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JKelloy: A Proof Assistant for Relational Specifications of Java Programs

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NASA Formal Methods (NFM 2014)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNPSE,volume 8430))

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Abstract

Alloy is a relational specification language with a built-in transitive closure operator which makes it particularly suitable for writing concise specifications of linked data structures. Several tools support Alloy specifications for Java programs. However, they can only check the validity of those specifications with respect to a bounded domain, and thus, in general, cannot provide correctness proofs. This paper presents JKelloy, a tool for deductive verification of Java programs with Alloy specifications. It includes automatically-generated coupling axioms that bridge between specifications and Java states, and two sets of calculus rules that (1) generate verification conditions in relational logic and (2) simplify reasoning about them. All rules have been proved correct. To increase automation capabilities, proof strategies are introduced that control the application of those rules. Our experiments on linked lists and binary graphs show the feasibility of the approach.

This work has been partially supported by GIF (grant No. 1131-9.6/2011).

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El Ghazi, A.A., Ulbrich, M., Gladisch, C., Tyszberowicz, S., Taghdiri, M. (2014). JKelloy: A Proof Assistant for Relational Specifications of Java Programs. In: Badger, J.M., Rozier, K.Y. (eds) NASA Formal Methods. NFM 2014. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 8430. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-06200-6_13

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-06200-6_13

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-06199-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-06200-6

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