Publication Details

Proving Termination of Tree Manipulating Programs

HABERMEHL, P.; IOSIF, R.; ROGALEWICZ, A.; VOJNAR, T. Proving Termination of Tree Manipulating Programs. In Automated Technology for Verification and Analysis. LNCS 4762. Berlin: Springer Verlag, 2007. p. 145-161. ISBN: 978-3-540-75595-1.
Czech title
Dokazování konečnosti běhu programů manipulujících stromové struktury
Type
conference paper
Language
English
Authors
Habermehl Peter
Radu Iosif
Rogalewicz Adam, doc. Mgr., Ph.D. (DITS)
Vojnar Tomáš, prof. Ing., Ph.D. (DITS)
URL
Keywords

formal verification, program analysis, termination checking, automata theory, tree automata, counter automata

Abstract

We consider the termination problem of programs manipulating tree-like dynamic data structures. Our approach is based on an abstract-check-refine loop. We use abstract regular tree model-checking to infer invariants of the program. Then, we translate the program to a counter automaton  which simulates it. If the counter automaton can be shown to terminate using existing techniques, the program terminates. If not, we analyze the possible counterexample given by a counter automata termination checker and either conclude that the program does not terminate, or else refine the abstraction  and repeat. We show that the spuriousness problem for lasso-shaped counterexamples is decidable in some non-trivial cases. We applied the method successfully on several interesting case studies.

Published
2007
Pages
145–161
Proceedings
Automated Technology for Verification and Analysis
Series
LNCS 4762
ISBN
978-3-540-75595-1
Publisher
Springer Verlag
Place
Berlin
BibTeX 
@inproceedings{BUT30895,
  author="Peter {Habermehl} and Iosif {Radu} and Adam {Rogalewicz} and Tomáš {Vojnar}",
  title="Proving Termination of Tree Manipulating Programs",
  booktitle="Automated Technology for Verification and Analysis",
  year="2007",
  series="LNCS 4762",
  pages="145--161",
  publisher="Springer Verlag",
  address="Berlin",
  isbn="978-3-540-75595-1"
}
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