INA combines the following:
The by-hand simulation part allows starting at a given marking to forward fire either single transitions or maximal steps; the user can thus traverse parts of the reachability graph.
The reduction part can be used to reduce the size of a net (and of its reachability graph) whilst preserving liveness and boundedness.
The analysis can be carried out under different transition rules (normal, safe, under capacities), with or without priorities or time restrictions (three types), and under firing of single transitions or maximal sets of concurrently enabled transitions.
The analysis part contains a small expert system which infers - from the known ones - further properties of the given net.
The structural informations computed include:
Invariant analysis can be done by computing generator sets of all place/transition invariants and of all non negative invariants. Vectors can be tested for invariance properties.
For checking boundedness and coverability, the coverability graph of the actual net can be computed using either the Karp-Miller algorithm or Finkel's method.
For bounded nets, the reachability graph can be computed and analysed for liveness, reversability, dynamic conflicts, realisable transition invariants, livelocks etc. The symmetries of the given net can be computed and used to reduce the size of the reachability graph. It is also possible to apply stubborn reduction. Formulas expressed in the Computational Tree Logic (CTL) - built using state predicates - can be checked.
Furthermore, minimal paths can be computed, and the nonreachability of a marking can be decided.
No restrictions are imposed on the size of the net, except, of course, the RAM-capacity of the computer used. During a session, all commands and options are saved to a command file, so that the session can be repeated automatically with a different net.
Some external graphical editors and tools can export nets to INA, e.g.
inatcl/TkINA
INA is not directly usable as a computing engine for other
applications (it is not possible to invoke algorithms from outside the
program) and does not provide a graphical user interface. Therefore inatcl
and TkINA were developed.
inatcl is a tcl-based interface to (some) functionality provided by INA. It allows to write simple applications using the interpreted scripting language tcl.
TkINA provides a graphical interface for starting analysis algorithms; some results are displayed in a textual format. It is integrated in the PEP tool (Programming Envorionment based on Petri Nets) and does not provide its own graphical editor. Within the PEP tool it can be used to generate and highlight e.g. invariants, deadlocks, and state machine components. Nevertheless TkINA can also be used as a standalone tool.
The official Web site is: www2.informatik.hu-berlin.de/lehrstuehle/automaten/ina/
The program and the documentation come without any warranty and are free for any non-commercial use. The MODULA-2 source code is available; for terms and conditions (to be negotiated), contact us.
Last update: (see recent changes and the notes below)
If gunzip does not work (i.e. it says "not in gzip format") after retrieving a file for Unix or Linux, then (especially if you use Netscape) the file is gunziped on the fly during download. Please rename and change the access permissions for execution! File types can be determined with the standard Unix utility called "file".
- additional note for Linux version only: The binary depends on some libraries which may not exist in compatible versions on your system. If you encounter an error like "./INAlinux: relocation error: ./INAlinux: symbol errno, version GLIBC_2.0 not defined in file libc.so.6 with link time reference" then try to set the environment variable LD_ASSUME_KERNEL to 2.4.1, i.e. export LD_ASSUME_KERNEL=2.4.1 for bash or setenv LD_ASSUME_KERNEL 2.4.1 for (t)csh. We also provide a statically linked version which does not need this workaround (see above).
Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
Institut für Informatik
Lehrstuhl für Automaten- und Systemtheorie
Unter den Linden 6
D-10099 Berlin
Telefon: (+49) (30) 2093 3078
Fax: (+49) (30) 2093 3081
Stephan Roch
Prof. Peter H. Starke
Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
Institut für Informatik
Lehrstuhl für Automaten- und Systemtheorie
Unter den Linden 6
10099 Berlin
Full-text search in this manual
The following formats can be downloaded here:
Example nets of the manual (zip packed for Linux or Unix) [5 kB]
Example nets of the manual (pkzip packed for Windows) [5 kB]
© 1996-2003 Prof. Peter H. Starke (starke@informatik.hu-berlin.de) und Stephan Roch (roch@...)
INA Manual Version 2.2 (last changed 2000-08-22)