English

SAT-Based Termination Analysis Using Monotonicity Constraints over the Integers

Logic in Computer Science 2011-08-01 v1

Abstract

We describe an algorithm for proving termination of programs abstracted to systems of monotonicity constraints in the integer domain. Monotonicity constraints are a non-trivial extension of the well-known size-change termination method. While deciding termination for systems of monotonicity constraints is PSPACE complete, we focus on a well-defined and significant subset, which we call MCNP, designed to be amenable to a SAT-based solution. Our technique is based on the search for a special type of ranking function defined in terms of bounded differences between multisets of integer values. We describe the application of our approach as the back-end for the termination analysis of Java Bytecode (JBC). At the front-end, systems of monotonicity constraints are obtained by abstracting information, using two different termination analyzers: AProVE and COSTA. Preliminary results reveal that our approach provides a good trade-off between precision and cost of analysis.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1107.5980,
  title  = {SAT-Based Termination Analysis Using Monotonicity Constraints over the Integers},
  author = {Michael Codish and Igor Gonopolskiy and Amir M. Ben-Amram and Carsten Fuhs and Jürgen Giesl},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1107.5980},
  year   = {2011}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-21T18:43:59.501Z