Automatic Reasoning on Recursive Data-Structures with Sharing
Abstract
We consider the problem of automatically verifying programs which manipulate arbitrary data structures. Our specification language is expressive, contains a notion of separation, and thus enables a precise specification of frames. The main contribution then is a program verification method which combines strongest postcondition reasoning in the form symbolic execution, unfolding recursive definitions of the data structure in question, and a new frame rule to achieve local reasoning so that proofs can be compositional. Finally, we present an implementation of our verifier, and demonstrate automation on a number of representative programs. In particular, we present the first automatic proof of a classic graph marking algorithm, paving the way for dealing with a class of programs which traverse a complex data structure.
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