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Automated Developer Testing: Achievements and Challenges

Automated Developer Testing: Achievements and Challenges. Tao Xie North Carolina State University contact: taoxie@gmail.com. Automation in Developer Testing. Background on developer testing http://www.developertesting.com/

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Automated Developer Testing: Achievements and Challenges

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  1. Automated Developer Testing: Achievements and Challenges Tao Xie North Carolina State University contact: taoxie@gmail.com

  2. Automation in Developer Testing • Background on developer testing • http://www.developertesting.com/ • Kent Beck’s 2004 talk on “Future of Developer Testing”http://www.itconversations.com/shows/detail301.html • This talk focuses on developer testing • Not system testing etc. conducted by testers • Unit Test Automation commonly referred to writing unit test cases manually, executed automatically • Automation here is broad, including automatic test generation

  3. ? = Software Testing Setup + Expected Outputs Test inputs Program Outputs Test Oracles

  4. ? = Software Testing Problems + Expected Outputs Test inputs Program Outputs Test Oracles • Faster: How can tools help developers create and run tests faster?

  5. ? = Software Testing Problems + Expected Outputs Test inputs Program Outputs Test Oracles • Faster: How can tools help developers create and run tests faster? • Better Test Inputs: How can tools help generate new better test inputs?

  6. ? = Software Testing Problems + Expected Outputs Test inputs Program Outputs Test Oracles • Faster: How can tools help developers create and run tests faster? • Better Test Inputs: How can tools help generate new better test inputs? • Better Test Oracles: How can tools help generate better test oracles?

  7. ? = Example Unit Test Case + Expected Outputs Test inputs Program Outputs Test Oracles void addTest() { ArrayList a = new ArrayList(1); Object o = new Object(); a.add(o); AssertTrue(a.get(0) == o); } Test Case = Test Input + Test Oracle • Appropriate method sequence • Appropriate primitive argument values • Appropriate assertions

  8. Levels of Test Oracles • Expected output for an individual test input • In the form of assertions in test code • Properties applicable for multiple test inputs • Crash (uncaught exceptions) or not, related to robustness issues, supported by most tools • Properties in production code: Design by Contract (precondition, postcondition, class invariants) supported by ParasoftJtest, Google CodeProAnalytiX • Properties in test code: Parameterized unit tests supported by MSR Pex, AgitarOne X. Xiao, S. Thummalapenta, and T. Xie. Advances on Improving Automation in Developer Testing. In Advances in Computers, 2012 http://people.engr.ncsu.edu/txie/publications.htm#ac12-devtest

  9. Economics of Test Oracles • Expected output for an individual test input • Easy to manually verify for one test input • Expensive/infeasible to verify for many test inputs • Limited benefits: only for one test input • Properties applicable for multiple test inputs • Not easy to write (need abstraction skills) • But once written, broad benefits for multiple test inputs

  10. Assert behavior of multiple test inputs Design by Contract • Example tools: ParasoftJtest, Google CodeProAnalytiX, MSR Code Contracts, MSR Pex • Class invariant: properties being satisfied by an object (in a consistent state) [AgitarOne allows a class invariant helper method used as test oracles] • Precondition: conditions to be satisfied (on receiver object and arguments) before a method can be invoked • Postcondition: properties being satisfied (on receiver object and return) after the method has returned • Other types of specs also exist http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/projects/contracts/

  11. Microsoft Research Code Contracts publicvirtualint Add(object value){ Contract.Requires( value != null );Contract.Ensures( Count == Contract.OldValue(Count) + 1 ); Contract.Ensures( Contract.Result<int>() == Contract.OldValue(Count) );if(count == items.Length) EnsureCapacity(count + 1); items[count] = value; returncount++;} • Features • Language expression syntax • Type checking / IDE • Declarative • Special Encodings • Result and Old [ContractInvariantMethod]voidObjectInvariant() {Contract.Invariant( items != null );} - Slide adapted from MSR RiSE http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/projects/contracts/

  12. Parameterized Unit Testing [Tillmann&Schulte ESEC/FSE 05] • Parameterized Unit Test = Unit Test with Parameters • Separation of concerns • Data is generated by a tool • Developer can focus on functional specification void TestAdd(List list, int item) { Assume.IsTrue(list != null); var count = list.Count; list.Add(item); Assert.AreEqual(count + 1, list.Count); } http://research.microsoft.com/apps/pubs/default.aspx?id=77419

  13. Parameterized Unit Testsare Formal SpecificationsAlgebraic Specifications • A Parameterized Unit Test can be read as a universally quantified, conditional axiom. void TestReadWrite(Res r, string name, string data) {Assume.IsTrue(r!=null & name!=null && data!=null); r.WriteResource(name, data);Assert.AreEqual(r.ReadResource(name), data); }  string name, string data, Res r: r ≠ null ⋀ name ≠ null ⋀ data ≠ null ⇒ equals( ReadResource(WriteResource(r, name, data).state, name), data)

  14. Parameterized Unit Tests in Pex http://research.microsoft.com/pex/

  15. Parameterized Unit TestingGetting Popular Parameterized Unit Tests (PUTs) commonly supported by various test frameworks • .NET: Supported by .NET test frameworks • http://www.mbunit.com/ • http://www.nunit.org/ • … • Java: Supported by JUnit 4.X • http://www.junit.org/ Generating test inputs for PUTs supported by tools • .NET: Supported by Microsoft Research Pex • http://research.microsoft.com/Pex/ • Java: Supported by AgitarAgitarOne • http://www.agitar.com/

  16. ParameterizedTest-Driven Development Bug in PUT Write/refine Contract as PUT Bug in Code Write/refine Code of Implementation Fix-it (with Pex), Debug with generated tests failures Run Pex no failures Use Generated Tests for Regression

  17. SoftwareAgitation Observationson code behavior, plus Test Coverage data Code If an Observationreveals a bug, fix it Compile If it describes desired behavior, click to create a Test Assertion Code Agitate Review Assert behavior of multiple test inputs Software Agitation in AgitarOne http://www.agitar.com/ - Slide adapted from Agitar Software Inc.

  18. Software Agitation in AgitarOne Image from http://www.agitar.com/

  19. Automated Test Generation • Recent advanced technique: Dynamic Symbolic Execution/Concolic Testing • Instrument code to explore feasible paths • Example tool: Pex from Microsoft Research (for .NET programs) P. Godefroid, N. Klarlund, and K. Sen. DART: directed automated random testing. In Proc. PLDI 2005 K. Sen, D. Marinov, and G. Agha. CUTE: a concolic unit testing engine for C. In Proc. ESEC/FSE 2005 N. Tillmann and J. de Halleux. Pex - White Box Test Generation for .NET. In Proc. TAP 2008

  20. Dynamic Symbolic Execution in Pex Choose next path Solve Execute&Monitor void CoverMe(int[] a) { if (a == null) return; if (a.Length > 0) if (a[0] == 1234567890) throw new Exception("bug"); } Constraints to solve a!=null a!=null && a.Length>0 a!=null && a.Length>0 && a[0]==123456890 Observed constraints a==null a!=null && !(a.Length>0) a==null && a.Length>0 && a[0]!=1234567890 a==null && a.Length>0 && a[0]==1234567890 Input null {} {0} {123…} a==null T F a.Length>0 T Done: There is no path left. F a[0]==123… F T http://pex4fun.com/HowDoesPexWork

  21. Automating Test Generation @NCSU ASE • Method sequences • MSeqGen/Seeker [Thummalapenta et al. OOSPLA 11, ESEC/FSE 09], Covana[Xiao et al. ICSE 2011], OCAT [Jaygarl et al. ISSTA 10], Evacon[Inkumsah et al. ASE 08], Symclat[d'Amorim et al. ASE 06] • Environments e.g., db, file systems, network, … • DBApp Testing [Taneja et al. ESEC/FSE 11], [Pan et al. ASE 11] • CloudApp Testing [Zhang et al. IEEE Soft 12] • Loops • Fitnex[Xie et al. DSN 09] http://people.engr.ncsu.edu/txie/publications.htm

  22. Pex on MSDN DevLabsIncubation Project for Visual Studio • Download counts (20 months)(Feb. 2008 - Oct. 2009 ) • Academic: 17,366 • Devlabs: 13,022 • Total: 30,388 http://research.microsoft.com/projects/pex/

  23. Open Source Pex extensions http://pexase.codeplex.com/ Publications:http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/projects/pex/community.aspx#publications

  24. Writing Test Oracles Learning Formal Methods!? • Parameterized Unit Test = Unit Test with Parameters • Separation of concerns • Data is generated by a tool • Developer can focus on functional specification void TestAdd(List list, int item) { Assume.IsTrue(list != null); var count = list.Count; list.Add(item); Assert.AreEqual(count + 1, list.Count); }

  25. Automatic Test Generation  Human Assistance to Test Generation?! Running Symbolic PathFinder ... … ====================================================== results no errors detected ====================================================== statistics elapsed time: 0:00:02 states: new=4, visited=0, backtracked=4, end=2 search: maxDepth=3, constraints=0 choice generators: thread=1, data=2 heap: gc=3, new=271, free=22 instructions: 2875 max memory: 81MB loaded code: classes=71, methods=884 …

  26. Challenges Faced by Test Generation Tools • Example: Dynamic Symbolic Execution/Concolic Testing • Instrument code to explore feasible paths • Challenge: path explosion Total block coverage achieved is 50%, lowest coverage 16%. • object-creation problems (OCP) - 65% • external-method call problems (EMCP) – 27%

  27. Example Object-Creation Problem 00: classGraph : IVEListGraph { … 03: public void AddVertex (IVertex v) { 04: vertices.Add(v); // B1 } 06: public Edge AddEdge (IVertex v1, IVertex v2) { 07: if (!vertices.Contains(v1)) 08: throw new VNotFoundException(""); 09: // B2 10: if (!vertices.Contains(v2)) 11: throw new VNotFoundException(""); 12: // B3 14: Edge e = new Edge(v1, v2); 15: edges.Add(e); } } //DFS:DepthFirstSearch 18: classDFSAlgorithm{ … 23: public void Compute (IVertex s) { ... 24: if (graph.GetEdges().Size() > 0) { // B4 25: isComputed = true; 26: foreach (Edge e ingraph.GetEdges()) { 27: ... // B5 28: } 29: } } } • A graph example from QuickGraph library • Includes two classes Graph DFSAlgorithm • Graph AddVertex AddEdge: requires both vertices to be in graph [Thummalapenta et al. OOPSLA 11]

  28. Example Object-Creation Problem • Test target: Cover true branch (B4) of Line 24 • Desired object state: graph should include at least one edge • Target sequence: • Graph ag = new Graph(); • Vertex v1 = new Vertex(0); • Vertex v2 = new Vertex(1); • ag.AddVertex(v1); • ag.AddVertex(v2); • ag.AddEdge(v1, v2); • DFSAlgorithmalgo = new DFSAlgorithm(ag); • algo.Compute(v1); 00: classGraph : IVEListGraph { … 03: public void AddVertex (IVertex v) { 04: vertices.Add(v); // B1 } 06: public Edge AddEdge (IVertex v1, IVertex v2) { 07: if (!vertices.Contains(v1)) 08: throw new VNotFoundException(""); 09: // B2 10: if (!vertices.Contains(v2)) 11: throw new VNotFoundException(""); 12: // B3 14: Edge e = new Edge(v1, v2); 15: edges.Add(e); } } //DFS:DepthFirstSearch 18: classDFSAlgorithm{ … 23: public void Compute (IVertex s) { ... 24: if (graph.GetEdges().Size() > 0) { // B4 25: isComputed = true; 26: foreach (Edge e ingraph.GetEdges()) { 27: ... // B5 28: } 29: } } } 28 [Thummalapenta et al. OOPSLA 11]

  29. Challenges Faced by Test Generation Tools • Example: Dynamic Symbolic Execution/Concolic (Pex) • Instrument code to explore feasible paths • Challenge: path explosion Total block coverage achieved is 50%, lowest coverage 16%. • object-creation problems (OCP) - 65% • external-method call problems (EMCP) – 27%

  30. Example External-Method Call Problems (EMCP) • Example 1: • File.Existshas data dependencies on program input • Subsequent branch at Line 1 using the return value of File.Exists. 1 • Example 2: • Path.GetFullPathhas data dependencies on program input • Path.GetFullPaththrows exceptions. 2 • Example3: String.Formatdo not cause any problem 3

  31. Human Can Help! Object Creation Problems (OCP) Tackle object-creation problems with Factory Methods

  32. Human Can Help!External-Method Call Problems (EMCP) Tackle external-method call problems with Mock Methods or Method Instrumentation Mocking System.IO.File.ReadAllText

  33. Tools typically don’t communicate challenges faced by them to enable cooperation between tools and users. We typically don’t teach people how to cooperate with tools. State-of-the-Art/Practice Testing Tools Running Symbolic PathFinder ... … ====================================================== results no errors detected ====================================================== statistics elapsed time: 0:00:02 states: new=4, visited=0, backtracked=4, end=2 search: maxDepth=3, constraints=0 choice generators: thread=1, data=2 heap: gc=3, new=271, free=22 instructions: 2875 max memory: 81MB loaded code: classes=71, methods=884 … X. Xiao, T. Xie, N. Tillmann, and J. de Halleux. Precise Identification of Problems for Structural Test Generation. In Proc. ICSE 2011 http://people.engr.ncsu.edu/txie/publications/icse11-covana.pdf

  34. Coding Duels 1,206,095 clicked 'Ask Pex!'

  35. Coding Duels Pex computes “semantic diff” in cloud code written in browser vs. secret reference implementation You win when Pex finds no differences secret

  36. Behind the Scene of Pex for Fun behavior Secret Impl== Player Impl Player Implementation class Player { public static int Puzzle(int x) { return x; } } Secret Implementation class Secret { public static int Puzzle(int x) { if (x <= 0) return 1; return x * Puzzle(x-1); } } class Test { public static void Driver(int x) { if (Secret.Puzzle(x) != Player.Puzzle(x)) throw new Exception(“Mismatch”); } }

  37. Coding DuelsFun and Engaging Iterative gameplay Adaptive Personalized No cheating Clear winning criterion

  38. Example User Feedback Released since 2010 “I used to love the first person shooters and the satisfaction of blowing away a whole team of Noobies playing Rainbow Six, but this is far more fun.” X “I’m afraid I’ll have to constrain myselfto spend just an hour or so a day on this really exciting stuff, as I’m really stuffed with work.” “It really got me *excited*. The part that got me most is about spreading interest in teaching CS: I do think that it’s REALLY great for teaching | learning!”

  39. Coding Duel Competition@ICSE 2011 http://pexforfun.com/icse2011

  40. Teaching and Learning

  41. Coding Duels for Automatic Grading@Grad Software Engineering Course http://pexforfun.com/gradsofteng

  42. Coding Duels for Training Testing public static string Puzzle(int[] elems, int capacity, intelem) { if ((maxsize <= 0) || (elems == null) || (elems.Length > (capacity + 1))) return "Assumption Violation!"; Stack s= new Stack(capacity); for (inti = 0; i < elems.Length; i++)s.Push(elems[i]);intorigSize = s.GetNumOfElements(); //Please fill in below test scenario on the s stack //The lines below include assertions to assert the program behaviorPexAssert.IsTrue(s.GetNumOfElements() == origSize + 1);PexAssert.IsTrue(s.Top() == elem); PexAssert.IsTrue(!s.IsEmpty());PexAssert.IsTrue(s.IsMember(elem)); return s.GetNumOfElements().ToString() + "; “ + s.Top().ToString() + "; “ + s.IsMember(elem).ToString() + "; " + s.IsEmpty(); } Set up a stack with some elements Cache values used in assertions

  43. Usage Scenarios of Pex4Fun • Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC): Challenges • Grading, addressed by Pex4Fun • Cheating [Open Challenge] • Course assignments (students/professionals) • E.g., intro programming, software engineering • Student/professional competitions • E.g., coding-duel competition at ICSE 2011 • Assessment of testing/programming/problem solving skills for job applicants • Not just final results of problem solving but also process!

  44. More Reading Nikolai Tillmann, Jonathan De Halleux, Tao Xie, Sumit Gulwani and Judith Bishop Teaching and Learning Programming and Software Engineering via Interactive Gaming In Proceedings of the 35th International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE 2013), Software Engineering Education (SEE), San Francisco, CA, May 2013. http://people.engr.ncsu.edu/txie/publications/icse13see-pex4fun.pdf

  45. Conclusion • Software testing is important and yet costly; needs automation • Better Test Inputs: help generate new better test inputs • Generate method arguments • Generate method sequences • Better Test Oracles: help generate better test oracles • Assert behavior of individual test inputs • Assert behavior of multiple test inputs • Software Testing  Educational Gaming • http://www.pexforfun.com/

  46. Example Industrial Developer Testing Tools • AgitarAgitatorOnehttp://www.agitar.com/ • ParasoftJtesthttp://www.parasoft.com/ • Google CodeProAnalytiXhttps://developers.google.com/java-dev-tools/codepro/doc/ • SilverMark Test Mentor http://www.silvermark.com/ • Microsoft Research Pex (for .NET) http://research.microsoft.com/Pex/ • Microsoft Research Spec Explorer (for .NET)http://research.microsoft.com/specexplorer/

  47. Trends in Practice • Regression Test Selection/Prioritization • Cloud Computing for Test Execution, e.g., http://www.skytap.com/ • Crowdsourcing for Testing, e.g., http://www.utest.com/ • Mocking Environments • Google: EasyMock • Microsoft VS: Fake/Moleshttp://research.microsoft.com/en-us/projects/pex/ • Automatic Test Generation • Microsoft: Pex, SAGE http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/people/pg/

  48. Q & A Thank you! contact: taoxie@gmail.com Acknowledgments: NSF grants CCF-0845272, CCF-0915400, CNS-0958235, CNS-1160603, a Microsoft Research SEIF Award, and a Microsoft Research Award.

  49. Automated Combinatorial Testing http://csrc.nist.gov/groups/SNS/acts/index.html Goals – reduce testing cost, improve cost-benefit ratio Accomplishments – huge increase in performance, scalability, 200+ users, most major IT firms and others Also non-testing applications – modelling and simulation, genome

  50. Failure-triggering Interactions • Additional studies consistent • > 4,000 failure reports analyzed • Conclusion: failures triggered by few variables

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