A Model Checking Language for Concurrent Value-Passing Systems

Modal

μ

-calculus is an expressive specification formalism for temporal properties of concurrent programs represented as Labeled Transition Systems (

Lts

s). However, its practical use is hampered by the complexity of the formulas, which makes the specification task difficult and error-prone. In this paper, we propose

Mcl

(

Model Checking Language

), an enhancement of modal

μ

-calculus with high-level operators aimed at improving expressiveness and conciseness of formulas. The main

Mcl

ingredients are parameterized fixed points, action patterns extracting data values from

Lts

actions, modalities on transition sequences described using extended regular expressions and programming language constructs, and an infinite looping operator specifying fairness. We also present a method for on-the-fly model checking of

Mcl

formulas on finite

Lts

s, based on the local resolution of boolean equation systems, which has a linear-time complexity for alternation-free and fairness formulas.

Mcl

is supported by the

Evaluator

4.0 model checker developed within the

Cadp

verification toolbox.