ReAssert: a tool for repairing broken unit tests

Successful software systems continuously change their requirements and thus code. When this happens, some existing tests get broken because they no longer reflect the intended behavior, and thus they need to be updated. Repairing broken tests can be time-consuming and difficult. We present ReAssert, a tool that can automatically suggest repairs for broken unit tests. Examples include replacing literal values in tests, changing assertion methods, or replacing one assertion with several. Our experiments show that ReAssert can repair many common test failures and that its suggested repairs match developers’ expectations. Categories and Subject Descriptors D.2.5 [Software Engineering]: Testing and Debugging Keywords Unit Testing, Testing Tools, Test Repair, ReAssert

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2011
• Where: ICSE
• Authors: Brett Daniel, Danny Dig, Tihomir Gvero, Vilas Jagannath, Johnston Jiaa, Damion Mitchell, Jurand Nogiec, Shin Hwei Tan, Darko Marinov
• Keywords: ICSE 2011, Literal Values, Software Engineering, Subject Descriptors, Test Failures