autfilt

autfilt can read automata written in the Hanoi Omega Automata Format, as Spin never claims, using LBTT's format, or using ltl2dstar's format. Automata in those formats (even a mix of those formats) can be concatenated in the same stream, autfilt will process them in batch. (The only restriction is that inside a file an automaton in LBTT's format may not follow an automaton in ltl2dstar's format.)

By default, the output uses the HOA format. This can be changed using the common output options like --spin, --lbtt, --dot, --stats…

cat >example.hoa <<EOF
HOA: v1
States: 1
Start: 0
AP: 1 "p0"
Acceptance: 1 Inf(0)
--BODY--
State: 0
[0] 0 {0}
[!0] 0
--END--
EOF
autfilt example.hoa --dot

digraph "" {
  rankdir=LR
  label=<Inf(<font color="#1F78B4">⓿</font>)<br/>[Büchi]>
  labelloc="t"
  node [shape="circle"]
  node [style="filled", fillcolor="#ffffa0"]
  fontname="Lato"
  node [fontname="Lato"]
  edge [fontname="Lato"]
  I [label="", style=invis, width=0]
  I -> 0
  0 [label=<0>]
  0 -> 0 [label=<p0<br/><font color="#1F78B4">⓿</font>>]
  0 -> 0 [label=<!p0>]
}

The --spin option implicitly requires a degeneralization:

autfilt example.hoa --spin

never {
T0_init:
  if
  :: (!(p0)) -> goto T0_init
  :: (p0) -> goto accept_S1
  fi;
accept_S1:
  if
  :: (!(p0)) -> goto T0_init
  :: (p0) -> goto accept_S1
  fi;
}

Option --lbtt only works for Büchi or generalized Büchi acceptance.

autfilt example.hoa --lbtt

1 1t
0 1
0 0 -1 p0
0 -1 ! p0
-1

One special output format of autfilt is the statistic output. For instance the following command calls randaut to generate 10 random automata, and pipe the result into autfilt to display various statistics.

randaut -n 10 -A0..2 -Q10..20 -e0.05 2 |
autfilt --stats='%s states, %e edges, %a acc-sets, %c SCCs, det=%d'

16 states, 30 edges, 1 acc-sets, 3 SCCs, det=0
20 states, 42 edges, 2 acc-sets, 1 SCCs, det=0
15 states, 27 edges, 2 acc-sets, 1 SCCs, det=0
10 states, 17 edges, 1 acc-sets, 1 SCCs, det=1
13 states, 25 edges, 1 acc-sets, 1 SCCs, det=0
11 states, 18 edges, 0 acc-sets, 1 SCCs, det=0
19 states, 41 edges, 2 acc-sets, 1 SCCs, det=0
11 states, 18 edges, 0 acc-sets, 1 SCCs, det=0
12 states, 21 edges, 1 acc-sets, 5 SCCs, det=0
18 states, 37 edges, 1 acc-sets, 5 SCCs, det=0

The following % sequences are available:

%%                         a single %
%<                         the part of the line before the automaton if it
                           comes from a column extracted from a CSV file
%>                         the part of the line after the automaton if it
                           comes from a column extracted from a CSV file
%A, %a                     number of acceptance sets
%C, %c, %[LETTERS]C, %[LETTERS]c
                           number of SCCs; you may filter the SCCs to count
                           using the following LETTERS, possibly
                           concatenated: (a) accepting, (r) rejecting, (c)
                           complete, (v) trivial, (t) terminal, (w) weak,
                           (iw) inherently weak. Use uppercase letters to
                           negate them.
%D, %d                     1 if the automaton is deterministic, 0 otherwise
%E, %e, %[LETTER]E, %[LETTER]e   number of edges (add one LETTER to select
                           (r) reachable [default], (u) unreachable, (a)
                           all).
%F                         name of the input file
%G, %g, %[LETTERS]G, %[LETTERS]g
                           acceptance condition (in HOA syntax); add brackets
                           to print an acceptance name instead and LETTERS to
                           tweak the format: (0) no parameters, (a)
                           accentuated, (b) abbreviated, (d) style used in
                           dot output, (g) no generalized parameter, (l)
                           recognize Street-like and Rabin-like, (m) no main
                           parameter, (p) no parity parameter, (o) name
                           unknown acceptance as 'other', (s) shorthand for
                           'lo0'.
%H, %h                     the automaton in HOA format on a single line (use
                           %[opt]H or %[opt]h to specify additional options
                           as in --hoa=opt)
%L                         location in the input file
%l                         serial number of the output automaton (0-based)
%M, %m                     name of the automaton
%N, %n                     number of nondeterministic states
%P, %p                     1 if the automaton is complete, 0 otherwise
%r                         wall-clock time elapsed in seconds (excluding
                           parsing)
%R, %[LETTERS]R            CPU time (excluding parsing), in seconds; add
                           LETTERS to restrict to (u) user time, (s) system
                           time, (p) parent process, or (c) children
                           processes.
%S, %s, %[LETTER]S, %[LETTER]s   number of states (add one LETTER to select
                           (r) reachable [default], (u) unreachable, (a)
                           all).
%T, %t, %[LETTER]T, %[LETTER]t   number of transitions (add one LETTER to
                           select (r) reachable [default], (u) unreachable,
                           (a) all).
%U, %u, %[LETTER]U, %[LETTER]u   1 if the automaton contains some universal
                           branching (or a number of [s]tates or [e]dges with
                           universal branching)
%W, %w                     one word accepted by the automaton
%X, %x, %[LETTERS]X, %[LETTERS]x
                           number of atomic propositions declared in the
                           automaton;  add LETTERS to list atomic
                           propositions with (n) no quoting, (s) occasional
                           double-quotes with C-style escape, (d)
                           double-quotes with C-style escape, (c)
                           double-quotes with CSV-style escape, (p) between
                           parentheses, any extra non-alphanumeric character
                           will be used to separate propositions

When a letter is available both as uppercase and lowercase, the uppercase version refers to the input automaton, while the lowercase refer to the output automaton. Of course this distinction makes sense only if autfilt was instructed to perform an operation on the input automaton.

autfilt offers multiple options to filter automata based on different characteristics of the automaton.

    --acc-sccs=RANGE, --accepting-sccs=RANGE
                           keep automata whose number of non-trivial
                           accepting SCCs is in RANGE
    --acc-sets=RANGE       keep automata whose number of acceptance sets is
                           in RANGE
    --accept-word=WORD     keep automata that accept WORD
    --acceptance-is=NAME|FORMULA
                           match automata with given acceptance condition
    --ap=RANGE             match automata with a number of (declared) atomic
                           propositions in RANGE
    --are-isomorphic=FILENAME   keep automata that are isomorphic to the
                           automaton in FILENAME
    --edges=RANGE          keep automata whose number of edges is in RANGE
    --enlarge-acceptance-set   enlarge the number of accepting transitions
                           (or states if -S) in a Büchi automaton
    --equivalent-to=FILENAME   keep automata that are equivalent
                           (language-wise) to the automaton in FILENAME
    --has-exist-branching  keep automata that use existential branching
                           (i.e., make non-deterministic choices)
    --has-univ-branching   keep alternating automata that use universal
                           branching
    --included-in=FILENAME keep automata whose languages are included in that
                           of the automaton from FILENAME
    --inherently-weak-sccs=RANGE
                           keep automata whose number of accepting
                           inherently-weak SCCs is in RANGE.  An accepting
                           SCC is inherently weak if it does not have a
                           rejecting cycle.
    --intersect=FILENAME   keep automata whose languages have a non-empty
                           intersection with the automaton from FILENAME
    --is-alternating       keep only automata using universal branching
    --is-colored           keep colored automata (i.e., exactly one
                           acceptance mark per transition or state)
    --is-complete          keep complete automata
    --is-deterministic     keep deterministic automata
    --is-empty             keep automata with an empty language
    --is-inherently-weak   keep only inherently weak automata
    --is-semi-deterministic   keep semi-deterministic automata
    --is-stutter-invariant keep automata representing stutter-invariant
                           properties
    --is-terminal          keep only terminal automata
    --is-unambiguous       keep only unambiguous automata
    --is-very-weak         keep only very-weak automata
    --is-weak              keep only weak automata
    --nondet-states=RANGE  keep automata whose number of nondeterministic
                           states is in RANGE
-N, --nth=RANGE            assuming input automata are numbered from 1, keep
                           only those in RANGE
    --reduce-acceptance-set   reduce the number of accepting transitions (or
                           states if -S) in a Büchi automaton
    --rej-sccs=RANGE, --rejecting-sccs=RANGE
                           keep automata whose number of non-trivial
                           rejecting SCCs is in RANGE
    --reject-word=WORD     keep automata that reject WORD
    --sccs=RANGE           keep automata whose number of SCCs is in RANGE
    --states=RANGE         keep automata whose number of states is in RANGE
    --terminal-sccs=RANGE  keep automata whose number of accepting terminal
                           SCCs is in RANGE.  Terminal SCCs are weak and
                           complete.
    --triv-sccs=RANGE, --trivial-sccs=RANGE
                           keep automata whose number of trivial SCCs is in
                           RANGE
    --unused-ap=RANGE      match automata with a number of declared, but
                           unused atomic propositions in RANGE
    --used-ap=RANGE        match automata with a number of used atomic
                           propositions in RANGE
-u, --unique               do not output the same automaton twice (same in
                           the sense that they are isomorphic)
-v, --invert-match         select non-matching automata
    --weak-sccs=RANGE      keep automata whose number of accepting weak SCCs
                           is in RANGE.  In a weak SCC, all transitions
                           belong to the same acceptance sets.

For instance --states=2..5 --acc-sets=3 will keep only automata that use 3 acceptance sets, and that have between 2 and 5 states.

Except for --unique, all these filters can be inverted using option -v. Using --states=2..5 --acc-sets=3 -v will drop all automata that use 3 acceptance sets and that have between 2 and 5 states, and keep the others.

The standard set of automata simplification routines (these are often referred to as the "post-processing" routines, because these are the procedures performed by ltl2tgba after translating a formula into a TGBA) are available through the following options.

This set of options controls the desired type of output automaton:

-b, --buchi, --Buchi       automaton with Büchi acceptance
-B, --sba, --ba            state-based Büchi Automaton (same as -S -b)
    --cobuchi, --coBuchi   automaton with co-Büchi acceptance (will
                           recognize a superset of the input language if not
                           co-Büchi realizable)
-C, --complete             output a complete automaton
-G, --generic              any acceptance is allowed (default)
-M, --monitor              Monitor (accepts all finite prefixes of the given
                           property)
-p, --colored-parity[=any|min|max|odd|even|min odd|min even|max odd|max
    even]                  colored automaton with parity acceptance
-P, --parity[=any|min|max|odd|even|min odd|min even|max odd|max even]
                           automaton with parity acceptance
-S, --state-based-acceptance, --sbacc
                           define the acceptance using states
    --tgba, --gba          automaton with Generalized Büchi acceptance

These options specify any simplification goal:

-a, --any                  no preference, do not bother making it small or
                           deterministic
-D, --deterministic        prefer deterministic automata (combine with
                           --generic to be sure to obtain a deterministic
                           automaton)
    --small                prefer small automata

Finally, the following switches control the amount of effort applied toward the desired goal:

--high                 all available optimizations (slow)
--low                  minimal optimizations (fast)
--medium               moderate optimizations

By default, --any --low is used, which cause all simplifications to be skipped. However, if any goal is given, then the simplification level defaults to --high (unless specified otherwise). If a simplification level is given without specifying any goal, then the goal default to --small.

So if you want to reduce the size of the automaton, try --small and if you want to try to make (or keep) it deterministic use --deterministic.

Note that the --deterministic flag has two possible behaviors depending on the constraints on the acceptance conditions:

• When autfilt is configured to work with generic acceptance (the --generic option, which is the default) or parity acceptance (using --parity or --colored-parity), then the --deterministic flag will do whatever it takes to output a deterministic automaton, and this includes changing the acceptance condition if needed (see below).
• If options --tgba or --ba are used, the --deterministic option is taken as a preference: autfilt will try to favor determinism in the output, but it may not always succeed and may output non-deterministic automata. Note that if autfilt --deterministic --tgba fails to output a deterministic automaton, it does not necessarily imply that a deterministic TGBA does not exist: it just implies that autfilt could not find it.

The following transformations are available:

--cleanup-acceptance   remove unused acceptance sets from the automaton
--cnf-acceptance       put the acceptance condition in Conjunctive Normal
                       Form
--complement           complement each automaton (different strategies
                       are used)
--complement-acceptance   complement the acceptance condition (without
                       touching the automaton)
--decompose-scc=t|w|s|N|aN, --decompose-strength=t|w|s|N|aN
                       extract the (t) terminal, (w) weak, or (s) strong
                       part of an automaton or (N) the subautomaton
                       leading to the Nth SCC, or (aN) to the Nth
                       accepting SCC (option can be combined with commas
                       to extract multiple parts)
--destut               allow less stuttering
--dnf-acceptance       put the acceptance condition in Disjunctive Normal
                       Form
--dualize              dualize each automaton
--exclusive-ap=AP,AP,...   if any of those APs occur in the automaton,
                       restrict all edges to ensure two of them may not
                       be true at the same time.  Use this option
                       multiple times to declare independent groups of
                       exclusive propositions.
--generalized-rabin[=unique-inf|share-inf], --gra[=unique-inf|share-inf]
                       rewrite the acceptance condition as generalized
                       Rabin; the default "unique-inf" option uses the
                       generalized Rabin definition from the HOA format;
                       the "share-inf" option allows clauses to share Inf
                       sets, therefore reducing the number of sets
--generalized-streett[=unique-fin|share-fin], --gsa[=unique-fin|share-fin]                             
                       rewrite the acceptance condition as generalized
                       Streett; the "share-fin" option allows clauses to
                       share Fin sets, therefore reducing the number of
                       sets; the default "unique-fin" does not
--instut[=1|2]         allow more stuttering (two possible algorithms)
--keep-states=NUM[,NUM...]   only keep specified states.  The first state
                       will be the new initial state.  Implies
                       --remove-unreachable-states.
--kill-states=NUM[,NUM...]   mark the specified states as dead (no
                       successor), and remove them.  Implies
                       --remove-dead-states.
--mask-acc=NUM[,NUM...]   remove all transitions in specified acceptance
                       sets
--merge-transitions    merge transitions with same destination and
                       acceptance
--partial-degeneralize[=NUM1,NUM2,...]
                       Degeneralize automata according to sets
                       NUM1,NUM2,... If no sets are given, partial
                       degeneralization is performed for all conjunctions
                       of Inf and disjunctions of Fin.
--product=FILENAME, --product-and=FILENAME
                       build the product with the automaton in FILENAME
                       to intersect languages
--product-or=FILENAME  build the product with the automaton in FILENAME
                       to sum languages
--randomize[=s|t]      randomize states and transitions (specify 's' or
                       't' to randomize only states or transitions)
--remove-ap=AP[=0|=1][,AP...]
                       remove atomic propositions either by existential
                       quantification, or by assigning them 0 or 1
--remove-dead-states   remove states that are unreachable, or that cannot
                       belong to an infinite path
--remove-fin           rewrite the automaton without using Fin acceptance

--remove-unreachable-states
                       remove states that are unreachable from the
                       initial state
--remove-unused-ap     remove declared atomic propositions that are not
                       used
--sat-minimize[=options]   minimize the automaton using a SAT solver
                       (only works for deterministic automata). Supported
                       options are acc=STRING, states=N, max-states=N,
                       sat-incr=N, sat-incr-steps=N, sat-langmap,
                       sat-naive, colored, preproc=N. Spot uses by
                       default its PicoSAT distribution but an external
                       SATsolver can be set thanks to the SPOT_SATSOLVER
                       environment variable(see spot-x).
--separate-edges       split edges into transitions labeled by a disjoint
                       set of labels that form a basis for the original
                       automaton
--separate-sets        if both Inf(x) and Fin(x) appear in the acceptance
                       condition, replace Fin(x) by a new Fin(y) and
                       adjust the automaton
--simplify-acceptance  simplify the acceptance condition by merging
                       identical acceptance sets and by simplifying some
                       terms containing complementary sets
--simplify-exclusive-ap   if --exclusive-ap is used, assume those AP
                       groups are actually exclusive in the system to
                       simplify the expression of transition labels
                       (implies --merge-transitions)
--split-edges          split edges into transitions labeled by
                       conjunctions of all atomic propositions, so they
                       can be read as letters
--streett-like         convert to an automaton with Streett-like
                       acceptance. Works only with acceptance condition
                       in DNF
--strip-acceptance     remove the acceptance condition and all acceptance
                       sets
--sum=FILENAME, --sum-or=FILENAME
                       build the sum with the automaton in FILENAME to
                       sum languages
--sum-and=FILENAME     build the sum with the automaton in FILENAME to
                       intersect languages
--to-finite[=alive]    Convert an automaton with "alive" and "!alive"
                       propositions into a Büchi automaton interpretable
                       as a finite automaton.  States with a outgoing
                       "!alive" edge are marked as accepting.

Decorations work by coloring some states or edges in the automaton. They are only useful when the automaton is output in Dot format (with --dot or -d) or HOA v1.1 format (with -H1.1 or --hoa=1.1).

--highlight-accepting-run[=NUM]
                       highlight one accepting run using color NUM
--highlight-languages  highlight states that recognize identical
                       languages
--highlight-nondet[=NUM]   highlight nondeterministic states and edges
                       with color NUM
--highlight-nondet-edges[=NUM]
                       highlight nondeterministic edges with color NUM
--highlight-nondet-states[=NUM]
                       highlight nondeterministic states with color NUM
--highlight-word=[NUM,]WORD
                       highlight one run matching WORD using color NUM

Color numbers are indices in some hard-coded color palette. It is the same palette that is currently used to display colored acceptance sets, but this might change in the future.