A Case for Automated Debugging Using Data Structure Repair

—Automated debugging is becoming increasingly important as the size and complexity of software increases. This paper makes a case for using constraint-based data structure repair, a recently developed technique for fault recovery, as a basis for automated debugging. Data structure repair uses given structural integrity constraints for key data structures to monitor their correctness during the execution of a program. If a constraint violation is detected, repair performs mutations on the data structures, i.e., corrupt program state, and transforms it into another state, which satisfies the desired constraints. The primary goal of data structure repair is to transform an erroneous state into an acceptable state. Therefore, the mutations performed by repair actions provide a basis of debugging faults in code (assuming the errors are due to bugs). A key challenge to embodying this insight into a mechanical technique arises due to the difference in the concrete level of ram states and t...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2009
• Where: KBSE
• Authors: Muhammad Zubair Malik, Khalid Ghori, Bassem Elkarablieh, Sarfraz Khurshid
• Keywords: Data Structure, Data Structure Repair, KBSE 2009, Repair Actions, Software Engineering