Getting Started: Using iSpin

| # `Getting Started: Using iSPIN` A convenient way to get started with routine use of Spin is to use the graphical interface iSpin. The graphical interface runs independently from Spin itself, and helps by generating the proper Spin commands based on menu selections. iSpin invoked Spin itself in the background to obtain the desired output, and wherever possible it will attempt to generate a graphical representation of that output. iSpin knows when and how to compile code for the model checkers that Spin can generate, and it knows when and how to execute it, so there is less to remember. For more information on running Spin directly, see the companion document Spin_Verification.html, and to get familiar with it, try the exercises in Spin_Exercises.html. The description below assumes that the appropriate software packages (`spin`, `ispin`, `wish` for tcl/tk support, optionally the `dot` tool from the GraphViz distribution, and a standard C compiler such as `gcc`) have been installed on your system and that all relevant commands are within your search path. If this is not the case, follow the instructions in the README file first. ## `One` To start a first session with iSpin, use one of the example Promela specifications from the Examples directory of the Spin distribution. For instance:
    $ cd Examples/LTL
    $ ispin leader.pml
The dollar sign above (`$`) is the prompt of the command-shell. The next two words are typed by the user. If all is well, after ispin starts up it will print something like the following in its command-log at the bottom of the main window:
    SPIN LOG:
     Spin Version 6.3.0 -- 4 May 2014
    iSpin Version 1.1.1 -- 22 February 2014
    TclTk Version 8.5/8.5
    1 leader.pml:1
All further commands executed in the background, prompted by user selections in the other windows, appear here as well. ## `Two` You should now have the main iSpin control window on the display, with a Promela specification of the leader election protocol loaded. First, press the Help button in the top menu bar to view the available help topics. Browse some of the topics, and close the Help window when done. The main text window on the left offers some basic edit and search capabilities. You can scroll through the specification either with button-2 down (on a 3-button mouse), or with the scroll-bar. You can select text fragments by sweeping the mouse with button-1 (the left-most button) down. Control-C (copy), Control-V (past), and Control-Z (undo) are supported. If you are more comfortable working with another text-editor, a reasonable way of working with iSpin is also to have the text of a specification open in your favorite editor. To update iSpin's view of the file after externally editing it, select ReOpen from the top menu bar. ## `Three` Still within this first view, you can perform a basic Syntax Check, and a basic check for Redundancies, by selecting the corresponding buttons near the top of the screen. You can also get the Symbol table of the Promela specification printed out in the same way. The Automata View panel on the right hand side of the screen relies on the availability of the dot tool from the graphviz distribution. If you have it installed, clicking on the automata view button can display each proctype as a graph. Next, move to the Simulate/Replay tab, at the top-left of the display. This allows you to select a range of parameters for a simulation run. For now, just accept the default settings that are shown, and press the Run button, on the right, to perform a first simulation run. ## `Four` A Message Sequence Chart will be created in the right mid-panel (assuming your model includes message passing operations of course). Resize it to suit your needs. The panels on the bottom of the screen contain additional information about the run. The lower-left and lower-right display the current Data Values and Channel Contents respectively, at each point in the run. For very large models, you may want to turn off data value tracking, if it starts slowing down the simulations. The simulation output itself appears in the middle panel at the bottom. Once a run is completed, or stopped, you can use the Rewind button to go back to the start of the run, and step forwards or backwards through it -- with all values and queue states updated appropriately. You can also click in the message sequence chart or the output panel to move to a specific point in the run. ## `Five` A log window at the upper right of the iSpin display shows which commands are being generated by iSpin and executed by Spin in the background. For instance, the simulation run will probably be invoked as follows:
    spin -X -p -v -g -l -s -r -n1 -j0 leader.pml
The advantage of using iSpin is that you do not have to remember the meaning of all the options that Spin recognizes. (Not all the the options used above are critical though, so there's also no need for concern if you rather use Spin without this interface. You can find out what all the options to Spin are by typing in a regular shell window: "`spin --`" ## `Six` By clicking in the boxes in the Message Sequence Chart displayed on the right, the text window with the Spin model on the middle left should move to the corresponding point in the code. ## `Seven` Next, move to the tab labeled Verification in the top menu bar. There are lots of choices that can be made about the type of verification that can be done. The most common choices are in the panels at the top left, colored light blue. The less frequently used, and more advanced options can be displayed by clicking the black option buttons titled Show... to the right. For now, accept the default settings of the parameters and press the Run button near the middle of the display. The commands that iSpin generates are printed in the log, which is now shown in the black right-hand side panel. iSpin first generates a verifier, then compiles and executes it, and shows the results. If all is well, no errors are detected in the specification. The version of the leader election protocol that is being verified contains several correctness requirements specified as inline LTL formula. By default, iSpin is setup to perform a safety verification only. To check one of the LTL properties, select under Liveness (left side of the screen, in light blue), the option acceptance cycles and type the name of the LTL property to be verified in the box just above the Run and Stop buttons. For instance, type `p0`, `p1`, `p2`, or `p3`. ## `Eight` Introduce an artificial error in the specification by adding an
    assert(false)
statement on line 27, as follows:
    :: Active ->
becomes:
    :: Active -> assert(false)
Save the file (you have to move to the Edit/View panel to do that), and repeat the verification by clicking the Run button. This time, the verification should come back with an error sequence, and notice at the bottom of the output window recommends to replay the error trail from the Simulate/Replay panel. Bring up that tab and make sure a Guided simulation is selected. (A guided simulation can only be done for an error sequence that was produced earlier by the verifier.) Perform the guided simulation, which will now replay the error sequence found, ending with the assertion violation. ## `Nine` For advanced use. Bring up the Swarm Run panel. If you have `swarm` installed (if not, see http://spinroot.com/swarm), and you have a multi-core computer with a reasonable number of CPU cores, you can now setup a swarm run, using as many cores as you have available. Note: This option will become more attractive as standard PCs start getting more and more CPU cores. Don't select more cores than you physically have on your system and don't select more memory than you have. The options in the top right-panel show how Spin will compile the verifier to create lots of different types of verification runs. This method is especially useful for very large verification models that cannot be exhaustively verified, but where we still want to gain maximum confidence that we can find the errors in a reasonable amount of time. ## `Ten` The final two tabs at the top of the iSpin display are to Save or Restore an entire verification session, including all options selected and intermediate results created. It can be useful to remember what precisely you did and how you found counter-examples. It provides a small approximation of a version management system for Spin verification runs. The very last button in the top menu ribbon is Quit, but why would you ever want to do that?
Spin HomePage |  | `(Page Updated: 8 May 2014)`