Automatic software fault localization using generic program invariants

• Type: Article in International Conference Proceedings Book
• Date: 2008

Authors

Abreu, R (Author) Other; Gonzalez, A (Author) Other; Zoeteweij, P (Author) Other; Van Gemund, AJC (Author) Other

Conference proceedings International

Title: APPLIED COMPUTING 2008, VOLS 1-3

Pages: 712-717

23rd Annual ACM Symposium on Applied Computing

Fortaleza, BRAZIL, MAR 16-20, 2008

Indexing

ISI Proceedings

Scopus - 28 Citations

Scientific classification

CORDIS: Technological sciences > Engineering > Computer engineering

Other information

Authenticus ID: P-008-PDD

DOI: 10.1145/1363686.1363855

Abstract (EN): Despite extensive testing in the development phase, residual defects can be a great threat to dependability in the operational phase. This paper studies the utility of low-cost, generic invariants ("screeners" ) in their capacity of error detectors within a spectrum-based fault localization (SFL) approach aimed to diagnose program defects in the operational phase. The screeners considered are simple bitmask and range invariants that screen every load/store and function argument/return program point. Their generic nature allows them to be automatically instrumented without any programmer-effort, while training is straightforward given the test cases available in the development phase. Experiments based on the Siemens program set demonstrate diagnostic performance that is similar to the traditional, development-time application of SFL based on the program pass/fail information known before-hand. This diagnostic performance is currently attained at an average 14% screener execution time overhead, but this overhead can be reduced at limited performance penalty. Copyright 2008 ACM.

Language: English

Type (Professor's evaluation): Scientific