[5-8]A Synergistic Analysis Method for Explaining Failed Regression Tests

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Title: A Synergistic Analysis Method for Explaining Failed Regression Tests

Speaker: Prof. Zijiang Yang (Western Michigan University, USA)

        https://www.cs.wmich.edu/~zijiang/

Time: 8nd May 2015, 10:00

Venue: Seminar Room (334), Level 3, Building 5, Institute of Software, CAS

   Abstract: Experience has shown that software updates often introduce new bugs. Therefore, it is good practice to conduct regression testing during software development, which determines whether new bugs have been introduced into the code with previously working functionality. However, detecting these failures is only the first step. The more challenging task is to identify the relevant code changes and explain why these changes lead to the failure.  

   We propose a new automated debugging method for regression testing based on a synergistic application of both dynamic and semantic analysis.  Our method takes a failure-inducing test input, a buggy program, and an earlier correct version of the same program, and computes a minimal set of code changes responsible for the failure, as well as explaining how the code changes lead to the failure. Although this problem has been the subject of intensive research in recent years, existing methods are rarely adopted by developers in practice since they do not produce sufficiently accurate fault explanations for real applications. Our new method is significantly faster and more accurate than existing methods for explaining failed regression tests in real applications, due to its synergistic analysis framework that iteratively applies both dynamic analysis and a constraint solver based semantic analysis to leverage their complementary strengths. We have implemented our new method in a software tool based on the LLVM compiler and the KLEE symbolic virtual machine.  Our experiments on Linux applications show that the new method is both efficient and effective in practice. A paper based on this work has been accepted at ICSE’15. This project is in collaboration with Qiuping Yi, Dr. Jian Liu and Dr. Chen Zhao at ISCAS. 

  简历子江博士任西密西根大学算机科学系副教授。他2003年从美国夕法尼大学算机与信息科学系得博士学位,1999年从美国斯大学算机科学系士学位,1996年中国科技大学算机系得学士学位并校最高誉郭沫若学金。子江博士目前主要从事测试验证领域的研究。迄今表了六十余篇文及十美国。他2008年度ACM TODAES 最佳期刊, 2010 PADTAD最佳会议论2008年西密西根大学工学院研究成就2015年谷歌CS Engagement子江博士是国际电气工程师协会(IEEE深会,并担任密西根大学子与算机科学系访问教授,NEC 公司美国研中心科研顾问,美国自然科学基金委,美国宇航局博士后委,美国能源部科技企基金委等