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Addressing the Regression Test Problem with Change Impact Analysis for Ada

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Reliable Software Technologies – Ada-Europe 2016 (Ada-Europe 2016)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNPSE,volume 9695))

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Abstract

The regression test selection problem—selecting a subset of a test-suite given a change—has been studied widely over the past two decades. However, the problem has seen little attention when constrained to high-criticality developments and where a “safe” selection of tests need to be chosen. Further, no practical approaches have been presented for the programming language Ada. In this paper, we introduce an approach to solving the selection problem given a combination of both static and dynamic data for a program and a change-set. We present a change impact analysis for Ada that selects the safe set of tests that need to be re-executed to ensure no regressions. We have implemented the approach in the commercial, unit-testing tool VectorCAST, and validated it on a number of open-source examples. On an example of a fully-functioning Ada implementation of a DNS server (Ironsides), the experimental results show a 97% reduction in test-case execution.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    In this paper, we use the term “subprogram”, without introducing ambiguity, to refer to either a function or a procedure inside of an Ada package.

  2. 2.

    www.vectorcast.com; in what follows, we write VectorCAST to mean VectorCAST/Ada.

  3. 3.

    where “impact” is the inverse relation of dependency.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Vector Software, Inc., London, UK

    Andrew V. Jones

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  1. Andrew V. Jones
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Correspondence to Andrew V. Jones .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Università di Modena e Reggio Emilia, Modena, Italy

    Marko Bertogna

  2. CISTER Research Centre, Porto, Portugal

    Luis Miguel Pinho

  3. Barcelona Supercomputing Center, Barcelona, Spain

    Eduardo Quiñones

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Jones, A.V. (2016). Addressing the Regression Test Problem with Change Impact Analysis for Ada. In: Bertogna, M., Pinho, L., Quiñones, E. (eds) Reliable Software Technologies – Ada-Europe 2016. Ada-Europe 2016. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 9695. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-39083-3_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-39083-3_5

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  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-39083-3

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