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CORR
2010
Springer

Cause Clue Clauses: Error Localization using Maximum Satisfiability

13 years 1 months ago
Cause Clue Clauses: Error Localization using Maximum Satisfiability
Much effort is spent everyday by programmers in trying to reduce long, failing execution traces to the cause of the error. We present a new algorithm for error cause localization based on a reduction to the maximal satisfiability problem (MAX-SAT), which asks what is the maximum number of clauses of a Boolean formula that can be simultaneously satisfied by an assignment. At an intuitive level, our algorithm takes as input a program and a failing test, and comprises the following three steps. First, using symbolic execution, we encode a trace of a program as a Boolean trace formula which is satisfiable iff the trace is feasible. Second, for a failing program execution (e.g., one that violates an assertion or a post-condition), we construct an unsatisfiable formula by taking the trace formula and additionally asserting that the input is the failing test and that the assertion condition does hold at the end. Third, using MAX-SAT, we find a maximal set of clauses in this formula that can ...
Manu Jose, Rupak Majumdar
Added 01 Mar 2011
Updated 01 Mar 2011
Type Journal
Year 2010
Where CORR
Authors Manu Jose, Rupak Majumdar
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