We introduce abstract interpretation frameworks which are variations on the archetypal framework using Galois connections between concrete and abstract semantics, widenings and narrowings and are obtained by relaxation of the original hypotheses. We consider various ways of establishing the correctness of an abstract interpretation depending on how the relation between the concrete and abstract semantics is defined. We insist upon those correspondences allowing for the inducing of the approximate abstract semantics from the concrete one. Furthermore we study various notions interpretation.

We construct a hierarchy of semantics by successive abstract interpretations. Starting from the maximal trace semantics of a transition system, we derive the big-step semantics, termination and nontermination semantics, Plotkin’s natural, Smyth’s demoniac and Hoare’s angelic relational semantics and equivalent nondeterministic denotational semantics (with alternative powerdomains to the Egli-Milner and Smyth constructions), D. Scott’s deterministic denotational semantics, the generalized and Dijkstra’s conservative/liberal predicate transformer semantics, the generalized/total and Hoare’s partial correctness axiomatic semantics and the corresponding proof methods. All the semantics are presented in a uniform fixpoint form and the correspondences between these semantics are established through composable Galois connections, each semantics being formally calculated by abstract interpretation of a more concrete one using Kleene and/or Tarski

. We show that infinite objects can be constructively understood without the consideration of partial elements, or greatest fixedpoints, through the explicit consideration of proof objects. We present then a proof system based on these explanations. According to this analysis, the proof expressions should have the same structure as the program expressions of a pure functional lazy language: variable, constructor, application, abstraction, case expressions, and local let expressions. 1 Introduction The usual explanation of infinite objects relies on the use of greatest fixed-points of monotone operators, whose existence is justified by the impredicative proof of Tarski's fixed point theorem. The proof theory of such infinite objects, based on the so called co-induction principle, originally due to David Park [21] and explained with this name for instance in the paper [18], reflects this explanation. Constructively, to rely on such impredicative methods is somewhat unsatisfactory (see fo...

Abstract. This paper illustrates the use of coinductive definitions and proofs in big-step operational semantics, enabling the latter to describe diverging evaluations in addition to terminating evaluations. We show applications to proofs of type soundness and to proofs of semantic preservation for compilers. 1

We present an automated abstract verification method for infinite-state systems specified by logic programs (which are a uniform and intermediate layer to which diverse formalisms such as transition systems, pushdown processes and while programs can be mapped). We establish connections between: logic program semantics and CTL properties, set-based program analysis and pushdown processes, and also between model checking and constraint solving, viz. theorem proving. We show that set-based analysis can be used to compute supersets of the values of program variables in the states that satisfy a given CTL property.

In the context of standard abstract interpretation theory, we define the inverse operation to the disjunctive completion of abstract domains, introducing the notion of least disjunctive basis of an abstract domain D. This is the most abstract domain inducing the same disjunctive completion as D. We show that the least disjunctive basis exists in most cases, and study its properties, also in relation with reduced product and complementation of abstract domains. The resulting framework provides advanced algebraic methodologies for abstract domain manipulation and optimization. These notions are applied to well-known abstract domains for static analysis of functional and logic programming languages.

. In this paper we apply abstract interpretation to systematically derive, compose and compare semantics according to their expressive power. The main results are: (1) a definition of a hierarchy of collecting semantics, including well known semantics for logic programs, where semantics can be related to each other by abstract interpretation; (2) a characterization of collecting and abstract semantics in terms of collecting and abstract models for a program; (3) a correspondence between collecting and abstract models providing a "logical" interpretation of the typical loss of precision of abstract interpretation-based analysis; (4) a systematic approach to derive and compose collecting semantics in a lattice-theoretic environment; (5) a constructive characterization for the "best" collecting semantics for analysis. 1 Introduction The definition of an appropriate concrete semantics being able to model those program properties of interest, is a key point in abstract interpretation ([11...

We present a language and semantics-independent, compositional and inductive method for specifying formal semantics or semantic properties of programs in equivalent fixpoint, equational, constraint, closure-condition, rule-based and game-theoretc form. The definitional method is obtained by extending set-theoretic definitions in the context of partial orders. It is parameterized by the language syntax, by the semantic domains and by the semantic transformers corresponding to atomic and compound program components. The definitional method is shown to be preserved by abstract interpretation in either fixpoint, equational, constraint, closure-condition, rule-based or game-theoretic form. The features common to all possible instantiations are factored out thus allowing for results of general scope such as well-definedness, semantic equivalence, soundness and relative completeness of abstract interpretations, etc. to be proved compositionally in a general language and semantics-independent framework.

Abstract. In order to contribute to the solution of the software reliability problem, tools have been designed to analyze statically the run-time behavior of programs. Because the correctness problem is undecidable, some form of approximation is needed. The purpose of abstract interpretation is to formalize this idea of approximation. We illustrate informally the application of abstraction to the semantics of programming languages as well as to static program analysis. The main point is that in order to reason or compute about a complex system, some information must be lost, that is the observation of executions must be either partial or at a high level of abstraction. In the second part of the paper, we compare static program analysis with deductive methods, model-checking and type inference. Their foundational ideas are briefly reviewed, and the shortcomings of these four methods are discussed, including when they should be combined. Alternatively, since program debugging is still the main program verification

We present trace-based program analysis, a semantics-based framework for statically analyzing and transforming programs with loops, assignments, and nested record structures. Trace-based analyses are based on transfer transition systems, which define the small-step operational semantics of programming languages. Intuitively, transfer transition systems provide direct support for reasoning about the possible execution traces of a program, instead of just individual program states. The traces in a transfer transition system have many uses, including the finite representation of all possible terminating executions of a loop. Also, traces may be systematically "pieced together", thus allowing the composition of separately analyzed program fragments. The utility of the approach is demonstrated by showing three applications: software pipelining, loop-invariant removal, and data alias detection. y Work performed while on leave at ' Ecole Polytechnique, France. This research was sponsored in ...