Program Logics for Certified Compilers

This tutorial for graduate students covers practical and theoretical aspects of separation logic with constructions and proofs in Coq.

This book covers practical and theoretical separation logic suitable for graduate students. On the practical side, it covers verification in Hoare and separation logics, simple case studies, and the Verifiable C program logic. On the theoretical side, it covers separation algebras, step-indexed models, indirection theory, tree-shares, and the semantic construction of Verifiable C.Separation logic is the twenty-first-century variant of Hoare logic that permits verification of pointer-manipulating programs. This book covers practical and theoretical aspects of separation logic at a level accessible to beginning graduate students interested in software verification. On the practical side it offers an introduction to verification in Hoare and separation logics, simple case studies for toy languages, and the Verifiable C program logic for the C programming language. On the theoretical side it presents separation algebras as models of separation logics; step-indexed models of higher-order logical features for higher-order programs; indirection theory for constructing step-indexed separation algebras; tree-shares as models for shared ownership; and the semantic construction (and soundness proof) of Verifiable C. In addition, the book covers several aspects of the CompCert verified C compiler, and its connection to foundationally verified software analysis tools. All constructions and proofs are made rigorous and accessible in the Coq developments of the open-source Verified Software Toolchain.