The status of an operator determines which of its arguments is given the most weight when using a registered ordering to orient an equation containing that operator into a provably terminating rewrite rule.
Users can assign a status to an operator with the register status command.
The assign more weight, respectively, to the leftmost or rightmost arguments of an operator. The multiset status is appropriate for ac and commutative operators, because it gives all arguments equal weight. The dsmpos ordering is defined on terms containing an operator without a defined status if the ordering would produce the same results no matter what status was given to that operator. This property allows LP or the user to define the status of an operator without invalidating the proof of termination for previously oriented rewrite rules.