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Smallfoot: Modular Automatic Assertion Checking with Separation Logic

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Formal Methods for Components and Objects (FMCO 2005)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 4111))

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Abstract

Separation logic is a program logic for reasoning about programs that manipulate pointer data structures. We describe Smallfoot, a tool for checking certain lightweight separation logic specifications. The assertions describe the shapes of data structures rather than their detailed contents, and this allows reasoning to be fully automatic. The presentation in the paper is tutorial in style. We illustrate what the tool can do via examples which are oriented toward novel aspects of separation logic, namely: avoidance of frame axioms (which say what a procedure does not change); embracement of “dirty” features such as memory disposal and address arithmetic; information hiding in the presence of pointers; and modular reasoning about concurrent programs.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Microsoft Research,  

    Josh Berdine

  2. Imperial College, London

    Cristiano Calcagno

  3. Queen Mary, University of London,  

    Peter W. O’Hearn

Authors
  1. Josh Berdine
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  2. Cristiano Calcagno
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  3. Peter W. O’Hearn
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Mathematics and Computer Science, CWI, Kruislaan 413, 1098, Amsterdam, SJ, The Netherlands

    Frank S. de Boer

  2. Leiden Institute of Advanced Computer Science, Leiden University, P.O. Box 9512, 2300, Leiden, RA, The Netherlands

    Marcello M. Bonsangue

  3. Centre Equitation, VERIMAG, 2 Avenue de Vignate, 38610, Grenoble-Gières, France

    Susanne Graf

  4. Institute of Computer Science and Applied Mathematics, Christian-Albrechts University, Kiel,Hermann-Rodewald-Straße 3, 24118, Kiel, Germany

    Willem-Paul de Roever

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© 2006 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Berdine, J., Calcagno, C., O’Hearn, P.W. (2006). Smallfoot: Modular Automatic Assertion Checking with Separation Logic. In: de Boer, F.S., Bonsangue, M.M., Graf, S., de Roever, WP. (eds) Formal Methods for Components and Objects. FMCO 2005. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 4111. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/11804192_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/11804192_6

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-36749-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-36750-5

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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