Boogie vs PVS
Boogie
github.comPVS
pvs.csl.sri.comSide by side
| Figure | Boogie | PVS |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 2 |
| Spec score · Formal Verification Tools | 8.1 (#7) | 8.3 (#4) |
| Purpose | Boogie is an intermediate modeling and verification language used as a layer for building program verifiers for other languages. | PVS is a verification system combining a specification language, support tools, and a theorem prover. |
| Support | The project directs users to its GitHub issue tracker to ask questions and report issues. | Support is offered through developer and bug-report email addresses, GitHub issues, Google Groups, and moderated mailing lists. |
Plans
In their own words
Boogie
Boogie is a modeling language and tool for building program verifiers for other languages. It accepts Boogie language input, can optionally infer invariants, and generates verification conditions for an SMT solver. Z3 is the default solver; CVC5 and Yices2 support is experimental. The Civl extension lets users model concurrent and distributed systems. Boogie is self-hosted and distributed as a.NET global tool through NuGet. It requires.NET and a supported SMT solver, and the NuGet listing identifies version 3.5.7 as targeting.NET 8.0 or higher. The project uses the MIT License and is free at free. The repository names VCC and HAVOC for C, along with Dafny, Chalice, Spec#, and Move verifiers, as projects built on Boogie. Yices2 has a stated constraint: it works for unquantified fragments such as arrays, arithmetic, and bitvectors, but not for quantifiers, generalized arrays, or datatypes. Users can ask questions or report issues through the project issue tracker, and contributions are accepted through pull requests.
PVS
PVS is a mechanized environment for formal specification and verification, intended for work such as mathematical formalization and hardware or algorithm verification. Its language is based on typed higher-order logic and supports predicate subtypes, dependent types, and parameterized theories. The system combines predefined theories, a type checker, interactive theorem prover, symbolic model checker, utilities, libraries, documentation, and examples. Proof support includes induction, rewriting, simplification with decision procedures, abstraction, and symbolic model checking; command-line tools can re-prove theories and libraries in batch mode. PVS also integrates the Yices SMT solver, supports random testing during proofs, and includes PVSio for evaluation and animation. GNU or X Emacs provides the integrated interface, with Tcl/Tk displays for proof trees and theory hierarchies. It runs on Linux, macOS, and Windows and is self-hosted. Noncommercial use is listed at free. Sources are under GPL, but the Allegro runtime has a separate click-through license, and commercial users need a current PVS license or must contact SRI about licensing.