The bane of generate-And-validate program repair: Too much generation, too little validation

Besma Khaireddine, Aleksandr Zakharchenko, Ali Mili

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

Abstract

To repair a program does not mean to make it absolutely correct; it only means to make it more-correct, in some sense, than it is. This distinction has consequences: Given that software products typically have a dozen faults per KLOC and thousands of KLOC's, program repair tools ought to be designed in such a way as to transform an incorrect program into an incorrect, albeit more-correct, program. In the absence of a concept of relative correctness (the property of a program to be more-correct than another with respect to a specification), program repair methods have resorted to various approximations of absolute correctness. This shortcoming has been concealed by the fact that they are usually validated on programs with a single fault at a time, for which the goals of absolute correctness and relative correctness are indistinguishable. In this paper we discuss how the use of relative correctness can reduce the scale of patch generation and enhance the efficiency, precision and recall of patch validation.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationNew Trends in Intelligent Software Methodologies, Tools and Techniques - Proceedings of the 20th International Conference on New Trends in Intelligent Software Methodologies, Tools and Techniques, SoMeT 2021
EditorsHamido Fujita, Hector Perez-Meana
PublisherIOS Press BV
Pages113-126
Number of pages14
ISBN (Electronic)9781643681948
DOIs
StatePublished - Sep 8 2021
Event20th International Conference on New Trends in Intelligent Software Methodologies, Tools and Techniques, SoMeT 2021 - Cancun, Mexico
Duration: Sep 21 2021Sep 23 2021

Publication series

NameFrontiers in Artificial Intelligence and Applications
Volume337
ISSN (Print)0922-6389
ISSN (Electronic)1879-8314

Conference

Conference20th International Conference on New Trends in Intelligent Software Methodologies, Tools and Techniques, SoMeT 2021
Country/TerritoryMexico
CityCancun
Period9/21/219/23/21

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Artificial Intelligence

Keywords

  • Cardumen
  • absolute correctness
  • patch generation
  • patch validation
  • program repair
  • relative correctness

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