Termination slicing in logic programs

Abstract. In this paper we present a slicing approach for termination analysis of logic programs. The notion of a failure-slice is introduced which is an executable reduced part of the program. Each failure-slice represents a necessary termination condition for the program. The minimal subset of failure-slices that constitutes a sufficient termination condition is approximated by a combination of static and dynamic techniques. A global analysis using finite domain constraints is combined with the actual execution of some failure-slices. In this manner accurate explanations are derived automatically.