Differential Testing of a Verification Framework for Compiler Optimizations (Case Study)

We want to verify the correctness of optimization phases in the GraalVM compiler, which consist of many thousands of lines of complex Java code performing sophisticated graph transformations. We have built high-level models of the data structures and operations of the code using the Isabelle/HOL theorem prover, and can formally verify the correctness of those high-level operations. But the remaining challenge is: how can we be sure that those high-level operations accurately reflect what the Java code is doing? This paper addresses that issue by applying several different kinds of differential testing to validate that the formal model and the Java code have the same semantics. The lessons learned from applying these validation techniques should be applicable to other projects that are building formal models of real-world code.