Title: Closing the Gap – The Formally Verified Optimizing Compiler CompCert

Author(s): Bernhard Schommer, Christian Ferdinand, Daniel Kästner, Michael Schmidt, Sandrine Blazy, Xavier Leroy

Publication Event: Proceedings of the Twenty-fifth Safety-Critical Systems Symposium, Bristol, UK

Publication Date: 2017-02-08

Resouce URL: https://scsc.uk/r898.pdf

Abstract:

CompCert  is  the  first  commercially  available  optimizing  compiler that is formally verified, using machine-assisted mathematical proofs, to be free from  miscompilation.  The  executable code  it  produces  is  proved  to  behave  exactly  as  specified  by  the  semantics  of  the  source  C  program.  CompCert's  intended  use  is  the  compilation  of  safety-critical  and  mission-critical  software meeting high levels of assurance. This article gives an overview of the design of CompCert  and  its  proof  concept,  summarizes  the  resulting  confidence  argument, and gives an overview of relevant tool qualification strategies. We briefly summarize  practical  experience  and  give  an  overview  of  recent  CompCert  developments.