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FTFL: A Fisher’s test-based approach for fault localization

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Abstract

For effective fault localization, we propose a modified Fisher’s test-based statistical method that makes use of test execution results as well as statement coverage information to determine the suspiciousness of each executable statement. Our technique returns a rank list of statements based on their suspiciousness of containing a fault. We also discuss an extension to our proposed approach for localizing programs with multiple faults. This involves partitioning the failed test cases into clusters such that they target different faults. Our experimental studies show that on an average, our proposed fault localization technique requires examination of 37.09% less code than existing techniques for localizing faults.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of CSE, IIT Kharagpur, Kharagpur, West Bengal, India

    Arpita Dutta & Rajib Mall

  2. Department of Mathematics, IIT Kharagpur, Kharagpur, West Bengal, India

    Krishna Kunal

  3. Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Kharagpur, Kharagpur, West Bengal, India

    Saksham Sahai Srivastava

  4. Department of Physics, IIT Kharagpur, Kharagpur, West Bengal, India

    Shubham Shankar

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  1. Arpita Dutta
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  3. Saksham Sahai Srivastava
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  5. Rajib Mall
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Correspondence to Arpita Dutta.

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Dutta, A., Kunal, K., Srivastava, S.S. et al. FTFL: A Fisher’s test-based approach for fault localization. Innovations Syst Softw Eng 17, 381–405 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11334-021-00403-9

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