Nominal Game Semantics.

Tutorial notes presenting nominal game semantic

Game Semantics for Interface Middleweight Java

We consider an object calculus in which open terms interact with the environment through interfaces. The calculus is intended to capture the essence of contextual interactions of Middleweight Java code. Using game semantics, we provide fully abstract models for the induced notions of contextual approximation and equivalence. These are the first denotational models of this kind

Symbolic Execution Game Semantics

41 pages, 5 figuresWe present a framework for symbolically executing and model checking higher-order programs with external (open) methods. We focus on the client-library paradigm and in particular we aim to check libraries with respect to any definable client. We combine traditional symbolic execution techniques with operational game semantics to build a symbolic execution semantics that captures arbitrary external behaviour. We prove the symbolic semantics to be sound and complete. This yields a bounded technique by imposing bounds on the depth of recursion and callbacks. We provide an implementation of our technique in the K framework and showcase its performance on a custom benchmark based on higher-order coding errors such as reentrancy bugs

From Bounded Checking to Verification of Equivalence via Symbolic Up-to Techniques

We present a bounded equivalence verification technique for higher-order programs with local state. This technique combines fully abstract symbolic environmental bisimulations similar to symbolic game semantics, novel up-to techniques, and lightweight state invariant annotations. This yields an equivalence verification technique with no false positives or negatives. The technique is bounded-complete, in that all inequivalences are automatically detected given large enough bounds. Moreover, several hard equivalences are proved automatically or after being annotated with state invariants. We realise the technique in a tool prototype called Hobbit and benchmark it with an extensive set of new and existing examples. Hobbit can prove many classical equivalences including all Meyer and Sieber examples

Trace Properties from Separation Logic Specifications

We propose a formal approach for relating abstract separation logic library specifications with the trace properties they enforce on interactions between a client and a library. Separation logic with abstract predicates enforces a resource discipline that constrains when and how calls may be made between a client and a library. Intuitively, this can enforce a protocol on the interaction trace. This intuition is broadly used in the separation logic community but has not previously been formalised. We provide just such a formalisation. Our approach is based on using wrappers which instrument library code to induce execution traces for the properties under examination. By considering a separation logic extended with trace resources, we prove that when a library satisfies its separation logic specification then its wrapped version satisfies the same specification and, moreover, maintains the trace properties as an invariant. Consequently, any client and library implementation that are correct with respect to the separation logic specification will satisfy the trace properties

Bisimilarity in Fresh-Register Automata

Research supported by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EP/J019577/1) and the Royal Academy of Engineering (RF: Tzevelekos)