[tlaplus] Re: TLAPS proof of increment and update

You do not need the condition /\ valX.ts <= clock \*<-this is required only for proof for TLAPS to prove your theorems.
Clock is the main culprit of the proof not working properly.

I don't know if I can explain this very well but the obligation that fails in the proof is <2>1. If we perform a symbolic execution of the states, we know that Init => SafetyProperty. This is obvious. Now, in any state other than init, we start with an assumption that safety property holds so, (valX.val > valY.val) => valX.ts >= valY.ts is true. Now if you apply the operations of the Inc state, clock becomes clock+1 and valX becomes [valX.val+1, clock+1]. Now replace these changes in the safety property which should hold true. We get:

(valX.val+1 > valY.val) => clock+1 >= valY.ts

With any of the assumptions you started with, it is not possible to prove this. This problem goes away when you add valY.ts <= clock because suddenly the proof assistant has another assumption it can use with the Inc state.

On Monday, April 12, 2021 at 9:19:11 PM UTC+2 smruti...@xxxxxxxxx wrote:

Hi,

I have been trying different proofs with TLAPS. In the spec attached in this conversation, I tried a simple example of increment and update of two variables. That is, Increment the first variable at a given time and then update the second variable with the incremented value of the first variable at a different time.

This spec has two variables - valX and valY. valX and valY are represented as a record with two fields: val that can take Natural numbers and ts as timestamp associated with it. We use a global clock for time.

valX is incremented by 1 and valY is updated with the new value of valX. This increment and update pattern is an abstraction that can be used during server/worker zero-downtime updates.

I was able to use TLAPS to prove the safety property of the spec. But it required two extra enabling conditions in the Inc action for the proof to work:

/\ valX.ts <= clock \*<-this is required only for proof

   /\ valY.ts <= clock \*<-this is required only for proof

I am not clear as to why we would need these two conditions. It should follow from the induction hypothesis.

I would appreciate it if someone can provide me some more insights into the workings of the TLAPS proof.
I have attached the spec with this conversation.
Best,
Smruti
ps: I am unable to post any attached TLA+ spec to this group in my conversation. so renamed the file with .txt.