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Questions tagged [software-verification]

Questions about methods and techniques to prove correctness of programs.

128 questions
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Formal program verification in practice

As a software engineer, I write a lot of code for industrial products. Relatively complicated stuff with classes, threads, some design efforts, but also some compromises for performance. I do a lot of testing, and I am tired of testing, so I got…
Zeus
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Do theorem provers demonstrate their own correctness?

I am not very well-versed in the world of theorem proving, much less automated theorem proving, so please correct me if anything I say or assume in my question is wrong. Basically, my question is: are automated theorem provers themselves ever…
J. Auon
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Algorithm to solve Turing's "Halting problem‍​"

"Alan Turing proved in 1936 that a general algorithm to solve the halting problem for all possible program-input pairs cannot exist" Can I find a general algorithm to solve the halting problem for some possible program input pairs? Can I find a…
user11775
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4 answers

How do you check if two algorithms return the same result for any input?

How do you check if two algorithms (say, Merge sort and Naïve sort) return the same result for any input, when the set of all inputs is infinite? Update: Thank you Ben for describing how this is impossible to do algorithmically in the general case.…
Andres Riofrio
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Program Correctness, The specification

From Wikipedia: In theoretical computer science, correctness of an algorithm is asserted when it is said that the algorithm is correct with respect to a specification. But the problem is that to get the "appropriate" specification is not a trivial…
Maykel Jakson
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An example of something you can formally verify with proofs in Software Development

I have been working on understanding formal verification of software. Formal methods include things like modeling your software with Petri Nets, Automata, or State-Transition Graphs. Other techniques for formal verification include using type…
Lance Pollard
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Why aren't we researching more towards compile time guarantees?

I love all that is compile time and I love the idea that once you compile a program a lot of guarantees are made about it's execution. Generally speaking a static type system (Haskell, C++, ...) seems to give stronger compile-time guarantees than…
sh03
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How to deal with arrays during Hoare-style correctness proofs

In the discussion around this question, Gilles mentions correctly that any correctness proof of an algorithm that uses arrays has to prove that there are no out-of-bounds array accesses; depending on the runtime model, this would cause a runtime…
Raphael
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What are common formal techniques for proving functional code correct?

I want to provide proofs for parts of a Haskell program I'm writing as part of my thesis. So far however, I failed to find a good reference work. Graham Hutton's introductory book Programming in Haskell (Google Books)—which I read while learning…
FK82
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What exactly is Symbolic Model Checking?

I know that Symbolic Model Checking is state space traversal based on representations of states sets and transition relations as formulas like in CTL using models like Kripke Model. I know the theory. But I'm finding it hard to understand the actual…
Xpleria
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Introduction into first order logic verification

I am trying to teach myself different approaches to software verification. I have read some articles. As far as I learned, propositional logic with temporal generally uses model checking with SAT solvers (in ongoing - reactive systems), but what…
FELIPE N.
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Could program verification techniques prevent bugs of the genre of Heartbleed from occurring?

On the matter of the Heartbleed bug, Bruce Schneier wrote in his Crypto-Gram of 15th April: '"Catastrophic" is the right word. On the scale of 1 to 10, this is an 11.' I read several years ago that a kernel of a certain operating system has been…
Mok-Kong Shen
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Verify correctness of quantifier elimination, using SAT

Let $x=(x_1,\dots,x_n)$ and $y=(y_1,\dots,y_n)$ be $n$-vectors of boolean variables. I have a boolean predicate $Q(x,y)$ on $x,y$. I give my friend Priscilla $Q(x,y)$. In response, she gives me $P(x)$, a boolean predicate on $x$, and she claims…
D.W.
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Data Flow Analysis with exceptions

Data flow analysis work over a control flow graph. When a language under consideration supports exceptions, control flow graph can explode. What are the standard techniques for dealing with this blow-up? Can we soundly disregard edges induced by…
zpavlinovic
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Formal Verification of Functional Programs

So I've been interested in learning more about formal verification, and I've seen a lot of interesting things like ACSL and JML which are based on the concept of Hoare triples. My question is, that these seem to be a way to describe the behaviour of…
user1243488
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