Reducing irrelevant trace variations

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

REFERENCES

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INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  D. Software
  D.2 SOFTWARE ENGINEERING
      D.2.5 Testing and Debugging
          Subjects: Tracing

General Terms:
Experimentation, Measurement

Keywords:
execution traces, trace analysis, trace simplification