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kframework
c-semantics
C2015–2024
kframework / c-semantics

c-semantics

Semantics of C in K

Explore on GitHubRead Hacker News discussions
12Distinct people
23Mentions
0Explicit recommenders
333GitHub stars
REPOSITORY AT A GLANCE

What to know before exploring

What it is

Semantics of C in K

GitHub

Where it is used

No documented product use was verified in the last source check.

What people are saying

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Also in these discussions

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This week on Hacker News

Nov 8–Nov 15 UTC · Direct repository links and separately labeled related project stories. Indexed through 11/15/2026, 12:45:45 PM UTC.

No direct repository links were found in the indexed HN discussions over the past seven days. Older discussions are available below.

Mentions over time

HN mentions by year23 dated mentions

Observed mentions: 2015-11-30 14:15:40 UTC to 2024-01-30 20:23:40 UTC.

02468102015-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2016-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 2 mentions; 0 submissions, 2 comments20152016-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2017-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 1 mentions; 0 submissions, 1 comments2017-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 9 mentions; 0 submissions, 9 comments2018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 6 mentions; 0 submissions, 6 comments2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments20192020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 1 mentions; 1 submissions, 0 comments2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 2 mentions; 0 submissions, 2 comments2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 1 mentions; 0 submissions, 1 comments2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 1 mentions; 0 submissions, 1 comments2024

Counts come from the repository’s dated source evidence. Index cutoff: 2026-11-02 08:16:59 UTC.

View mention counts and date ranges
UTC ranges include their start and exclude their end. Select a period to filter the source evidence.
PeriodStart (UTC)End (exclusive, UTC)MentionsSubmissionsComments
20152015-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2016-01-01 00:00:00 UTC202
20162016-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2017-01-01 00:00:00 UTC101
20172017-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC909
20182018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC606
20192019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC000
20202020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC110
20212021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC000
20222022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC202
20232023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC101
20242024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC101

What Hacker News says

6 sources
nickpsecurity·Sep 30, 2018
Two others worth checking out that focus on soundness with low to no false positives are RV-Match and TrustinSoft Analyzer: https://runtimeverification.com/match/ https://trust-in-soft.com/products/ The RTV people are the one's behind K framework and an executable semantics for C with a GCC-like interface: http://www.kframework.org/index.php/Main_Page https://github.com/kframework/c-semantics That RV-Match builds on an open framework, does well on benchmarks (yeah skepticism here), and has little to no noise (most important) is what I like most about it. I say most important since digging through false positives makes developers not want to use a tool. I haven't tried either product myself, though. Here's a list of open tools that did well in small-scale experiments with and without false positives: https://klee.github.io http://www.cprov
Read the rest
er.org/cbmc/ https://cseweb.ucsd.edu/~rjhala/blast.html http://www.splint.org http://spinroot.com/uno/ http://cppcheck.sourceforge.net/#features https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sparse https://cpachecker.sosy-lab.org
In In-Depth: Static Code Analysis (2011)
nickpsecurity·May 1, 2018
This is the same underlying tool that powers KCC and RVMatch. https://github.com/kframework/c-semantics https://runtimeverification.com/match/ Exactly what I’d hoped someone would do. Well, the first step anyway. The second step was doing a Rust semantics in terms of the C semantics already done. That allows quite a few things like Rust-to-C compilers, defeating Karger-Thompson attack, and potentially verification of interactions of Rust and C FFI code. On my end down the line, also use of C tooling for verification of equivalent Rust code.
In KRust: A Formal Executable Semantics of Rust
nickpsecurity·Feb 19, 2018
Check out KCC, too, since the foundation is open-source, offers extra benefits for languages modeled in it, and has a commercial tool for C with either low or no false positives depending on how it measures up to claims. No affiliation. I just find the K framework plus an executable, formal semantics for C cool as heck. :) https://github.com/kframework/c-semantics https://runtimeverification.com/match/ They also have an article comparing it to Tis-interpreter here: https://runtimeverification.com/blog/?p=307 Their K has been used for languages from Scheme to Prolog to C. More recently, they also did a semantics for a VM for smart contracts. They're doing a lot of interesting stuff. Builds on Maude and rewriting logic if anyone is curious.
In Tis-interpreter: An interpreter for detecting undefined behavior in standard C
nickpsecurity·Jan 15, 2018
Both @adamnemecek and I have said the blockchain ventures might be a good way to get money into formal methods development. Rosu's group is wisely doing just that: using their K Framework [1] to build a VM for blockchains both as a demo of its utility and way to possibly get funding into it. The K Framework is the tool they used to build an executable, formal semantics for C setup to work like GCC compiler. Since it uses K, Rosu et al say those developments automatically "yield an interpreter, debugger, state space search tool, and model checker 'for free.'" Before blockchain stuff, Rosu spun off the tool into a company for static analysis of C and Java programs with the one for C claiming to catch a lot of bugs. They claim they get no false positives [3] thanks to the semantics. What makes me bring K up more than some tools is that the r
Read the rest
ewriting/equational tools such as Maude [4] and K (originally done on Maude) get a lot less attention than HOL or Coq. That's despite their model making some kinds of verifications really easy in comparison to how people typically use the others. Anyone wanting to play with a different style of formal method might want to check out Maude and/or K. Rosu also keeps a list of project ideas for K, the simplest being a new language. Rust or Nim with a translator to their C semantics would be a nice one with a lot of benefits on the language using K's tools or output using C-oriented tools. [1] http://www.kframework.org/index.php/Main_Page [2] https://github.com/kframework/c-semantics [3] https://runtimeverification.com/match/1.0-SNAPSHOT/docs/benc... [4] http://maude.cs.illinois.edu/w/index.php?title=The_Maude_Sys... Note on title: Changed it to indicate what part of the work stands out a bit since there's too many blockchain languages and VM's to track at this point. People who'd like the capabilities for blockchains or a totally-unrelated use-case might filter prematurely with original title.
In IELE: A Formally-Specified VM for the Blockchain (2017)

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