CPBPV: a constraint-programming framework for bounded program verification

Abstract

International audienceThis paper studies how to verify the conformity of a program with its specification and proposes a novel constraint-programming framework for bounded program verification (CPBPV). The CPBPV framework uses constraint stores to represent both the specification and the program and explores execution paths of bounded length nondeterministically. The CPBPV framework detects nonconformities and provides counter examples when a path of bounded length that refutes some properties exists. The input program is partially correct under the boundness restrictions, if each constraint store so produced implies the postcondition. CPBPV does not explore spurious execution paths, as it incrementally prunes execution paths early by detecting that the constraint store is not consistent. CPBPV uses the rich language of constraint programming to express the constraint store. Finally, CPBPV is parameterized with a list of solvers which are tried in sequence, starting with the least expensive and less general. Experimental results often produce orders of magnitude improvements over earlier approaches, running times being often independent of the size of the variable domains.Moreover, CPBPV was able to detect subtle errors in some programs for which other frameworks based on bounded model checking have failed

A dynamic constraint-based BMC strategy for generating counterexamples

“…We used version 3.3.2 that calls the SAT solver M iniSat2. CPBPV* is an optimized version of CPBPV [9,10] which is implemented in Comet. Like CPBPV it uses constraint stores to represent both the specification and the program, and to explore execution paths of bounded length over these constraint stores.…”

“…CPBPV [8,9,10] is a constraint-based framework for verifying the conformity of a program with its specification under some boundness restrictions. The key idea in CPBPV is to use constraint stores to represent both the specification and the program, and to non-deterministically explore execution paths of bounded length over these constraint stores.…”

Boosting Search Based Testing by Using Constraint Based Testing

“…Constraint Based Testing (CBT) and Search Based Testing (SBT) have become the dominant approaches to test case generation, because they achieve high code coverage. Over the last decade, theses two approaches have been extensively explored [3,5,9,10,14,18,19].…”

On Testing Constraint Programs

“…OPL 1 , COMET 2 , ZINC 3 , CHOCO 4 , GECODE 5 , ...), aim at solving industrial combinatorial problems that arise in optimization, planning, or scheduling. Recently, a new trend has emerged that propose also to use CP programs to address critical applications in e-Commerce [5], air-traffic control and management [3,6], and critical software development [1,4]. While constraint program debugging drew the attention of some researchers, few supports in terms of software engineering and testing have been proposed to help verify critical constraint programs.…”