Automatic program repair with evolutionary computation

Therearemanymethodsfordetectingandmitigatingsoftware errors but few generic methods for automatically repairing errors once they are discovered. This paper highlights recent work combining program analysis methods with evolutionary computation to automatically repair bugs in off-the-shelf legacyCprograms.ThemethodtakesasinputthebuggyCsource code, a failed test case that demonstrates the bug, and a small number of other test cases that encode the required functionality of the program. The repair procedure does not rely on formal specifications, making it applicable to a wide range of extant software for which formal specifications rarely exist.

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2010
• Where: CACM
• Authors: Westley Weimer, Stephanie Forrest, Claire Le Goues, ThanhVu Nguyen
• Keywords: CACM 2010, Failed Test Case, Formal Specifications, Test Cases