Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-m6dg7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T15:34:08.720Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Catching the Ouroboros: On debugging non-ground answer-set programs

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2010

JOHANNES OETSCH ,
JÖRG PÜHRER  and
HANS TOMPITS
JOHANNES OETSCH
Affiliation:
Technische Universität Wien, Institut für Informationssysteme 184/3, Favoritenstrasse 9-11, A-1040 Vienna, Austria (e-mail: oetsch@kr.tuwien.ac.at, puehrer@kr.tuwien.ac.at, tompits@kr.tuwien.ac.at)
JÖRG PÜHRER
Affiliation:
Technische Universität Wien, Institut für Informationssysteme 184/3, Favoritenstrasse 9-11, A-1040 Vienna, Austria (e-mail: oetsch@kr.tuwien.ac.at, puehrer@kr.tuwien.ac.at, tompits@kr.tuwien.ac.at)
HANS TOMPITS
Affiliation:
Technische Universität Wien, Institut für Informationssysteme 184/3, Favoritenstrasse 9-11, A-1040 Vienna, Austria (e-mail: oetsch@kr.tuwien.ac.at, puehrer@kr.tuwien.ac.at, tompits@kr.tuwien.ac.at)
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

An important issue towards a broader acceptance of answer-set programming (ASP) is the deployment of tools which support the programmer during the coding phase. In particular, methods for debugging an answer-set program are recognised as a crucial step in this regard. Initial work on debugging in ASP mainly focused on propositional programs, yet practical debuggers need to handle programs with variables as well. In this paper, we discuss a debugging technique that is directly geared towards non-ground programs. Following previous work, we address the central debugging question why some interpretation is not an answer set. The explanations provided by our method are computed by means of a meta-programming technique, using a uniform encoding of a debugging request in terms of ASP itself. Our method also permits programs containing comparison predicates and integer arithmetics, thus covering a relevant language class commonly supported by all state-of-the-art ASP solvers.

Keywords

answer-set programmingprogram analysisdebugging
Type
Regular Papers
Information
Theory and Practice of Logic Programming , Volume 10 , Special Issue 4-6: 26th International Conference on Logic Programming , July 2010 , pp. 513 - 529
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Brain, M. and De Vos, M. 2005. Debugging logic programs under the answer-set semantics. In Proceedings of the 3rd Workshop on Answer Set Programming: Advances in Theory and Implementation (ASP'05), Bath, UK, July 27–29, 2005. CEUR Workshop Proceedings, vol. 142. CEUR-WS.org, Aachen, Germany.Google Scholar
Brain, M., Gebser, M., Pührer, J., Schaub, T., Tompits, H., and Woltran, S. 2007. Debugging ASP programs by means of ASP. In Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Logic Programming and Nonmonotonic Reasoning (LPNMR'07), Tempe, AZ, USA, May 15–17, 2007, Baral, C., Brewka, G., and Schlipf, J. S., Eds. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol. 4483. Springer, Berlin, 31–43.Google Scholar
Caballero, R., García-Ruiz, Y., and Sáenz-Pérez, F. 2008. A theoretical framework for the declarative debugging of datalog programs. In Revised Selected Papers of the 3rd International Workshop on Semantics in Data and Knowledge Bases (SDKB'08), Nantes, France, March 29, 2008, Schewe, K.-D. and Thalheim, B., Eds. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol. 4925. Springer, Berlin, 143–159.Google Scholar
Chen, Y., Lin, F., Wang, Y., and Zhang, M. 2006. First-order loop formulas for normal logic programs. In Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Principles of Knowledge Representation and Reasoning (KR'06), Lake District, UK, June 2–5, 2006, Doherty, P., Mylopoulos, J., and Welty, C. A., Eds. AAAI Press, Menlo Park, CA, 298–307.Google Scholar
Denecker, M., Vennekens, J., Bond, S., Gebser, M., and Truszczynski, M. 2009. The second answer set programming competition. In Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Logic Programming and Nonmonotonic Reasoning (LPNMR'09), Potsdam, Germany, September 14–18, 2009, Erdem, E., Lin, F., and Schaub, T., Eds. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol. 5753. Springer, Berlin, 637–654.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eiter, T., Faber, W., Fink, M., Pfeifer, G., and Woltran, S. 2004. Complexity of model checking and bounded predicate arities for non-ground answer set programming. In Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Principles of Knowledge Representation and Reasoning (KR'04), Whistler, Canada, June 2–5, 2004, Dubois, D., Welty, C. A., and Williams, M.-A., Eds. AAAI Press, Menlo Park, CA, 377–387.Google Scholar
Eiter, T., Gottlob, G., and Mannila, H. 1997. Disjunctive datalog. ACM Transactions on Database Systems 22, 3 (Sept.), 364–418.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gebser, M., Pührer, J., Schaub, T., and Tompits, H. 2008. A meta-programming technique for debugging answer-set programs. In Proceedings of the 23rd AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI'08), Chicago, IL, July 13–17, 2008, Fox, D. and Gomes, C. P., Eds. AAAI Press, Menlo Park, CA, 448–453.Google Scholar
Gebser, M., Pührer, J., Schaub, T., Tompits, H., and Woltran, S. 2009. spock: A debugging support tool for logic programs under the answer-set semantics. In Revised Selected Papers of the 17th International Conference on Applications of Declarative Programming and Knowledge Management and the 21st Workshop on Logic Programming (INAP'07/WLP'07), Würzburg, Germany, October 4–6, 2007, Seipel, D., Hanus, M., and Wolf, A., Eds. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol. 5437. Springer, Berlin, 247–252.Google Scholar
Gelfond, M. and Lifschitz, V. 1991. Classical negation in logic programs and disjunctive databases. New Generation Computing 9, 3/4, 365–386.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lee, J. 2005. A model-theoretic counterpart of loop formulas. In Proceedings of the 19th International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI'05), Edinburgh, Scotland, UK, July 30-August 5, 2005, Kaelbling, L. P. and Saffiotti, A., Eds. Professional Book Center, Denver, CO, 503–508.Google Scholar
Lee, J. and Meng, Y. 2008. On loop formulas with variables. In Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Principles of Knowledge Representation and Reasoning (KR'08), Sydney, Australia, September 16–19, 2008, Brewka, G. and Lang, J., Eds. AAAI Press, Menlo Park, CA, 444–453.Google Scholar
Leone, N., Rullo, P., and Scarcello, F. 1997. Disjunctive stable models: Unfounded sets, fixpoint semantics, and computation. Information and Computation 135, 2, 69–112.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lin, F. and Zhao, Y. 2004. ASSAT: Computing answer sets of a logic program with SAT solvers. Artificial Intelligence 157, 1–2, 115–137.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mikitiuk, A., Moseley, E., and Truszczynski, M. 2007. Towards debugging of answer-set programs in the language PSpb. In Proceedings of the 2007 International Conference on Artificial Intelligence (ICAI'07), vol. II, Las Vegas, NV, June 25–28, 2007, Arabnia, H. R., Yang, M. Q., and Yang, J. Y., Eds. CSREA Press, Bogart, GA, 635–640.Google Scholar
Oetsch, J., Pührer, J., and Tompits, H. 2010. Methods and methodologies for developing answer-set programs—Project description. In Technical Communications of the 26th International Conference on Logic Programming (ICLP'10), Hermenegildo, M. and Schaub, T., Eds. Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), vol. 7. Schloss Dagstuhl–Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik, Dagstuhl, Germany.Google Scholar
Pontelli, E., Son, T. C., and El-Khatib, O. 2009. Justifications for logic programs under answer set semantics. Theory and Practice of Logic Programming 9, 1, 1–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Syrjänen, T. 2006. Debugging inconsistent answer set programs. In Proceedings of the 11th International Workshop on Non-Monotonic Reasoning (NMR'06), Lake District, UK, May 30–June 1, 2006, Dix, J. and Hunter, A., Eds. Institut für Informatik, Technische Universität Clausthal, Techical Report, Clausthal, Germany, 77–83.Google Scholar
Wittocx, J., Vlaeminck, H., and Denecker, M. 2009. Debugging for model expansion. In Proceedings of the 25th International Conference on Logic Programming (ICLP'09), Pasadena, CA, USA, July 14–17, 2009, Hill, P. M. and Warren, D. S., Eds. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol. 5649. Springer, Berlin, 296–311.Google Scholar