ReAssert: Suggesting Repairs for Broken Unit Tests

Daniel, Brett; Jagannath, Vilas; Dig, Danny; Marinov, Darko

Permalink

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/13628 Copy

Description

Title

ReAssert: Suggesting Repairs for Broken Unit Tests

Author(s)

• Daniel, Brett
• Jagannath, Vilas
• Dig, Danny
• Marinov, Darko

Issue Date

2009-08-23

Keyword(s)

• software testing
• software maintenance
• software tools
• software test maintenance

Abstract

Developers often change software in ways that cause tests to fail. When this occurs, developers must determine whether failures are caused by errors in the code under test or in the test code itself. In the latter case, developers must repair failing tests or remove them from the test suite. Reparing tests is time consuming but beneficial, since removing tests reduces a test suite's ability to detect regressions. Fortunately, simple program transformations can repair many failing tests automatically. We present ReAssert, a novel technique and tool that suggests repairs to failing tests' code which cause the tests to pass. Examples include replacing literal values in tests, changing assertion methods, or replacing one assertion with several. If the developer chooses to apply the repairs, ReAssert modifies the code automatically. Our experiments show that ReAssert can repair many common test failures and that its suggested repairs correspond to developers' expectations.

Publisher

IEEE/ACM

Type of Resource

text

Language

en

Permalink

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/13628

Sponsor(s)/Grant Number(s)

National Science Foundation grant no. CCF-0746856

Owning Collections