ISO Prolog Unification: Transitioning to Occurs Check Validation

Standard ISO Prolog implementations typically omit the occurs check during unification to optimize performance. This behavior allows for the creation of cyclic terms, which can lead to unsoundness or infinite recursion in certain predicates.

When transitioning a codebase from a permissive environment to one requiring strict logical soundness, the mechanism for enforcing the occurs check must be explicitly managed. The challenge lies in balancing the performance penalty of the check against the risk of cyclic terms in complex data structures.

Technical Constraints

• Compliance with ISO Prolog standards regarding term unification.
• Prevention of infinite loops during variable binding.
• Minimization of execution overhead in large-scale unification tasks.

Which predicates or configuration flags are recommended to enforce the occurs check globally? How does the behavior of cyclic term detection differ between standard unification and the unify_with_occurs_check/2 predicate?