GAssert: A Fully Automated Tool to Improve Assertion Oracles

This demo presents the implementation and usage details of GASSERT, the first tool to automatically improve assertion oracles. Assertion oracles are executable boolean expressions placed inside the program that should pass (return true) for all correct executions and fail (return false) for all inco...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:2021 IEEE/ACM 43rd International Conference on Software Engineering: Companion Proceedings (ICSE-Companion) pp. 85 - 88
Main Authors: Terragni, Valerio, Jahangirova, Gunel, Tonella, Paolo, Pezze, Mauro
Format: Conference Proceeding
Language:English
Published: IEEE 01.05.2021
Subjects:
automated test generation
evolutionary algorithm
genetic programming
Java
mutation analysis
oracle improvement
program assertions
Software algorithms
Software engineering
Software quality
Space exploration
the oracle problem
ISBN:1665412194, 9781665412193
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:This demo presents the implementation and usage details of GASSERT, the first tool to automatically improve assertion oracles. Assertion oracles are executable boolean expressions placed inside the program that should pass (return true) for all correct executions and fail (return false) for all incorrect executions. Because designing perfect assertion oracles is difficult, assertions are prone to both false positives (the assertion fails but should pass) and false negatives (the assertion passes but should fail). Given a Java method containing an assertion oracle to improve, GASSERT returns an improved assertion with fewer false positives and false negatives than the initial assertion. Internally, GASSERT implements a novel co-evolutionary algorithm that explores the space of possible assertions guided by two fitness functions that reward assertions with fewer false positives, fewer false negatives, and smaller size.
ISBN:1665412194
9781665412193
DOI:10.1109/ICSE-Companion52605.2021.00042