Inferring Termination Conditions for Logic Programs Using Backwards Analysis

Genaim, Samir; Codish, Michael

doi:10.1007/3-540-45653-8_47

Cited by 22 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…This problem generalises termination checking which verifies program termination for a class of queries specified by a given mode. Termination inference dates back to (Mesnard, 1996) but it has been recently observed (Genaim & Codish, 2001) that the missing link between termination checking and termination inference is backward analysis. A termination inference analyser is reported in (Genaim & Codish, 2001) composed from two components: a standard termination checker (Codish & Taboch, 1999) and the backward analysis described in this paper.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A backward analysis for constraint logic programs

King

2002

Theory and Practice of Logic Programming

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One recurring problem in program development is that of understanding how to re-use code developed by a third party. In the context of (constraint) logic programming, part of this problem reduces to figuring out how to query a program. If the logic program does not come with any documentation, then the programmer is forced to either experiment with queries in an ad hoc fashion or trace the control-flow of the program (backward) to infer the modes in which a predicate must be called so as to avoid an instantiation error. This paper presents an abstract interpretation scheme that automates the latter technique. The analysis presented in this paper can infer moding properties which if satisfied by the initial query, come with the guarantee that the program and query can never generate any moding or instantiation errors. Other applications of the analysis are discussed. The paper explains how abstract domains with certain computational properties (they condense) can be used to trace control-flow backward (right-to-left) to infer useful properties of initial queries. A correctness argument is presented and an implementation is reported.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A backward analysis for constraint logic programs

King

2002

Theory and Practice of Logic Programming

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“…The system seems quite powerful for this class of logic programs. (Genaim and Codish 2001) made recently a link between backward analysis (King and Lu 2002) and termination analysis, which leads to termination inference. Although they used a completely different scheme for computing level mappings, the results of the analysis on the programs described in Tables 1 and 2 were rather similar, both in time and quality, to previous versions of cTI that rely on the rational linear solver of SICStus Prolog.…”

Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

cTI: a constraint-based termination inference tool for ISO-Prolog

Mesnard¹,

Bagnara²

2005

Theory and Practice of Logic Programming

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We present cTI, the first system for universal left-termination inference of logic programs. Termination inference generalizes termination analysis and checking. Traditionally, a termination analyzer tries to prove that a given class of queries terminates. This class must be provided to the system, for instance by means of user annotations. Moreover, the analysis must be redone every time the class of queries of interest is updated. Termination inference, in contrast, requires neither user annotations nor recomputation. In this approach, terminating classes for all predicates are inferred at once. We describe the architecture of cTI and report an extensive experimental evaluation of the system covering many classical examples from the logic programming termination literature and several Prolog programs of respectable size and complexity.

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“…Now we have the essential material for the design of a tool that attempts proofs of optimality of left terminating multi-modes computed by a termination inference tool as e.g. cTI [26] or TerminWeb [17]. For each pair (p, ∅) in the set the function optimal tc of Fig.…”

Section: Algorithmsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…TALP [3]) or termination inference (e.g. cTI [25,26] or TerminWeb [17]) are now available to the logic programmer. As the halting problem is undecidable for logic programs, such analyzers compute sufficient termination conditions implying left termination.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Non-termination Inference for Constraint Logic Programs

Payet

Mesnard

2004

Static Analysis

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We present a static analysis technique for non-termination inference of logic programs. Our framework relies on an extension of the subsumption test, where some specific argument positions can be instantiated while others are generalized. We give syntactic criteria to statically identify such argument positions from the text of a program. Atomic left looping queries are generated bottom-up from selected subsets of the binary unfoldings of the program of interest. We propose a set of correct algorithms for automating the approach. Then, non-termination inference is tailored to attempt proofs of optimality of left termination conditions computed by a termination inference tool. An experimental evaluation is reported. When termination and non-termination analysis produce complementary results for a logic procedure, then with respect to the leftmost selection rule and the language used to describe sets of atomic queries, each analysis is optimal and together, they induce a characterization of the operational behavior of the logic procedure.

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Inferring Termination Conditions for Logic Programs Using Backwards Analysis

Cited by 22 publications

References 19 publications

A backward analysis for constraint logic programs

A backward analysis for constraint logic programs

cTI: a constraint-based termination inference tool for ISO-Prolog

Non-termination Inference for Constraint Logic Programs

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