Thu 8 Nov 2018 13:52 - 14:15 at Horizons 6-9F - Debugging and Bug Localization Chair(s): Earlence Fernandes

To understand, localize, and fix programming errors, developers often rely on interactive debuggers. However, as debuggers are software, they may themselves have bugs, which can make debugging unnecessarily hard or even cause developers to reason about bugs that do not actually exist in their code. This paper presents the first automated testing technique for interactive debuggers. The problem of testing debuggers is fundamentally different from the well-studied problem of testing compilers because debuggers are interactive and because they lack a specification of expected behavior. Our approach, called DBDB, generates debugger actions to exercise the debugger and records traces that summarize the debugger's behavior. By comparing traces of multiple debuggers with each other, we find diverging behavior that points to bugs and other noteworthy differences. We evaluate DBDB on the JavaScript debuggers of Firefox and Chromium, finding 19 previously unreported bugs, eight of which are already fixed by the developers.

Thu 8 Nov

Displayed time zone: Guadalajara, Mexico City, Monterrey change

13:30 - 15:00
Debugging and Bug LocalizationResearch Papers at Horizons 6-9F
Chair(s): Earlence Fernandes University of Michigan
13:30
22m
Talk
Automated Patch Extraction via Syntax- and Semantics-Aware Delta Debugging on Source Code Changes
Research Papers
Masatomo Hashimoto Chiba Institute of Technology, Japan, Akira Mori National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, Japan, Tomonori Izumida IIJ Innovation Institute, Japan
Link to publication DOI Authorizer link
13:52
22m
Talk
Feedback-Directed Differential Testing of Interactive Debuggers
Research Papers
Daniel Lehmann TU Darmstadt, Michael Pradel TU Darmstadt
14:15
22m
Talk
Improving IR-Based Bug Localization with Context-Aware Query Reformulation
Research Papers
Masud Rahman University of Saskatchewan , Chanchal K. Roy University of Saskatchewan
Pre-print
14:37
22m
Talk
How Should Compilers Explain Problems to Developers?
Research Papers
Titus Barik Microsoft, Denae Ford North Carolina State University, Emerson Murphy-Hill North Carolina State University, Chris Parnin NCSU
Pre-print