# Proof handling¶

In Coq’s proof editing mode all top-level commands documented in Chapter Vernacular commands remain available and the user has access to specialized commands dealing with proof development pragmas documented in this section. He can also use some other specialized commands called tactics. They are the very tools allowing the user to deal with logical reasoning. They are documented in Chapter Tactics. When switching in editing proof mode, the prompt Coq < is changed into ident < where ident is the declared name of the theorem currently edited.

At each stage of a proof development, one has a list of goals to prove. Initially, the list consists only in the theorem itself. After having applied some tactics, the list of goals contains the subgoals generated by the tactics.

To each subgoal is associated a number of hypotheses called the local context of the goal. Initially, the local context contains the local variables and hypotheses of the current section (see Section Assumptions) and the local variables and hypotheses of the theorem statement. It is enriched by the use of certain tactics (see e.g. intro).

When a proof is completed, the message Proof completed is displayed. One can then register this proof as a defined constant in the environment. Because there exists a correspondence between proofs and terms of λ-calculus, known as the Curry-Howard isomorphism [How80][Bar81][GLT89][Hue89], Coq stores proofs as terms of Cic. Those terms are called proof terms.

Error No focused proof

Coq raises this error message when one attempts to use a proof editing command out of the proof editing mode.

## Switching on/off the proof editing mode¶

The proof editing mode is entered by asserting a statement, which typically is the assertion of a theorem using an assertion command like Theorem. The list of assertion commands is given in Section Assertions and proofs. The command Goal can also be used.

Command Goal form.

This is intended for quick assertion of statements, without knowing in advance which name to give to the assertion, typically for quick testing of the provability of a statement. If the proof of the statement is eventually completed and validated, the statement is then bound to the name Unnamed_thm (or a variant of this name not already used for another statement).

Command Qed

This command is available in interactive editing proof mode when the proof is completed. Then Qed extracts a proof term from the proof script, switches back to Coq top-level and attaches the extracted proof term to the declared name of the original goal. This name is added to the environment as an opaque constant.

Error Attempt to save an incomplete proof

Note

Sometimes an error occurs when building the proof term, because tactics do not enforce completely the term construction constraints.

The user should also be aware of the fact that since the proof term is completely rechecked at this point, one may have to wait a while when the proof is large. In some exceptional cases one may even incur a memory overflow.

Variant Defined.

Defines the proved term as a transparent constant.

Variant Save ident.

Forces the name of the original goal to be ident. This command (and the following ones) can only be used if the original goal has been opened using the Goal command.

Command Admitted.

This command is available in interactive editing proof mode to give up the current proof and declare the initial goal as an axiom.

Command Proof term.

This command applies in proof editing mode. It is equivalent to

Command exact term. Qed.

That is, you have to give the full proof in one gulp, as a proof term (see Section Applying theorems).

Variant Proof.

Is a noop which is useful to delimit the sequence of tactic commands which start a proof, after a Theorem command. It is a good practice to use Proof. as an opening parenthesis, closed in the script with a closing Qed.

See also: Proof with tactic. in Section Setting implicit automation tactics.

Command Proof using ident1 … identn.

This command applies in proof editing mode. It declares the set of section variables (see Assumptions) used by the proof. At Qed time, the system will assert that the set of section variables actually used in the proof is a subset of the declared one.

The set of declared variables is closed under type dependency. For example if T is variable and a is a variable of type T, the commands Proof using a and Proof using T a are actually equivalent.

Variant Proof using ident1 … identn with tactic.

in Section Setting implicit automation tactics.

Variant Proof using All.

Use all section variables.

Variant Proof using Type.
Variant Proof using.

Use only section variables occurring in the statement.

Variant Proof using Type*.

The * operator computes the forward transitive closure. E.g. if the variable H has type p < 5 then H is in p* since p occurs in the type of H. Type* is the forward transitive closure of the entire set of section variables occurring in the statement.

Variant Proof using -(ident1 … identn).

Use all section variables except ident1identn.

Variant Proof using collection1 + collection2 .
Variant Proof using collection1 - collection2 .
Variant Proof using collection - ( ident1 … identn ).
Variant Proof using collection * .

Use section variables being, respectively, in the set union, set difference, set complement, set forward transitive closure. See Section Name a set of section hypotheses for Proof using to know how to form a named collection. The * operator binds stronger than + and -.

### Proof using options¶

The following options modify the behavior of Proof using.

Option Default Proof Using “expression”.

Use expression as the default Proof using value. E.g. Set Default Proof Using "a b". will complete all Proof commands not followed by a using part with using a b.

Option Suggest Proof Using.

When Qed is performed, suggest a using annotation if the user did not provide one.

### Name a set of section hypotheses for Proof using¶

Command Collection ident := section_subset_expr

The command Collection can be used to name a set of section hypotheses, with the purpose of making Proof using annotations more compact.

Variant Collection Some := x y z

Define the collection named “Some” containing x, y and z.

Variant Collection Fewer := Some - z

Define the collection named “Fewer” containing only x and y.

Variant Collection Many := Fewer + Some
Variant Collection Many := Fewer - Some

Define the collection named “Many” containing the set union or set difference of “Fewer” and “Some”.

Variant Collection Many := Fewer - (x y)

Define the collection named “Many” containing the set difference of “Fewer” and the unnamed collection x y

Command Abort.

This command cancels the current proof development, switching back to the previous proof development, or to the Coq toplevel if no other proof was edited.

Error No focused proof (No proof-editing in progress)
Variant Abort ident.

Aborts the editing of the proof named ident.

Variant Abort All.

Aborts all current goals, switching back to the Coq toplevel.

Command Existential num := term.

This command instantiates an existential variable. num is an index in the list of uninstantiated existential variables displayed by Show Existentials (described in Section Requesting information).

This command is intended to be used to instantiate existential variables when the proof is completed but some uninstantiated existential variables remain. To instantiate existential variables during proof edition, you should use the tactic instantiate.

See also: instantiate (num:= term). in Section Controlling the proof flow. See also: Grab Existential Variables. below.

Command Grab Existential Variables.

This command can be run when a proof has no more goal to be solved but has remaining uninstantiated existential variables. It takes every uninstantiated existential variable and turns it into a goal.

## Requesting information¶

Command Show.

This command displays the current goals.

Variant Show num

Displays only the num-th subgoal.

Error No such goal
Error No focused proof
Variant Show ident.

Displays the named goal ident. This is useful in particular to display a shelved goal but only works if the corresponding existential variable has been named by the user (see Existential variables) as in the following example.

Example

Goal exists n, n = 0.
1 subgoal ============================ exists n : nat, n = 0
eexists ?[n].
1 focused subgoal (shelved: 1) ============================ ?n = 0
Show n.
subgoal n is: ============================ nat
Variant Show Script.

Displays the whole list of tactics applied from the beginning of the current proof. This tactics script may contain some holes (subgoals not yet proved). They are printed under the form

<Your Tactic Text here>.

Variant Show Proof.

It displays the proof term generated by the tactics that have been applied. If the proof is not completed, this term contain holes, which correspond to the sub-terms which are still to be constructed. These holes appear as a question mark indexed by an integer, and applied to the list of variables in the context, since it may depend on them. The types obtained by abstracting away the context from the type of each hole-placer are also printed.

Variant Show Conjectures.

It prints the list of the names of all the theorems that are currently being proved. As it is possible to start proving a previous lemma during the proof of a theorem, this list may contain several names.

Variant Show Intro.

If the current goal begins by at least one product, this command prints the name of the first product, as it would be generated by an anonymous intro. The aim of this command is to ease the writing of more robust scripts. For example, with an appropriate Proof General macro, it is possible to transform any anonymous intro into a qualified one such as intro y13. In the case of a non-product goal, it prints nothing.

Variant Show Intros.

This command is similar to the previous one, it simulates the naming process of an intros.

Variant Show Existentials.

It displays the set of all uninstantiated existential variables in the current proof tree, along with the type and the context of each variable.

Variant Show Match ident.

This variant displays a template of the Gallina match construct with a branch for each constructor of the type ident

Example

Show Match nat.
match # with | O => | S x => end
Error Unknown inductive type
Variant Show Universes.

It displays the set of all universe constraints and its normalized form at the current stage of the proof, useful for debugging universe inconsistencies.

Command Guarded.

Some tactics (e.g. refine Applying theorems) allow to build proofs using fixpoint or co-fixpoint constructions. Due to the incremental nature of interactive proof construction, the check of the termination (or guardedness) of the recursive calls in the fixpoint or cofixpoint constructions is postponed to the time of the completion of the proof.

The command Guarded allows checking if the guard condition for fixpoint and cofixpoint is violated at some time of the construction of the proof without having to wait the completion of the proof.

## Controlling the effect of proof editing commands¶

Option Hyps Limit num

This option controls the maximum number of hypotheses displayed in goals after the application of a tactic. All the hypotheses remain usable in the proof development. When unset, it goes back to the default mode which is to print all available hypotheses.

Option Automatic Introduction

This option controls the way binders are handled in assertion commands such as Theorem ident [binders] : form. When the option is set, which is the default, binders are automatically put in the local context of the goal to prove.

The option can be unset by issuing Unset Automatic Introduction. When the option is unset, binders are discharged on the statement to be proved and a tactic such as intro (see Section Managing the local context) has to be used to move the assumptions to the local context.

## Controlling memory usage¶

When experiencing high memory usage the following commands can be used to force Coq to optimize some of its internal data structures.

Command Optimize Proof.

This command forces Coq to shrink the data structure used to represent the ongoing proof.

Command Optimize Heap.

This command forces the OCaml runtime to perform a heap compaction. This is in general an expensive operation. See: OCaml Gc There is also an analogous tactic optimize_heap.