Improving software testability with assertion insertion

Abstract

Executable assertions can be inserted into a program to find software faults. Unfortunately, the process of designing and embedding these assertions can be expensive and time consuming. We have developed the C-Patrol tool to reduce the overhead of using assertions in C programs. C-Patrol allows a developer to reference a set of previously defined assertions, written in virtual C, bind assertion parameters, and direct the placement of the assertions by a pre-processor.