runtimeverification / runtimeverification/kontrol

Existential variables with user-specified names

Open
#485 3 comments 0 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub

Nobody has claimed this yet.

enhancement
Dominant language
Python
Stars
122
Forks
16
PR merge metrics
No merged PRs in 30d

Description

Currently, KEVM cheatcodes that introduce fresh symbolic variables (e.g., freshUInt(32)) result in existentials of the form ?WORD, ?WORD0, etc. These are readable by the developers of Kontrol, but having to mentally map these to what they are supposed to represent is non-trivial, especially in larger proofs.

It would be good for the user experience to have the ability to name the symbolic variable that will be generated, along the lines of

freshUInt("X", 32)

which would then produce ?X instead of ?WORD, with an index if applicable (i.e., ?X0) to avoid variable capture.

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start at the KEVM cheatcode implementation for freshUInt and trace how its symbolic variable name becomes an existential. Define the user-specified name and indexed form shown in the issue, preserving the existing default naming and avoiding variable capture; add or update tests for freshUInt("X", 32) and repeated names.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
python
Domain
devtools
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
35/100

Get new issues in your inbox

A short digest of beginner-friendly GitHub issues.