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Pex–White Box Test Generation for .NET

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Tests and Proofs (TAP 2008)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNPSE,volume 4966))

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Abstract

Pex automatically produces a small test suite with high code coverage for a .NET program. To this end, Pex performs a systematic program analysis (using dynamic symbolic execution, similar to path-bounded model-checking) to determine test inputs for Parameterized Unit Tests. Pex learns the program behavior by monitoring execution traces. Pex uses a constraint solver to produce new test inputs which exercise different program behavior. The result is an automatically generated small test suite which often achieves high code coverage. In one case study, we applied Pex to a core component of the .NET runtime which had already been extensively tested over several years. Pex found errors, including a serious issue.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Microsoft Research, One Microsoft Way, Redmond, WA 98052, USA

    Nikolai Tillmann & Jonathan de Halleux

Authors
  1. Nikolai Tillmann
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  2. Jonathan de Halleux
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Bernhard Beckert Reiner Hähnle

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© 2008 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Tillmann, N., de Halleux, J. (2008). Pex–White Box Test Generation for .NET. In: Beckert, B., Hähnle, R. (eds) Tests and Proofs. TAP 2008. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 4966. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-79124-9_10

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-79124-9_10

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-79123-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-79124-9

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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