Creating a higher order mutant for mutation testing software

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11119902-B2
Application number	US-201916679438-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 11, 2019
Priority date	Nov 11, 2019
Publication date	Sep 14, 2021
Grant date	Sep 14, 2021

Abstract

A computer-implemented method for creating a higher order mutant for mutation testing software is disclosed. The method includes, for each software test of a set of software tests, identifying a respective code path. The method further includes, for each first order mutant of a plurality of first order mutants, associating the first order mutant with the one or more identified code paths it interacts with. The method further includes creating a higher order mutant by combining two or more first order mutants based on the one or more associated code paths.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A computer-implemented method for creating a higher order mutant for mutation testing software, the method comprising:
for each software test of a set of software tests, identifying a respective code path;
for each first order mutant of a plurality of first order mutants, associating the first order mutant with the one or more identified code paths it interacts with; and
creating a higher order mutant by combining two or more first order mutants of the plurality of first order mutants based on the one or more associated code paths, wherein:
the one or more code paths associated with a particular first order mutant of the two or more first order mutants do not overlap with the one or more code paths associated with the other first order mutants of the two or more first order mutants.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein, for each software test of the set of software tests, identifying the respective code path comprises:
obtaining the respective code path; and
assigning a path identifier to each of the one or more obtained code paths.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein associating the first order mutant with the one or more identified code paths it interacts with comprises:
generating a first order mutant;
identifying the one or more code paths the generated first order mutant interacts with; and
in response to identifying the one or more code paths, associating the first order mutant with the one or more identified code paths it interacts with.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein associating the first order mutant with the one or more identified code paths it interacts with comprises:
associating the first order mutant with the one or more identified code paths that comprise code affected by the first order mutant.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein creating the higher order mutant by combining the two or more first order mutants based on the one or more associated code paths comprises:
organizing the two or more first order mutants based on the one or more associated code paths; and
creating the higher order mutant by combining the two or more organized first order mutants.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
classifying a measure of performance for mutation testing software, including:
for each of the set of software tests, executing the software test using the higher order mutant; and
classifying a measure of performance of the software test based on the executed software test.

7. The method of claim 6 , further comprising, in response to a software test detecting and rejecting the higher order mutant:
disassembling the higher order mutant to obtain the two or more respective first order mutants;
executing software test using a first particular first order mutant of the two or more Obtained first order mutants; and
in response to the software test detecting and rejecting the first particular first order mutant, executing the software test using a second particular first order mutant from the two or more obtained first order mutants.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein:
the particular first order mutant is associated with a first code path;
a further particular first order mutant of the two or more first order mutants is associated with a second code path that is different than the first code path;
the particular first order mutant is not associated with the second code path; and
the further particular first order mutant is not associated with the first code path.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein creating a higher order mutant includes:
generating a first cluster of first order mutants, wherein all of the first order mutants in the first cluster are associated with a first identical set of code paths;
generating a second cluster of first order mutants, wherein all of the first order mutants in the second cluster are associated with a second identical set of code paths, wherein the first identical set of code paths does not have any code paths in common with the second identical set of code paths; and
combining one first order mutant from the first cluster and one first order mutant from the second cluster.

10. A computer program product for creating a higher order mutant for mutation testing software, the computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium having program instructions embodied therewith, the program instructions executable by a processing unit to cause the processing unit to perform a method comprising:
for each software test of a set of software tests, identifying a respective code path;
for each first order mutant of a plurality of first order mutants, associating the first order mutant with the one or more identified code paths it interacts with; and
creating a higher order mutant by combining two or more first order mutants of the plurality of first order mutants based on the one or more associated code paths, wherein:
the one or more code paths associated with a particular first order mutant of the two or more first order mutants do not overlap with the one or more code paths associated with the other first order mutants of the two or more first order mutants.

11. The computer program product of claim 10 , wherein associating the first order mutant with the one or more identified code paths it interacts with comprises:
associating the first order mutant with the one or more identified code paths that comprise code affected by the first order mutant.

12. The computer program product of claim 10 , wherein creating the higher order mutant by combining the two or more first order mutants based on the one or more associated code paths comprises:
organizing the two or more first order mutants based on the one or more associated code paths; and
creating the higher order mutant by combining the two or more organized first order mutants.

13. The computer program product of claim 10 , further comprising:
classifying a measure of performance for mutation testing software, including:
for each of the set of software tests, executing the software test using the higher order mutant; and
classifying a measure of performance of the software test based on the executed software test.

14. The computer program product of claim 13 , further comprising, in response to a software test detecting and rejecting the higher order mutant:
disassembling the higher order mutant to obtain the two or more respective first order mutants;
executing the software test using a first particular first order mutant of the two or more obtained first order mutants; and
in response to the software test detecting and rejecting the first particular first order mutant, executing the software test using a second particular first order mutant from the two or more obtained first order mutants.

15. A system for creating a higher order mutant for mutation testing software, the system comprising a processor configured to:
for each software test of a set of software tests, identify a respective code path;
for each first order mutant of a plurality of first order mutants, associate the first order mutant with the one or more identified code paths it interacts with; and
create a higher order mutant by combining two or more first order mutants of the plurality of first order mutants based on the one or more associated code paths, wherein:
the one or more code paths associated with a particular first order mutant of the two or more first order mutants do not overlap with the one or more code paths associated with the other first order mutants of the two or more first order mutants.

16. The system of claim 15 , wher

Assignees

• IBM

Inventors

• Lees Andrew Michael
• Jansen Grace
• Patel Bhavnit
• Naylor-Teece Alexander John

Classifications

• G06F11/3409

  for performance assessment · CPC title

• G06F11/3688 Primary

  for test execution, e.g. scheduling of test suites · CPC title

• G06F11/3684 Primary

  for test design, e.g. generating new test cases · CPC title

• G06F11/302

  where the computing system component is a software system · CPC title