Program verification

Program verification uses mathematical reasoning to establish that software satisfies specified properties. It ranges from proving individual statements correct to checking entire systems against formal specifications.

Hoare logic: A formal system for reasoning about program correctness using assertions before and after commands. Hoare triples express the preconditions and postconditions that a program must satisfy.
Formal specification: A precise mathematical description of required system behavior, constraints, or properties. Verification can establish only properties that have been stated precisely enough to check.
Static program analysis: The analysis of program properties without executing the program. It finds or rules out classes of defects through automated examination of code.
Formal verification: The use of mathematical techniques to prove that a system satisfies a formal specification. Program verification is the software-focused application of this broader practice.
Formal methods: Mathematical techniques for specifying, developing, and analyzing systems. Program verification is one part of a broader effort to apply mathematics throughout system development.
Hoare triple: A program-logic assertion stating that a command establishes a postcondition when its precondition holds. It is the basic unit of many proofs of program correctness.
Program semantics: A mathematical account of how programs behave when executed. A proof depends on a precise interpretation of the program's behavior.
Software testing: The execution of software with selected inputs to reveal defects or assess behavior. Testing supplies evidence from sampled executions, unlike proofs that establish claims across specified cases.
Runtime verification: The monitoring of an executing system to determine whether observed behavior satisfies a formal specification. It checks actual executions, rather than proving properties for all modeled executions.
Specification problem: The challenge of expressing intended system behavior precisely and completely in a formal specification. A proof of the wrong or incomplete specification does not establish the intended behavior.

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