eXpress: Guided Path Exploration for Regression Test Generation

Regression test generation aims at generating a test suite that can detect behavioral differences between the original and the new versions of a program. Regression test generation can be automated by using Dynamic Symbolic Execution (DSE), a state-of-the-art test generation technique. DSE explores all feasible paths in the program but exploration of all these paths can often be expensive. However, if our aim is to detect behavioral differences between two versions of a program, we do not need to explore all these paths in the program, since not all these paths are relevant for detecting behavioral differences. In this paper, we propose an approach on guided path exploration that avoids exploring irrelevant paths in terms of detecting behavioral differences. Hence, behavioral differences are more likely to be detected earlier in path exploration. In addition, our approach leverages the existing test suite (if available) for the original version to efficiently execute the changed regions of the program and infect program states. Experimental results on 67 versions (in total) of four programs show that our approach requires about 36% fewer amount of time (on average) to detect behavioral differences than exploration without using our approach. In addition, our approach detects 6 behavioral difference that could not be detected by exploration without using our approach (within a time bound). Furthermore, our approach requires 67% fewer amount of time to find behavioral differences by exploiting an existing test suite than exploration without using the test suite.