Model checking the garbage collection mechanism of SMV

This paper describes an experience in the application of the RuleBase model checker to software written in C, using the tool c2edl. C2edl translates ANSI-C code to EDL, the input language of RuleBase. Although c2edl uses a radical abstraction in order to address the problems of software model checking, the abstract model built by c2edl proved sufficient to allow analysis of the garbage collection mechanism of SMV. Using c2edl and RuleBase, eight bugs were found in RuleBase itself, which uses the same garbage collection mechanism. © 2001 Published by Elsevier Science B.V.