Effective identification of failure-inducing changes

2013 28th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Automated Software Engineering (ASE)

Sun

2013

Self Cite

Many computer end-users, such as research scientists and business analysts, need to frequently query a database, yet lack enough programming knowledge to write a correct SQL query. To alleviate this problem, we present a programming by example technique (and its tool implementation, called SQLSynthesizer) to help end-users automate such query tasks. SQLSynthesizer takes from users an example input and output of how the database should be queried, and then synthesizes a SQL query that reproduces the example output from the example input. If the synthesized SQL query is applied to another, potentially larger, database with a similar schema, the synthesized SQL query produces a corresponding result that is similar to the example output.We evaluated SQLSynthesizer on 23 exercises from a classic database textbook and 5 forum questions about writing SQL queries. SQLSynthesizer synthesized correct answers for 15 textbook exercises and all 5 forum questions, and it did so from relatively small examples.

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Automatically synthesizing SQL queries from input-output examples

2013 28th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Automated Software Engineering (ASE)

Sun

2013

Self Cite

“…Its root cause is that the user failed to set one configuration option. Despite the simplicity of the solution, to the best of our knowledge, no previous configuration error diagnosis technique [1], [2], [18], [25], [28], [33], [35] can be directly applied.…”

Section: A Motivating Examplementioning

confidence: 99%

Automated diagnosis of software configuration errors

2013 35th International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE)

Ernst

2013

Self Cite

Abstract-The behavior of a software system often depends on how that system is configured. Small configuration errors can lead to hard-to-diagnose undesired behaviors. We present a technique (and its tool implementation, called ConfDiagnoser) to identify the root cause of a configuration error -a single configuration option that can be changed to produce desired behavior. Our technique uses static analysis, dynamic profiling, and statistical analysis to link the undesired behavior to specific configuration options. It differs from existing approaches in two key aspects: it does not require users to provide a testing oracle (to check whether the software functions correctly) and thus is fully automated; and it can diagnose both crashing and noncrashing errors.We evaluated ConfDiagnoser on 5 non-crashing configuration errors and 9 crashing configuration errors from 5 configurable software systems written in Java. On average, the root cause was ConfDiagnoser's fifth-ranked suggestion; in 10 out of 14 errors, the root cause was one of the top 3 suggestions; and more than half of the time, the root cause was the first suggestion.

“…To address this problem, many debugging techniques are developed for evolving software. For example, Delta Debugging aims to find a minimal subset of changes that still makes the test fail [41,43]. Test minimization techniques [22,42] simplify the failed test to ease comprehension for developers.…”

Section: Supporting Software Evolutionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Automatically repairing broken workflows for evolving GUI applications

Proceedings of the 2013 International Symposium on Software Testing and Analysis

Lü

Ernst

2013

Self Cite

A workflow is a sequence of UI actions to complete a specific task. In the course of a GUI application's evolution, changes ranging from a simple GUI refactoring to a complete rearchitecture can break an end-user's well-established workflow. It can be challenging to find a replacement workflow. To address this problem, we present a technique (and its tool implementation, called FlowFixer) that repairs a broken workflow. FlowFixer uses dynamic profiling, static analysis, and random testing to suggest a replacement UI action that fixes a broken workflow.We evaluated FlowFixer on 16 broken workflows from 5 realworld GUI applications written in Java. In 13 workflows, the correct replacement action was FlowFixer's first suggestion. In 2 workflows, the correct replacement action was FlowFixer's second suggestion. The remaining workflow was un-repairable. Overall, FlowFixer produced significantly better results than two alternative approaches.