 2019. LNCS, vol. 11427, pp. 337–343. Springer, Cham (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-17462-0_19Middeldorp, A., Nagele, J., Shintani, K.: Confluence competition 2019. In: Beyer, D., Huisman, M., Kordon, F., Steffen, B. (eds.) TACAS 2019. LNCS, vol. 11429, pp. 25–40. Springer, Cham (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-17502-3_2Nishida, N., Maeda, Y.: Narrowing trees for syntactically deterministic conditional term rewriting systems. In: Kirchner, H. (ed.) Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Formal Structures for Computation and Deduction. FSCD 2018. Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), vol. 108, pp. 26:1–26:20. Schloss Dagstuhl-Leibniz-Zentrum fuer Informatik (2018). https://doi.org/10.4230/LIPIcs.FSCD.2018.26Ohlebusch, E.: Advanced Topics in Term Rewriting. Springer, Heidelberg (2002). http://www.springer.com/computer/swe/book/978-0-387-95250-5Prawitz, D.: Natural Deduction: A Proof-Theoretical Study. Dover, New York (2006)Sternagel, C., Sternagel, T., Middeldorp, A.: CoCo 2018 Participant: ConCon 1.5. In: Felgenhauer, B., Simonsen, J. (eds.) Proceedings of the 7th International Workshop on Confluence. IWC 2018, p. 66 (2018). http://cl-informatik.uibk.ac.at/events/iwc-2018/Sternagel, C., Yamada, A.: Reachability analysis for termination and confluence of rewriting. In: Vojnar, T., Zhang, L. (eds.) TACAS 2019. LNCS, vol. 11427, pp. 262–278. 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Guided Unfoldings for Finding Loops in Standard Term Rewriting

In this paper, we reconsider the unfolding-based technique that we have introduced previously for detecting loops in standard term rewriting. We improve it by guiding the unfolding process, using distinguished positions in the rewrite rules. This results in a depth-first computation of the unfoldings, whereas the original technique was breadth-first. We have implemented this new approach in our tool NTI and compared it to the previous one on a bunch of rewrite systems. The results we get are promising (better times, more successful proofs).Comment: Pre-proceedings paper presented at the 28th International Symposium on Logic-Based Program Synthesis and Transformation (LOPSTR 2018), Frankfurt am Main, Germany, 4-6 September 2018 (arXiv:1808.03326

Certifying Confluence of Almost Orthogonal CTRSs via Exact Tree Automata Completion

Suzuki et al. showed that properly oriented, right-stable, orthogonal, and oriented conditional term rewrite systems with extra variables in right-hand sides are confluent. We present our Isabelle/HOL formalization of this result, including two generalizations. On the one hand, we relax proper orientedness and orthogonality to extended proper orientedness and almost orthogonality modulo infeasibility, as suggested by Suzuki et al. On the other hand, we further loosen the requirements of the latter, enabling more powerful methods for proving infeasibility of conditional critical pairs. Furthermore, we formalized a construction by Jacquemard that employs exact tree automata completion for non-reachability analysis and apply it to certify infeasibility of conditional critical pairs. Combining these two results and extending the conditional confluence checker ConCon accordingly, we are able to automatically prove and certify confluence of an important class of conditional term rewrite systems

Streett Automata Model Checking of Higher-Order Recursion Schemes

We propose a practical algorithm for Streett automata model checking of higher-order recursion schemes (HORS), which checks whether the tree generated by a given HORS is accepted by a given Streett automaton. The Streett automata model checking of HORS is useful in the context of liveness verification of higher-order functional programs. The previous approach to Streett automata model checking converted Streett automata to parity automata and then invoked a parity tree automata model checker. We show through experiments that our direct approach outperforms the previous approach. Besides being able to directly deal with Streett automata, our algorithm is the first practical Streett or parity automata model checking algorithm that runs in time polynomial in the size of HORS, assuming that the other parameters are fixed. Previous practical fixed-parameter polynomial time algorithms for HORS could only deal with the class of trivial tree automata. We have confirmed through experiments that (a parity automata version of) our model checker outperforms previous parity automata model checkers for HORS