assert p;where p is a temporal formula, means that every execution of the program must satisfy the formula p. An execution that does not satisfy the formula is called a failure of the program.
An assertion may be given a name. For example:
foo : assert p;This does not change the semantics of the program, but provides an identifier ``foo'' for referring to the given assertion. The code
foo : assert p; foo : assert q;is equivalent to
foo : assert p & q;