Hey APR! Integrate Our Fault Localization Skill: Toward Better Automated Program Repair

Kyosuke Yamate, Masanari Kondo, Yutaro Kashiwa, Yasutaka Kamei, Naoyasu Ubayashi

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

Abstract

Background: Prior studies lack the perspective of using developer's skills to augment the performance of automated program repair (APR). APR has a phase referred to as fault localization (FL), which automatically finds the faulty statement that causes faults. To achieve a well-performed FL phase, we study developers' FL skills, which allow developers to find faulty statements. We suppose that such FL skills can add additional information to fault localization to augment the accuracy of fault localization and reduce the execution cost of APR. Aims: We aim at revealing a criterion that distinguishes whether using the FL skill reduces the execution cost of the state-of-the-art APR, TBar, depending on the accuracy of the FL skill. Method: We conduct a simulation case study in the Defects4J dataset, which is the most popular dataset. We compare the numbers of candidate patches generated by TBar using the FL skill or using spectrum-based fault localization (SBFL). Results: Our case study revealed that, if developers localized the faulty statements before inspecting 40 % of the statements in the target program, the execution cost of TBar reduces for over half of the studied faults. The 40 % value is a requirement for developers using the FL skill to augment the performance of APR. Conclusion: If developers can localize the faulty statement before inspecting 40 % of the statements, integrating the FL skill with SBFL makes TBar faster compared to when SBFL is used.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationProceedings - 2022 IEEE 46th Annual Computers, Software, and Applications Conference, COMPSAC 2022
EditorsHong Va Leong, Sahra Sedigh Sarvestani, Yuuichi Teranishi, Alfredo Cuzzocrea, Hiroki Kashiwazaki, Dave Towey, Ji-Jiang Yang, Hossain Shahriar
PublisherInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
Pages563-568
Number of pages6
ISBN (Electronic)9781665488105
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2022
Event46th IEEE Annual Computers, Software, and Applications Conference, COMPSAC 2022 - Virtual, Online, United States
Duration: Jun 27 2022Jul 1 2022

Publication series

NameProceedings - 2022 IEEE 46th Annual Computers, Software, and Applications Conference, COMPSAC 2022

Conference

Conference46th IEEE Annual Computers, Software, and Applications Conference, COMPSAC 2022
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityVirtual, Online
Period6/27/227/1/22

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Computer Science Applications
  • Hardware and Architecture
  • Software
  • Media Technology
  • Education

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