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Many transformation techniques developed for constraint logic programs, also known as constrained Horn clauses (CHCs), have found new useful applications in the field of program verification. In this paper, we work out a nontrivial case…
It is known that the verification of imperative, functional, and logic programs can be reduced to the satisfiability of constrained Horn clauses (CHCs), and this satisfiability check can be performed by using CHC solvers, such as Eldarica…
We address the problem of verifying the satisfiability of Constrained Horn Clauses (CHCs) based on theories of inductively defined data structures, such as lists and trees. We propose a transformation technique whose objective is the…
Programs that manipulate tree-shaped data structures often require complex, specialized proofs that are difficult to generalize and automate. This paper introduces a unified, foundational approach to verifying such programs. Central to our…
Verifying programs that manipulate tree data structures often requires complex, ad-hoc proofs that are hard to generalize and automate. This paper introduces an automatic technique for analyzing such programs. Our approach combines automata…
We address the problem of checking the satisfiability of a set of constrained Horn clauses (CHCs) possibly including more than one query. We propose a transformation technique that takes as input a set of CHCs, including a set of queries,…
We present a method for verifying the correctness of imperative programs which is based on the automated transformation of their specifications. Given a program prog, we consider a partial correctness specification of the form $\{\varphi\}$…
Several techniques and tools have been developed for verification of properties expressed as Horn clauses with constraints over a background theory (CHC). Current CHC verification tools implement intricate algorithms and are often limited…
We consider approximating data structures with collections of the items that they contain. For examples, lists, binary trees, tuples, etc, can be approximated by sets or multisets of the items within them. Such approximations can be used to…
This paper surveys recent work on applying analysis and transformation techniques that originate in the field of constraint logic programming (CLP) to the problem of verifying software systems. We present specialisation-based techniques for…
Verification problems of programs written in various paradigms (such as imperative, logic, concurrent, functional, and object-oriented ones) can be reduced to problems of solving Horn clause constraints on predicate variables that represent…
Catamorphisms are functions that are recursively defined on list and trees and, in general, on Algebraic Data Types (ADTs), and are often used to compute suitable abstractions of programs that manipulate ADTs. Examples of catamorphisms…
We present a method for automatic inference of conditions on the initial states of a program that guarantee that the safety assertions in the program are not violated. Constrained Horn clauses (CHCs) are used to model the program and…
We address the problem of verifying that the functions of a program meet their contracts, specified by pre/postconditions. We follow an approach based on constrained Horn clauses (CHCs) by which the verification problem is reduced to the…
The functional properties of a program are often specified by providing a contract for each of its functions. A contract of a function consists of a pair of formulas, called a precondition and a postcondition, which, respectively, should…
We address the problem of checking the satisfiability of Constrained Horn Clauses (CHCs) defined on Algebraic Data Types (ADTs), such as lists and trees. We propose a new technique for transforming CHCs defined on ADTs into CHCs where the…
Motivated by applications in automated verification of higher-order functional programs, we develop a notion of constrained Horn clauses in higher-order logic and a decision problem concerning their satisfiability. We show that, although…
It is well-known that the verification of partial correctness properties of imperative programs can be reduced to the satisfiability problem for constrained Horn clauses (CHCs). However, state-of-the-art solvers for CHCs (CHC solvers) based…
In this paper we show that checking satisfiability of a set of non-linear Horn clauses (also called a non-linear Horn clause program) can be achieved using a solver for linear Horn clauses. We achieve this by interleaving a program…
Verification conditions (VCs) are logical formulas whose satisfiability guarantees program correctness. We consider VCs in the form of constrained Horn clauses (CHC) which are automatically generated from the encoding of (an interpreter of)…