Reducing irrelevant trace variations

  • Authors:

  • Madeline Diep;Sebastian Elbaum;Matthew Dwyer

  • Affiliations:

  • University of Nebraska - Lincoln, Lincoln, NE;University of Nebraska - Lincoln, Lincoln, NE;University of Nebraska - Lincoln, Lincoln, NE

  • Venue:
  • Proceedings of the twenty-second IEEE/ACM international conference on Automated software engineering
  • Year:
  • 2007

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Abstract

Identifying truly distinct traces is crucial for the performance and practicality of many dynamic analysis activities. For example, given a trace pool resulting from program failures, identifying the set of distinct traces can reduce the debugging effort by more quickly producing a smaller set of candidate fault locations. The process of discriminating valuable traces, however, is subject to the presence of irrelevant variations in the trace constitution, i.e., the sequence of events in a trace, that can make a trace appear unique when it is not, leading to the retention of a trace that adds no value. In this paper we present an approach to address inconsequential and potentially detrimental trace variations. The approach decomposes traces into segments on which irrelevant variations caused by event ordering or repetition can be detected and removed. The approach is illustrated on two well-known client dynamic analyses and is supported by an infrastructure to explore the approach