# The Semantics of Rule Selection¶

In this background article, we consider the precise semantics of Statix' rule selection, and motivate it. In the first section we consider the components of which a user-defined constraint in Statix is composed. After that, we consider how a constraint is solved. Next, we explain how Statix chooses an appropriate rule for a constraint, and finally, we explain the analysis Statix performs over specifications that guarantees that, for any constraint with ground arguments, at most one single rule is available.

## The Anatomy of a User-Defined Constraint¶

Statix allows users to define their own constraints. Before explaining how these constraints are evaluated, we explain the components of which user-defined constraints and their rules are built. We use the following specification snippet as an example.

rules

typeOfExpr: scope * Expr -> TYPE

[T-Int]typeOfExpr(s, IntLit(_)) = INT().

typeOfExpr(s, e1) == INT(),
typeOfExpr(s, e2) == INT().


In this example, a user-defined constraint typeOfExpr is defined. A user constraint consists of a constraint declaration and a collection of rules. A constraint declaration (line 3 of the example) introduces a user constraint by declaring its name and signature. This declaration indicates that propositions of the form typeOfExpr/3 can be proven. In order to prove such statements, rules (such as T-Int and T-Add) can be declared.

Rules can be split in two parts: the head and the body. The head is the part before the turnstile (:- symbol), while the body comes after it. Declaratively, such rules read as "from body, head can be derived".

A rule head consists of three components: the rule name, the constraint id, and the head pattern. The rule name (T-Int and T-Add in the example) is optional, and only serves documentation purposes. The constraint identifier indicates the predicate for which this rule can prove constraints. Finally, the head pattern determines which constraints can be proven using this rule.

## Solving a User-Defined Constraint¶

Given such constraint simplification rules, how can we solve constraints with them? The way this works in Statix is as follows. Statix takes a top-down approach. This means that it starts with an initial constraint, which it will simplify until a solution for the original constraint is found. For a user-defined constraint, this simplification proceeds in three steps:

1. Based on the predicate arguments, a matching rule is selected. A rule matches a constraint when the constraint arguments match agains the head pattern.
2. Based on the match, all head pattern variables in the constraint body are substituted with the values assigned to them by the head matching.
3. All constraints in the substituted body are added to the active constraint set, while the original (now simplified) constraint is removed from the set of active constraints.

For example, suppose the initial constraint is typeOfExpr(#s, Add(IntLit(20), IntLit(22))) == INT(). This constraint only matches the T-Add rule. Therefore that rule is selected. When matching the following pattern variable bindings are created:

  s  |-> #s
e1 |-> IntLit(20)
e2 |-> IntLit(22)

These bindings are substituted in the body of the T-Add rule, yielding the following constraints:

  typeOfExpr(#s, IntLit(20)) == INT()
typeOfExpr(#s, IntLit(22)) == INT()

These constraints are added to the set of active constraints, and then subsequently solved.

## Choosing from Multiple Applicable Rules¶

Now the question naturally arises what happens when multiple rules can be applied to try to solve a single constraint. For example, consider solving the constraint subtype(NULL(INT()), NULL(INT())) using the following specification.

rules

subtype: TYPE * TYPE -> TYPE

[S-Eq]subtype(T, T).

[S-Null]subtype(NULL(T1), T2) :-
subtype(T1, T2).

Both rules can be used to simplify the original constraint, but only S-Eq will ensure the constraint will be solved. Selecting S-Null yields subtype(NULL(INT()), INT()), as simplified constraint, for which no applicable rule exists.

At a first glance, the most robust option seems to try all possible rules, until a rule is found that ensures the constraint is solved. When the simplified constraints of a particular rule application cannot be fully solved, the modifications to the solver state are undone, and another rule is tried.

However, there are multiple problems with this approach. Perhaps most important, in a type-system we prefer to assign principal types. Principal types should be unique, and correspond to a minimal model. However, for such a backtracking approach, it is not guaranteed that a unique minimal solution for a constraint exists. For example, consider solving lub(INT(), INT()) == ?T with the following specification:

rules
lub: TYPE * TYPE -> TYPE

lub(T, T) = T.
lub(_, _) = ANY().

In this case, the rules show that both ?T |-> INT() and ?T |-> ANY() are solutions for this problem. However, one cannot derive from the specification (with the backtracking semantics) which solution is the intended one.

Additionally, backtracking comes with significant performance drawbacks. Consider backtracking on an edge assertion. All scope graph queries that traversed that edge now need to be undone, including all constraints over their answers. Although it is never tried for Statix itself, we expect such operations to become very bad in performance, limiting the scalability of Statix.

Specificity Ordering. Instead of backtracking, we employ a committed choice approach. That is, once Statix selects a rule, it will never backtrack on that choice. The rule that is selected is not arbitrary, but instead Statix tries to find the most specific rule that applies to the constraint. More precisely, the 'most specific' rule to select is determined as follows. First, we call the collection of term that match on a pattern the domain of the pattern. For example, NULL(T) matches NULL(INT()) and NULL(BOOL()) (i.e., those are in the domain of NULL(T)), but not INT(). Second, we call a pattern P1 more specific than another pattern P2 when the domain of P1 is strictly contained in the domain of P2. So, for example, the pattern NULL(INT()) is more specific than NULL(_), but of FUN(BOOL(), _) and FUN(INT(), _), neither is more specific than the other. We use this notion of pattern specificity to deterministically select a rule for a constraint as follows. When two rules (say R1 and R2) can both be used to solve a constraint C, we compare the argument patterns from R1 and R2 from left to right, and select the rule for which we first encounter a more specific pattern. This way of ordering rules is usually referred to as specificity ordering.

We explain this rule by applying them to the previous examples. Consider the rules S-Eq and S-Null again. When comparing these rules, first the patterns T (from S-Eq) and NULL(T) (from S-Null) are compared. It can easily be seen that T is more generic that NULL(T). Therefore, for the example constraint, S-Null is chosen.

An attentive reader might observe that choosing S-Null is perhaps not the intended choice of the specification writer. To solve this, an additional rule subtype(NULL(T), NULL(T)) (or, shorter but equivalent: subtype(T@NULL(_), T)) must be added. This rule takes precedence over the first rule, because NULL(T) is more specific than T. Moreover, it is also preferred over the second rule, as the following discussion will explain.

Non-linear Patterns. Looking to the lub(INT(), INT()) example, we first compare T with _. As both of them match all terms of their sort, they are considered equal. Hence the rule selection procedure continues with comparing the second pair of arguments. Again, the patterns T and _ are compared. While it seems that these patterns are again similar, that is not actually the case. Because the T variable did already occur earlier (that is, more to the left) in the pattern, its domain is restricted to the value assigned to the first occurrence of T. Therefore, the first constraint is selected, and INT() is determined to be the unique upper bound of two INT() types.

To see why this treatment of non-linear patterns (i.e., patterns in which a variable occurs multiple times) makes sense, consider selecting a rule for lub(INT(), BOOL()) == ?T. It is obvious that this constraint does not match the first rule, because the pattern variable T cannot be assigned both INT() and BOOL() at the same time. In the selection strategy outlined in the previous paragraph, this is accounted for by treating the second T as restricted to the value of its first occurrence.

This leads us to a last subtlety. Consider the constraint c(C(), C(), C()) in the following specification:

rules
c: S * S * S

[C-1]c(T, _, T).
[C-2]c(_, T, T) :- false

Applying the left-to-right comparison will regard the first two argument pairs equal, as both compare a wildcard with a new variable. When comparing the third pair of patterns (T and T), both of them are restricted by their earlier occurrence. In order to 'break ties' here, the rule in which the bound variable occurred the earliest is chosen. In this case, the T occurred at argument position 1 in C-1, while it occurred at position 2 in C-2. Therefore, for this constraint, rule C-1 is chosen.

In summary, given two applicable rules for a constraint, the rule to choose is decided using the following rules:

1. When pairwise comparing the arguments of the rules from left to right, the rule for which a more specific argument pattern is encountered first is chosen.
2. For non-linear patterns, a second occurrence of a variable is regarded as more specific than a first occurrence of a variable. When both variables are bound already, the one bound the earliest is considered the most specific.

## Guaranteeing Rule Selection Uniqueness¶

The rules outlined above cannot prioritize all pairs of rules. Therefore Statix statically prevents rules with overlapping patterns. In this section, we discuss which rule patterns are not allowed to co-exist.

Obviously, two equivalent patterns is not allowed. Consider for example the following specification:

rules
rule: S * S

rule(T, T).
rule(S, S) :- false.

In this specification, there are two rules with fully equivalent patterns. Thus it is not possible to prioritize a particular rule over another. Therefore Statix will statically reject this specification.

More intricate cases happen when non-linear patterns are involved. Consider this specification as an example:

rules
subtype: TYPE * TYPE

[S-Null]subtype(_, NULL()).
[S-Any]subtype(_, ANY()).

[S-Eq]subtype(T, T).

In this specification, S-Null and S-Any can co-exist without problems, because their domains do not overlap. However, this does not hold for S-Null and S-Eq, because subtype(NULL(), NULL()) matches both. In addition, they cannot be ordered using the rule ordering we explained so far. The first terms (_) are obviously equal, while the second terms (NULL() and ANY()) have no ordering. To prevent such runtime non-determinism, Statix will statically compare all rule heads using the rules outlined above. In case the heads of a pair of rules have overlapping domains, but can not be ordered (such as S-Eq and S-Null), a static error is emitted.

On the subset of possible rules that adheres to the static analysis described above, an ordering is defined on any pair of rules with overlapping domains. Therefore, for each constraint, a single rule is selected deterministically. This ensures constraints have a unique solution, giving Statix the desirable properties of confluence and efficiency.

## Conclusion¶

Statix uses a deterministic, committed-choice, rule selection mechanism to solve user-defined constraints. The choice mechanism prefers rules with a smaller domain (if applicable) over more general ones. In case of incomparable domains, a left-to-right comparison of the individual arguments is made. A static analysis on Statix specifications ensures there exist no rules that incomparable using this method in a real specification.

Last update: 2023-01-19