Abstract
We propose an approach to test whether an abstract specification is refined or not by a more concrete one. The specifications are input \(\slash\) output symbolic transition systems (IOSTS). The refinement relation requires that all traces of the abstract system are also traces of the concrete system, up to some signature inclusion. Our work takes inspiration from the conformance testing area. Symbolic execution techniques allow us to select traces of the abstract system and to submit them on the concrete specification. Each trace execution leads to a verdict Fail, Pass or Warning. The verdict Pass is provided with a formula which has to be verified by the values only manipulated at the level of the concrete specification in order to ensure the refinement relation. The verdict Warning reports that the concrete specification has not been sufficiently explored to give a reliable verdict. This is thus a partial verification process, related to the quality of the set of selected traces and of the exploration of the concrete specification. Our approach has been implemented and is demonstrated on a simple example.
This work was partially supported by the RNRT French project STACS.
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Le Gall, P., Rapin, N., Touil, A. (2007). Symbolic Execution Techniques for Refinement Testing. In: Gurevich, Y., Meyer, B. (eds) Tests and Proofs. TAP 2007. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 4454. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-73770-4_8
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