= Problem specifications package format =

=== Submission packages ===

Submitted problem specifications have to be packaged in a single compressed archive named {{{benchmark_name-contributor_name.zip}}} (or {{{tar.gz}}}) containing:

  1. a {{{benchmark_name.spec.txt}}} file containing the textual problem description (a template is available, see below);

  2. a {{{benchmark_name.enc.asp}}} file containing a proposed encoding for the problem (which must match the provided language classification);

  3. a folder named {{{checker}}} containing the sources of a correctness checker together with a README.txt file containing the instructions for (possibly building and) running it;

  4. a folder named {{{samples}}} containing some instances (one instance per text file).

{{{benchmark_name}}} and {{{contributor_name}}} should be substituted with their actual value. The provision of a checker at this stage is optional.

A template package for benchmark submissions is available [[http://www.mat.unical.it/aspcomp2011/files/myproblem-aspteam-submission.zip|here]].


=== Finalized packages (for accepted problems only) ===

A finalized problem specification has to be packaged in a single compressed archive named {{{benchmark_name-contributor_name.zip}}} (or {{{tar.gz}}}) containing:

  1. a {{{benchmark_name.spec.txt}}} file containing the textual problem description (a template is available, see below);
  2. a {{{benchmark_name.enc.asp}}} file containing a proposed encoding for the problem (that must match the provided language classification);
  3. a folder named {{{checker}}} containing the sources of a correctness checker together with a README.txt file containing suitable instruction for (building and) running it.
  4. a folder named {{{instances}}} containing at least 50 numbered instances (one per file) named {{{XX-benchmark_name-MAXINT-MAXLEVEL.asp}}} where: XX is the instance number, MAXINT is the maximum integer (0 if not relevant), and the maximum function nesting level is MAXLEVEL (0 if not relevant), see Section [[BenchmarkSubmission#MAXINT-MAXLEVEL|Programs with Function symbols and integers]];
  5. a folder named {{{generator}}} containing the sources of an instance generator together with a README.txt file containing suitable instruction for (building and) running it; and,
  6. a {{{demonstration.txt}}} file in which the author provides sufficient arguments demonstrating that the benchmark problem can be effectively solved.

A template package for final benchmark submission is available [[http://www.mat.unical.it/aspcomp2011/files/myproblem-aspteam-finalized.zip|here]].


=== Checker format ===

The checker reads from standard input a witness in the prescribed format (see [[http://www.mat.unical.it/aspcomp2011/files/LanguageSpecifications.pdf|File and Language Format]] for details) and writes in standard output a single row of text containing the string {{{OK}}}, and the string {{{FAIL}}} otherwise.  The string "OK" must be followed by a space-separated integer representing the witness cost in case of optimization problems. The checker outputs {{{WARN}}} and an exit code different from zero in all other cases (e.g. the witness
is not syntactically correct, or the output {{{NO ANSWER SET FOUND}}} has been incorrectly piped towards the checker).
The source code of the correctness checker has to be be included in the package; moreover, the provided software must be able to (build and) run on the Debian i686 GNU/Linux(kernel ver. 2.6.26) operating system. A checker can be built on top of a logic specification for a solver of choice: in such a case binaries of the solver must be provided together with the checker encoding.

=== Problem Input-Output predicates and Instance Specification ===

In the following it is specified the allowed format for specifying input and output of problems and instances. Samples are available in the competition web site.

==== Problem Input and Output. ====

Benchmark problems specifications have to clearly indicate the vocabulary of input and output predicates, i.e., a list of predicate names for the input and a list of predicate names for the output and their arity in the usual logic programming notation (e.g. {{{p/2}}} denotes the binary predicate {{{p}}}).

==== Instance Specification. ====

Input instance are sequences of ''Facts'' (atoms followed by the dot "." character)
with only predicates of the input vocabulary, possibly separated by spaces and line breaks,
entirely saved in a text file (only one instance per file is allowed).


<<Anchor(MAXINT-MAXLEVEL)>>
==== Maximum Integer and maximum function nesting level, ====
have to be provided in a per-instance basis. In particular, they are specified in the filename containing a given instance. We recall that instances must be named {{{XX-benchmark_name-MAXINT-MAXLEVEL.asp}}} where {{{XX}}} is the instance number, {{{MAXINT}}} is the maximum integer ({{{0}}} if not relevant), and {{{MAXLEVEL}}} is the maximum function nesting level ({{{0}}} if not relevant).

##==== Remark. ====

##Recall that each ASP system (or solver script)  will read an input instance (from standard input) and will produce an output (to standard ##output) according to the specifications for the input and output format of call scripts reported in the ''Competition Rules'' document.