Effective Fault Localization using Code Coverage

Localizing a bug in a program can be a complex and time- consuming process. In this paper we propose a code coverage-based fault localization method to prioritize suspicious code in terms of its likelihood of containing program bugs. Code with a higher risk should be examined before that with a lower risk, as the former is more suspicious (i.e., more likely to contain program bugs) than the latter. We also answer a very important question: how can each additional test case that executes the program successfully help locate program bugs? We propose that with respect to a piece of code, the aid introduced by the first successful test that executes it in computing its likelihood of containing a bug is larger than or equal to that of the second successful test that executes it, which is larger than or equal to that of the third successful test that executes it, etc. A tool, chiDebug, was implemented to automate the computation of the risk of the code and the subsequent prioritization of suspicious code for locating program bugs. A case study using the Siemens suite was also conducted. Data collected from our study support the proposal described above. They also indicate that our method (in particular Heuristics III (c), (d), and (e)) can effectively reduce the search domain for locating program bugs.