Since Sept. 2022 this repository has been merged into https://lip6.github.io/libITS/

This repository is now archived.

ITS-CTL

CTL symbolic model-checker based on libDDD and libITS

See our main homepage for details : http://ddd.lip6.fr

See our github pages for download : https://lip6.github.io/ITS-CTL/

its-ctl

What is its-ctl

its-ctl is our model-checker for Computation Tree Logic properties, built upon libITS. It offers support for efficient symbolic CTL model checking using saturation and forward transition relation among other features.

its-ctl is a library and tool for CTL model-checking of Instantiable Transition Systems. It leverages on the ITS and SDD libraries and on a component for CTL formula manipulation taken from VIS.

its-ctl is stable, it has been used notably in the project Neoppod. It currently supports the following features:

• ITS model input: any ITS model can be CTL checked.
• Forward model-checking using the past temporal logic operators. This feature is activated by default as it provides superior performance in practically all cases.
• Full witness/counter-example trace explanation.

Obtaining its-ctl

You can download the current release as well as binaries from here: ITS-CTL download page

The latest source version of its-ctl can be obtained from GitHub at https://github.com/lip6/ITS-CTL.

Note that to build from the git, you need autotools and to invoke "autoreconf -vfi" to create the "configure" script. Due to various dependencies, building from git requires some configuration settings.

Remember, configure --help is your friend, and you can also have a look at the configuration settings of our Travis continuous integration server or AppVeyor for Windows for inspiration on how to invoke configure.

The only dependencies are libDDD and libITS that you need to deploy first.

Usage

If you just intend to use the tool at a command-line, run it with option "-h" to get a description of various options available.

The Samples/ folder contains many examples, and the tests/ folder cover many common invocation idioms. Note that the command-line tool is meant for experts or back-end model-checking, and it is usually invoked through scripts on verified input or as generated by other tools.

If you want to experiment using the command line tool on models edited with ITS modeler front-end, just run any analysis on your model, a side effect is to generate input compatible with the command line tool in the current "work" folder.

See this page for invocation examples.

You can also use the eclipse front-end to produce valid command line invocations of its-ctl.

Checking CTL properties

To verify CTL properties use flag "-ctl CTLFILE" and pass a file containing CTL formulas. See the "tests/" folder for examples of legal CTL files.

If witness are activated, a witness trace will be produced :

• A witness is a composed of parts, corresponding to the syntactic tree of the input formula
• Some witnesses are sequential traces (EF operator), some are one possible loop in an SCC (EG operator)
• all traces reported are shortest paths, use --backward --trace-states for more readable traces
• When boolean connectors are encountered, the counter example is further explained

The semantics are not quite text-book; in presence of deadlocks, EG p will stutter and accept dead states satisfying p. This does not affect the semantics of EX, AX, so that AG (EX (true)) does test for absence of deadlocks. For a more formal presentation of this semantics see this document Aalborg University, TAPAAL team's CTL semantics document, used in the MCC. These semantics are more natural for reasoning.

Checking Deadlock and Timelock

Use "-ctl DEADLOCK" to check for deadlocks, i.e. states in which no transition can fire. The results are roughly equivalent to checking "AG(EX(true))".

Use "-ctl TIMELOCK" to check for timelocks, i.e. states in which no transition can fire except time elapse. In timed systems, these are often more interesting than full deadlocks, that should not occur in well formed times transition systems anyway. It is not useful to activate "--fair-time" in conjunction with this option.

Fair time

Use this option "--fair-time" to enforce fair time elapse transition.

Note that the formula is first translated to pure existential form, and also rewritten to perform forward CTL when possible. To help interpretation of witness traces, activating the "backward" option removes some of these transformations, making the trace usually more readable.

The fair-time setting is only useful if your model features discrete time, as indicated by a top level label in the main instance called "elapse". Models obtained from time Petri nets, or from timed automata have this feature. In those cases however, you usually do want to activate it, it prevents witness traces that are abusing divergence on the time step and thus gives results similar to e.g. Romeo.

Acknowledgement

The code base for ITS-CTL is heavily based on the ctlp and mc components of VIS from Boulder University. See VIS: A system for Verification and Synthesis, VIS homepage.

The ctlp package is due to Gary York, Ramin Hojati, Tom Shiple, Adnan Aziz, Yuji Kukimoto, Jae-Young Jang, In-Ho Moon. The mc package is due to Adnan Aziz, Tom Shiple, In-Ho Moon.

The code was reworked to remove the dependency on GLU/CUDD the decision diagram package they use (and have developped). The SDD/ITS code for CTL checking is due to Yann Thierry-Mieg, and Silien Hong.

The witness/counter-example code was written by Yann Thierry-Mieg.

For further credits and version history please browse the repository history.

its-ctl --help

Instantiable Transition Systems SDD/DDD Analyzer; package ITSREACH 0.2

This tool performs state-space analysis of Instantiable Transition Systems a.k.a. ITS

The reachability set is computed using SDD/DDD of libDDD, the Hierarchical Set Decision Diagram library,

MANDATORY Options :

• -i path : specifies the path to input model file
• -t {CAMI,PROD,ROMEO,ITSXML,ETF,DLL,NDLL,DVE,GAL,CGAL} : specifies format of the input model file : * CAMI : CAMI format (for P/T nets) is the native Petri net format of CPN-AMI * PROD : PROD format (for P/T nets) is the native format of PROD * ROMEO : an XML format (for Time Petri nets) that is the native format of Romeo * UROMEO : Romeo format with additional constraints: all places named, with different names. * ITSXML : a native XML format (for ANY kind of ITS) for this tool. These files allow to point to other files. * ETF : Extended Table Format is the native format used by LTSmin, built from many front-ends. * DLL : use a dynamic library that provides a function "void loadModel (Model &,int)" typically written using the manipulation APIs. See demo/ folder. * NDLL : same as DLL, but expect input formatted as size:lib.so. See demo/ folder. * DVE : Divine is a modelling language similar to Promela. * GAL : Guarded Action Language. * CGAL : Guarded Action Language + Composite/ITS textual syntax. File must contain a main declaration.

Additional Options and Settings:

• --trace-states : if set, this option will force to print intermediate states (up to print limit) when showing traces. 
  

• --print-limit INT : set the threshold for full printout of states in traces. DD holding more states than threshold will not be printed. [DEFAULT:10 states]
  

• --load-order path : load the variable order from the file designated by path. This order file can be produced with --dump-order. Note this option is not exclusive of --json-order; the model is loaded as usual, then the provided order is applied a posteriori. 
  

Petri net specific options :

• --json-order path : use a JSON encoded hierarchy description file for a Petri net model (CAMI, PROD or ROMEO), such as produced using Neoppod heuristic ordering tools. Note that this option modifies the way the model is loaded. 
  

• --sdd : privilege SDD storage (Petri net models only).(DEFAULT)
  

• --ddd : privilege DDD (no hierarchy) encoding (Petri net models only).
  

Scalar and Circular symmetric composite types options:

• -ssD2 INT : (depth 2 levels) use 2 level depth for scalar sets. Integer provided defines level 2 block size. [DEFAULT: -ssD2 1]
• -ssDR INT : (depth recursive) use recursive encoding for scalar sets. Integer provided defines number of blocks at highest levels.
• -ssDS INT : (depth shallow recursive) use alternative recursive encoding for scalar sets. Integer provided defines number of blocks at lowest level.

GAL-based specific options (DVE and GAL):

• --gen-order STRAT : Invoke ordering heuristic to compute a static ordering. STRAT should be one of the following [default DEFAULT]:
  • DEFAULT : historical strategy, does not follow labels of 'call' statements
  • FOLLOW : follows the labels of 'call' statements
  • FOLLOW_HALF : follows the labels of 'call' statements, but with halved weight
  • FOLLOW_DOUBLE : follows the labels of 'call' statements, but with doubled weight
  • FOLLOW_SQUARE : same as FOLLOW, but uses energy-based costs
  • FOLLOW_DYN : follows the labels of 'call' statements, with a cost related to constraint' size
  • FOLLOW_DYN_SQ : same as FOLLOW_DYN, but uses energy-based costs
  • FOLLOW_FDYN : same as FOLLOW_DYN, but the cost is related to the size for all constraints (even with no 'call')
  • FOLLOW_FDYN_SQ : same as FOLLOW_FDYN, but uses energy-based costs
  • LEXICO : use the old strategy, based on lexicographical ordering of the variable

SDD specific options :

• --no-garbage : disable garbage collection (may be faster, more memory)
• --gc-threshold INT : set the threshold for first starting to do gc [DEFAULT:13000 kB=1.3GB]
• --fixpoint {BFS,DFS} : this options controls which kind of saturation algorithm is applied. Both are variants of saturation not really full DFS or BFS. [default: BFS]

This tool performs CTL verification on state-space of ITS CTL specific options for package itsctl 0.1

• -ctl [CTL formulas file] MANDATORY : give path to a file containing CTL formulae
  • Optionally, if the [CTL formulas file] provided is the string DEADLOCK, the tool will compute and return the number of deadlocks.
  • Optionally, if the [CTL formulas file] provided is the string TIMELOCK, the tool will compute and return the number of timelocks, i.e. states in which time is the only event that can occur.
• --witness to ask for a witness/counter-example path to be produced (may be much more difficult than just proving/disproving)
• --precise to ask for more precise counter example traces, that include states
• --fair-time to disallow infinite loops over elapse. More precisely, with this option, time elapse is applied directly after each discrete transition firing (and on initial state).
• [--forward] to force forward CTL model-checking (default)
• [--backward] to force backward CTL model-checking (classic algorithm from 10^20 states & beyond)
• --quiet : limit output verbosity useful in conjunction with tex output --texline for batch performance runs
• --legend : show full table legend
• --help,-h : display this (very helpful) helping help text