POPL'12
- An Executable Formal Semantics of C with Applications
- Chucky Ellison and Grigore Rosu
- POPL'12, ACM, pp 533-544. 2012
- Abstract. This paper describes an executable formal semantics of C. Being executable, the semantics has been thoroughly tested against the GCC torture test suite and successfully passes 99.2% of 776 test programs. It is the most complete and thoroughly tested formal definition of C to date. The semantics yields an interpreter, debugger, state space search tool, and model checker "for free". The semantics is shown capable of automatically finding program errors, both statically and at runtime. It is also used to enumerate nondeterministic behavior.
Technical Reports
- An Executable Formal Semantics of C with Applications
- Chucky Ellison and Grigore Rosu
- Technical Report http://hdl.handle.net/2142/25816, July 2011
- Abstract. This paper describes an executable formal semantics of C. Being executable, the semantics has been thoroughly tested against the GCC torture test suite and successfully passes 770 of 776 test programs. It is the most complete and thoroughly tested formal definition of C to date. The semantics yields an interpreter, debugger, state space search tool, and model checker "for free". The semantics is shown capable of automatically finding program errors, both statically and at runtime. It is also used to enumerate nondeterministic behavior.
- A Formal Semantics of C with Applications
- Chucky Ellison and Grigore Rosu
- Technical Report http://hdl.handle.net/2142/17414, November 2010
- Abstract. This paper describes an executable formal semantics of C expressed using a formalism based on term rewriting. Being executable, the semantics has been thoroughly tested against the GCC torture test suite and successfully passes over 96% of 715 test programs. It is the most complete and thoroughly tested formal definition of C to date.
The semantics yields an interpreter, debugger, and state space search tool "for free". The semantics is shown capable of automatically finding program errors, both statically and at runtime. It is also used to enumerate nondeterministic behavior. These techniques together allow the tool to identify undefined programs.
- Abstract. This paper describes an executable formal semantics of C expressed using a formalism based on term rewriting. Being executable, the semantics has been thoroughly tested against the GCC torture test suite and successfully passes over 96% of 715 test programs. It is the most complete and thoroughly tested formal definition of C to date.
