Platinum: Reusing Constraint Solutions in Bounded Analysis of Relational Logic

Authors

Guolong Zheng, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
Hamid Bagheri, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
Gregg Rothermel, North Carolina State UniversityFollow
Jianghao Wang, University of Nebraska - LincolnFollow

Date of this Version

2020

Citation

H. Wehrheim and J. Cabot (Eds.): FASE 2020, LNCS 12076, pp. 29–52, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-45234-6_2

Comments

The Author(s) 2020

Abstract

Alloy is a light weight specification language based on relational logic, with an analysis engine that relies on SAT solvers to automate bounded verifica- tion of specifications. In spite of its strengths, the reliance of the Alloy Analyzer on computationally heavy solvers means that it can take a significant amount of time to verify software properties, even within limited bounds. This challenge is exacerbated by the ever-evolving nature of complex software systems. This paper presents PLATINUM, a technique for efficient analysis of evolving Alloy specifications, that recognizes opportunities for constraint reduction and reuse of previously identified constraint solutions. The insight behind PLATINUM is that formula constraints recur often during the analysis of a single specification and across its revisions, and constraint solutions can be reused over sequences of anal- yses performed on evolving specifications. Our empirical results show that PLAT- INUM substantially reduces (by 66.4% on average) the analysis time required on specifications extracted from real-world software systems.