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A combinatorial testing strategy for concurrent programs
Author(s) -
Lei Yu,
Carver Richard H.,
Kacker Raghu,
Kung David
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
software testing, verification and reliability
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.216
H-Index - 49
eISSN - 1099-1689
pISSN - 0960-0833
DOI - 10.1002/stvr.369
Subject(s) - reachability , computer science , synchronization (alternating current) , test strategy , orthogonal array testing , theoretical computer science , algorithm , programming language , software , computer network , software construction , channel (broadcasting) , software system
One approach to testing concurrent programs is called reachability testing, which derives test sequences automatically and on‐the‐fly, without constructing a static model. Existing reachability testing algorithms are exhaustive in that they are intended to exercise all possible synchronization sequences of a concurrent program with a given input. In this paper, we present a new testing strategy, called t ‐way reachability testing, that adopts the dynamic framework of reachability testing but selectively exercises a subset of synchronization sequences. The selection of thesynchronization sequences is based on a combinatorial testing strategy called t ‐way testing. We present an algorithm that implements t ‐way reachability testing, and report the results of several case studies that were conducted to evaluate its effectiveness. The results indicate that t ‐way reachability testing can substantially reduce the number of synchronization sequences exercised during reachability testing while still effectively detecting faults. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.