Compilation using correct-by-construction program synthesis

Abstract

Extracting and compiling certified programs may introduce bugs in otherwise proven-correct code, reducing the extent of the guarantees that proof assistants and correct-by-construction program-derivation frameworks provide. We explore a novel approach to extracting and compiling embedded domain-specific languages developed in a proof assistant (Coq), showing how it allows us to extend correctness guarantees all the way down to a verification-aware assembly language. Our core idea is to phrase compilation of shallowly embedded programs to a lower-level deeply embedded language as a synthesis problem, solved using simple proof-search techniques. This technique is extensible (support for individual language constructs is provided by a user-extensible database of compilation tactics and lemmas) and allows the source programs to depend on axiomatically specified methods of externally implemented data structures, delaying linking to the assembly stage. Composed with the Fiat and Bedrock frameworks, our new method provides the first proof-generating automatic translation from SQL-style relational programs into executable assembly code.