SHF: Small: Software Testing Cognizant of Just-in-time Compilers

即时（JIT）编译器是许多流行编程语言（如Java、C#或JavaScript）的组成部分。这些语言使用托管运行时环境，其中程序的执行以解释模式开始，但随着代码执行次数的增加，JIT编译器会将代码块重新编译为优化的本机形式，从而确保更快，更优化的代码版本。JIT编译器有助于确保用上述语言编写的软件具有高性能。尽管JIT编译器对于优化部署的软件非常重要，但很少有研究关注JIT编译，特别是在软件测试领域。该项目的目标是开发技术，以支持JIT编译器开发人员更好地测试他们的编译器和一般的软件开发人员，以改善他们的软件测试过程，利用底层的JIT编译器，他们运行。为了实现这一目标，本项目将（1）开发测试生成技术，使JIT编译器开发人员能够将他们的领域知识更好地测试JIT编译器，（2）通过编译器认知分析加速软件测试，以及（3）将现有的测试技术与编译器更紧密地结合起来。该提案有可能大幅降低软件测试和软件开发的成本，并提高JIT编译器及其生成代码的质量。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Just-in-time (JIT) compilers are integral to many popular programming languages, such as Java, C#, or JavaScript. These languages use managed runtime environments, where the execution of a program starts in an interpreted mode, but as code gets executed more times, a JIT compiler recompiles code blocks into an optimized native form, ensuring faster and more optimized versions of code. JIT compilers are instrumental in ensuring that software written in the aforementioned languages is highly performant. Despite the immense importance of JIT compilers for optimizing deployed software, there is little research focused on JIT compilation, particularly in the area of software testing. The goal of this project is to develop techniques to support both JIT compiler developers to better test their compilers and general software developers to improve their software testing process by taking advantage of the underlying JIT compiler with which they run. To accomplish this goal, this project will (1) develop test generation techniques that allow JIT compiler developers to bring their domain knowledge to better test JIT compilers, (2) accelerate software testing via compiler-cognizant analyses, and (3) integrate existing testing techniques closer with the compilers. This proposal has the potential to substantially reduce the cost of software testing and software development, as well as increase the quality of JIT compilers and the code they produce.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.