Local temporal reasoning

Abstract

We present the first method for reasoning about temporal logic properties of higher-order, infinite-data programs. By distinguishing between the finite traces and infinite traces in the specification, we obtain rules that permit us to reason about the temporal behavior of program parts via a type-and-effect system, which is then able to compose these facts together to prove the overall target property of the program. The type system alone is strong enough to derive many temporal safety properties using refinement types and temporal effects. We also show how existing techniques can be used as oracles to provide liveness information (e.g. termination) about program parts and that the type-and-effect system can combine this information with temporal safety information to derive nontrivial temporal properties. Our work has application toward verification of higher-order software, as well as modular strategies for procedural programs.