Lightweight Defect Localization for Java

A common method to localize defects is to compare the coverage of passing and failing program runs: A method executed only in failing runs, for instance, is likely to point to the defect. Some failures, though, come to be only through a specific sequence of method calls, such as multiple deallocation of the same resource. Such sequences can be collected from arbitrary Java programs at low cost; comparing object-specific sequences predicts defects better than simply comparing coverage. In a controlled experiment, our technique pinpointed the defective class in 36% of all test runs.

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2005
• Where: ECOOP
• Authors: Valentin Dallmeier, Christian Lindig, Andreas Zeller
• Keywords: Common Method, ECOOP 2005, Method Calls, Programming Languages, Sequences Predicts Defects