A FAULT LOCALIZATION FRAMEWORK TO ALLEVIATE THE IMPACT OF EXECUTION SIMILARITY

ISCAS OpenIR

	A FAULT LOCALIZATION FRAMEWORK TO ALLEVIATE THE IMPACT OF EXECUTION SIMILARITY
	Zhao, Lei; Zhang, Zhenyu; Wang, Lina; Yin, Xiaodan
	2013
发表期刊	INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SOFTWARE ENGINEERING AND KNOWLEDGE ENGINEERING
ISSN	0218-1940
卷号	23 期号:7 页码:963-998
摘要	Coverage-based fault localization (CBFL) techniques contrast the execution spectra of a program entity to assess the extent of how much a program entity is being related to faults. However, different test cases may result in similar executions, which further make the execution spectra of program entities be indistinguishable among similar executions. As a consequence, most of the current CBFL techniques are impacted by the noise of indistinguishable spectra. To alleviate the impact of execution similarity and improve the effectiveness of CBFL techniques, we propose a general fault localization framework. This framework is general to current execution spectra based CBFL techniques, which could synthesize a fault localization technique based on a given base technique. To synthesize the new technique, we use the concept of coverage vector to model execution spectra and capture the execution similarity, then reduce the impact of execution similarity by counting distinct coverage vectors, and finally assess the suspiciousness of basic blocks being related to faults with the spectra of distinct coverage vectors. We adopt four representative fault localization techniques as base techniques, use seven Siemens programs and three median-sized real-life UNIX utility programs as subject programs, to conduct an experimental study on the effectiveness of our framework. The empirical evaluation shows that our framework can effectively alleviate the impact of execution similarity and generate more effective fault localization techniques based on existing ones.; Coverage-based fault localization (CBFL) techniques contrast the execution spectra of a program entity to assess the extent of how much a program entity is being related to faults. However, different test cases may result in similar executions, which further make the execution spectra of program entities be indistinguishable among similar executions. As a consequence, most of the current CBFL techniques are impacted by the noise of indistinguishable spectra. To alleviate the impact of execution similarity and improve the effectiveness of CBFL techniques, we propose a general fault localization framework. This framework is general to current execution spectra based CBFL techniques, which could synthesize a fault localization technique based on a given base technique. To synthesize the new technique, we use the concept of coverage vector to model execution spectra and capture the execution similarity, then reduce the impact of execution similarity by counting distinct coverage vectors, and finally assess the suspiciousness of basic blocks being related to faults with the spectra of distinct coverage vectors. We adopt four representative fault localization techniques as base techniques, use seven Siemens programs and three median-sized real-life UNIX utility programs as subject programs, to conduct an experimental study on the effectiveness of our framework. The empirical evaluation shows that our framework can effectively alleviate the impact of execution similarity and generate more effective fault localization techniques based on existing ones.
收录类别	SCI
关键词	Fault Localization Coverage Vector Execution Similarity
部门归属	[Zhao, Lei; Wang, Lina] Key Lab Aerosp Informat Secur & Trust Comp, Wuhan 430072, Peoples R China. [Zhao, Lei; Wang, Lina; Yin, Xiaodan] Wuhan Univ, Comp Sch, Wuhan 430072, Peoples R China. [Zhao, Lei] Nanjing Univ, State Key Lab Novel Software Technol, Nanjing 210008, Jiangsu, Peoples R China. [Zhang, Zhenyu] Chinese Acad Sci, State Key Lab Comp Sci, Inst Software, Beijing 100190, Peoples R China.
语种	英语
WOS记录号	WOS:000328356900004
引用统计
内容类型	期刊论文
URI标识	http://ir.iscas.ac.cn/handle/311060/16694
专题	中国科学院软件研究所
推荐引用方式 GB/T 7714	Zhao, Lei,Zhang, Zhenyu,Wang, Lina,et al. A FAULT LOCALIZATION FRAMEWORK TO ALLEVIATE THE IMPACT OF EXECUTION SIMILARITY[J]. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SOFTWARE ENGINEERING AND KNOWLEDGE ENGINEERING,2013,23(7):963-998.
APA	Zhao, Lei,Zhang, Zhenyu,Wang, Lina,&Yin, Xiaodan.(2013).A FAULT LOCALIZATION FRAMEWORK TO ALLEVIATE THE IMPACT OF EXECUTION SIMILARITY.INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SOFTWARE ENGINEERING AND KNOWLEDGE ENGINEERING,23(7),963-998.
MLA	Zhao, Lei,et al."A FAULT LOCALIZATION FRAMEWORK TO ALLEVIATE THE IMPACT OF EXECUTION SIMILARITY".INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SOFTWARE ENGINEERING AND KNOWLEDGE ENGINEERING 23.7(2013):963-998.