Automatic inference of specifications using matching logic

Abstract

Formal specifications can be used for various software engineering activities ranging from finding errors to documenting software and automatic test-case generation. Automatically discovering specifications for heap-manipulating programs is a challenging task. In this paper, we propose a technique for automatically inferring formal specifications from C code which is based on the symbolic execution and automated reasoning tandem "MATCHING LOGIC /K framework". We implemented our technique for a fragment of C, called KERNELC, in the automated tool KINDSPEC, which generates axioms that describe the precise input/output behavior of C routines that handle pointer-based structures, i.e., result values and state change. These specifications can be written either in MATCHING LOGIC itself, which is useful for further automated analysis within the K formal environment, or in sugared axiomatic form, which favors better human inspection. Since we rely on rewriting logic K semantics specification of programming languages, our approach can be easily extended to any language for which a formal semantics in K is given.