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Crowfoot: A Verifier for Higher-Order Store Programs

  • Conference paper
Verification, Model Checking, and Abstract Interpretation (VMCAI 2012)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNTCS,volume 7148))

Abstract

We present Crowfoot, an automatic verification tool for imperative programs that manipulate procedures dynamically at runtime; these programs use a heap that can store not only data but also code (commands or procedures). Such heaps are often called higher-order store, and allow for instance the creation of new recursions on the fly. One can use higher-order store to model phenomena such as runtime loading and unloading of code, runtime update of code and runtime code generation. Crowfoot’s assertion language, based on separation logic, features nested Hoare triples which describe the behaviour of procedures stored on the heap. The tool addresses complex issues like deep frame rules and recursion through the store, and is the first verification tool based on recent developments in the mathematical foundations of Hoare logics with nested triples.

We acknowledge the support of EPSRC grant “From Reasoning Principles for Function Pointers To Logics for Self-Configuring Programs” (EP/G003173/1).

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Informatics, University of Sussex, UK

    Nathaniel Charlton, Ben Horsfall & Bernhard Reus

Authors
  1. Nathaniel Charlton
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  2. Ben Horsfall
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  3. Bernhard Reus
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL), IC IIF LARA INR 318, Station 14, 1015, Lausanne, Switzerland

    Viktor Kuncak

  2. Institut für Informatik, Technische Universität München, Boltzmannstr. 3, 85748, Munich, Germany

    Andrey Rybalchenko

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© 2012 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Charlton, N., Horsfall, B., Reus, B. (2012). Crowfoot: A Verifier for Higher-Order Store Programs. In: Kuncak, V., Rybalchenko, A. (eds) Verification, Model Checking, and Abstract Interpretation. VMCAI 2012. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 7148. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27940-9_10

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27940-9_10

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-27939-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-27940-9

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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