Structured specifications for better verification of heap-manipulating programs

Abstract. Conventional specifications typically have a flat structure that is based primarily on the underlying logic. Such specifications lack structures that could have provided better guidance to the verification process. In this work, we propose to add three new structures to a specification framework for separation logic to achieve a more precise and better guided verification for pointer-based programs. The newly introduced structures empower users with more control over the verification process in the following ways: (i) case analysis can be invoked to take advantage of disjointness conditions in the logic. (ii) early, as opposed to late, instantiation can minimise on the use of existential quantification. (iii) formulae that are staged provide better reuse of the verification process. Initial experiments have shown that structured specifications can lead to more precise verification without incurring any performance overhead.

Multiple Pre/Post Specifications for Heap-Manipulating Methods

Automated verification plays an important role for high assurance software. This typically uses a pair of pre/post conditions as a formal (but possibly partial) specification of each method before it is systematically verified. In this paper, we advocate for multiple pairs of pre/post conditions to be associated with each method which provides a way for such specification to be used in more scenarios. Multiple pre/post specifications are important for heap-manipulating programs where they can be precisely expressed using separation logic. This work highlights the importance of multiple pre/post specifications, and a methodology to capture them via set of states during proof search