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International Workshop on Computer Science Logic

CSL 2001: Computer Science Logic pp 1–19Cite as

Local Reasoning about Programs that Alter Data Structures

Part of the Lecture Notes in Computer Science book series (LNCS,volume 2142)

Abstract

We describe an extension of Hoare’s logic for reasoning about programs that alter data structures. We consider a low-level storage model based on a heap with associated lookup, update, allocation and deallocation operations, and unrestricted address arithmetic. The assertion language is based on a possible worlds model of the logic of bunched implications, and includes spatial conjunction and implication connectives alongside those of classical logic. Heap operations are axiomatized using what we call the “small axioms”, each of which mentions only those cells accessed by a particular command. Through these and a number of examples we show that the formalism supports local reasoning: A specification and proof can concentrate on only those cells in memory that a program accesses.

This paper builds on earlier work by Burstall, Reynolds, Ishtiaq and O’Hearn on reasoning about data structures.

Keywords

  • Frame Problem
  • Weak Precondition
  • Memory Fault
  • Hoare Logic
  • Local Reasoning

These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

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Author information

Affiliations

  1. Queen Mary, University of London, UK

    Peter O’Hearn

  2. Carnegie Mellon University, USA

    John Reynolds

  3. University of Birmingham and University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA

    Hongseok Yang

Authors
  1. Peter O’Hearn
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  2. John Reynolds
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  3. Hongseok Yang
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O’Hearn, P., Reynolds, J., Yang, H. (2001). Local Reasoning about Programs that Alter Data Structures. In: Fribourg, L. (eds) Computer Science Logic. CSL 2001. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 2142. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-44802-0_1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-44802-0_1

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