Formalizing Single-Assignment Program Verification: An Adaptation-Complete Approach

Abstract

Deductive verification tools typically rely on the conversion of code to a single-assignment SA form. In this paper we formalize program verification based on the translation of While programs annotated with loop invariants into a dynamic single-assignment language with a dedicated iterating construct, and the subsequent generation of compact, indeed linear-size, verification conditions. Soundness and completeness proofs are given for the entire workflow, including the translation of annotated programs to SA form. The formalization is based on a program logic that we show to be adaptation-complete. Although this important property has not, as far as we know, been established for any existing program verification tool, we believe that adaptation-completeness is one of the major motivations for the use of SA form as an intermediate language. Our results here show that indeed this allows for the tools to achieve the maximum degree of adaptation when handling subprograms.