CAREER: Integrating Automated Software Testing Methods

测试是所有程序员工作中最频繁和最重要的活动之一。不幸的是，对于关键的和经常被重用的代码，手动测试通常需要付出巨大的努力才能得到平庸的结果。该项目的重点是为具有改变系统状态接口的模块自动生成测试，例如，在许多安全或经济关键软件系统中使用的关键模块，如文件系统和数据结构。该项目通过对经过验证的方法的新颖集成，结合对底层测试方法的基本改进，提高了技术水平。最有效的测试方法（就每秒探索的程序路径而言）用于生成大量的唯一路径来暴露错误，而最有效的方法（就探索难以到达的路径来发现非常难以发现的错误而言）用于在两阶段方法中完成测试。其核心思想是，只有当成本效益好的方法不太可能成功时，才诉诸于昂贵的测试生成方法。该项目通过课程和教科书的开发来改善软件测试教育，旨在向本科生介绍原则性测试，这是当前CS教育中非常普遍的遗漏。航天器飞行软件，包括飞行系统中使用的文件系统和数据结构，为这种方法提供了早期应用。尽管测试预算很高，但不适当的测试方法每年造成数百亿美元的损失。更有效的测试将提供经济效益，并对其他领域的基础科学研究和探索作出贡献（例如，通过航天器软件或其他科学应用）。

Testing is one of the most frequently performed and important activities in the work life of all programmers. Unfortunately, for critical and frequently re-used code, manual testing often requires great effort for mediocre results. This project focuses on automatically generating tests for modules with an interface that alters system state, e.g. critical modules such as file systems and data structures that are used in many safety- or economically- critical software systems.This project improves the state-of-the-art through a novel integration of proven methods, combined with fundamental improvements to underlying testing approaches. The most efficient test methods (in terms of program paths explored per second) are used to generate very large numbers of unique paths to expose faults, while the most effective method (in terms of exploring hard-to-reach paths that reveal very difficult-to-find faults) are used to complete testing in a two-stage approach. The central idea is to resort to expensive test generation methods only when it is unlikely that cost-effective methods will succeed.This project improves software testing education by curriculum and textbook development aimed at introducing undergraduate students to principled testing, a far-too-common omission in current CS education.Spacecraft flight software, including file systems and data structures used in flight systems, provides early applications for this approach. Inadequate testing methods cost tens of billions of dollars each year, despite high test budgets. More effective testing will provide economic benefit and contribute (e.g., through spacecraft software or other scientific applications) to basic scientific research and exploration in other fields.