Skip to main content

Combining Stochastic Grammars and Genetic Programming for Coverage Testing at the System Level

  • Conference paper
Book cover Search-Based Software Engineering (SSBSE 2014)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNPSE,volume 8636))

Included in the following conference series:

Abstract

When tested at the system level, many programs require complex and highly structured inputs, which must typically satisfy some formal grammar. Existing techniques for grammar based testing make use of stochastic grammars that randomly derive test sentences from grammar productions, trying at the same time to avoid unbounded recursion. In this paper, we combine stochastic grammars with genetic programming, so as to take advantage of the guidance provided by a coverage oriented fitness function during the sentence derivation and evolution process. Experimental results show that the combination of stochastic grammars and genetic programming outperforms stochastic grammars alone.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 44.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 59.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  1. McMinn, P.: Search-based software test data generation: A survey. Journal of Software Testing, Verification and Reliability (STVR) 14, 105–156 (2004)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Pargas, R., Harrold, M.J., Peck, R.: Test-data generation using genetic algorithms. Journal of Software Testing, Verification and Reliability (STVR) 9, 263–282 (1999)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Fraser, G., Arcuri, A.: Whole test suite generation. IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering 39(2), 276–291 (2013)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Beyene, M., Andrews, J.H.: Generating string test data for code coverage. In: Proceedings of the International Conference on Software Testing, Verification, and Validation (ICST), pp. 270–279 (2012)

    Google Scholar 

  5. Poulding, S., Alexander, R., Clark, J.A., Hadley, M.J.: The optimisation of stochastic grammars to enable cost-effective probabilistic structural testing. In: Proceedings of the 15th Annual Conference on Genetic and Evolutionary Computation, GECCO 2013, pp. 1477–1484. ACM, New York (2013)

    Google Scholar 

  6. Majumdar, R., Xu, R.G.: Directed test generation using symbolic grammars. In: Proceedings of the 22nd IEEE/ACM International Conference on Automated Software Engineering (ASE), pp. 134–143 (2007)

    Google Scholar 

  7. McKay, R.I., Hoai, N.X., Whigham, P.A., Shan, Y., O’Neill, M.: Grammar-based genetic programming: A survey. Genetic Programming and Evolvable Machines 11(3-4), 365–396 (2010)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Kifetew, F.M., Jin, W., Tiella, R., Orso, A., Tonella, P.: Reproducing field failures for programs with complex grammar based input. In: Proceedings of the International Conference on Software Testing, Verification, and Validation, ICST (2014)

    Google Scholar 

  9. Booth, T.L., Thompson, R.A.: Applying probability measures to abstract languages. IEEE Transactions on Computers 100(5), 442–450 (1973)

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  10. Lari, K., Young, S.J.: The estimation of stochastic context-free grammars using the inside-outside algorithm. Computer Speech & Language 4(1), 35–56 (1990)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Fraser, G., Arcuri, A.: Evosuite: Automatic test suite generation for object-oriented software. In: Proceedings of the 19th ACM SIGSOFT Symposium and the 13th European Conference on Foundations of Software Engineering, ESEC/FSE 2011, Szeged, Hungary, pp. 416–419 (2011)

    Google Scholar 

  12. Arcuri, A., Iqbal, M.Z., Briand, L.: Formal analysis of the effectiveness and predictability of random testing. In: Proceedings of the 19th International Symposium on Software Testing and Analysis, ISSTA 2010, pp. 219–230. ACM, New York (2010)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  13. Purdom, P.: A sentence generator for testing parsers. BIT Numerical Mathematics 12, 366–375 (1972), doi:10.1007/BF01932308

    Article  MATH  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  14. Hennessy, M., Power, J.F.: An analysis of rule coverage as a criterion in generating minimal test suites for grammar-based software. In: Proceedings of the 20th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Automated Software Engineering, ASE 2005, pp. 104–113. ACM, New York (2005)

    Google Scholar 

  15. Godefroid, P., Kiezun, A., Levin, M.Y.: Grammar-based whitebox fuzzing. In: Proceedings of the ACM SIGPLAN Conference on Programming Language Design and Implementation (PLDI), pp. 206–215 (2008)

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2014 Springer International Publishing Switzerland

About this paper

Cite this paper

Kifetew, F.M., Tiella, R., Tonella, P. (2014). Combining Stochastic Grammars and Genetic Programming for Coverage Testing at the System Level. In: Le Goues, C., Yoo, S. (eds) Search-Based Software Engineering. SSBSE 2014. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 8636. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-09940-8_10

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-09940-8_10

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-09939-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-09940-8

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics