CLPS-MFL: Using Concept Lattice of Program Spectrum for Effective Multi-fault Localization

Abstract

Fault localization (FL) is an important but challenging task during software testing. Among techniques studied in this field, using program spectrum as a bug indicator is a promising approach. However, its effectiveness may be affected when multiple simultaneous faults are present. To alleviate this limitation, we propose a novel approach, CLPS-MFL, which combines concept lattice with program spectrum to localize multiple faults. Our approach first uses formal concept analysis to transform the obtained program spectrum into a concept lattice. Then, it uses three strategies to identify the failure root causes based on the properties of the concept lattice. Our empirical studies on three subject programs validate the effectiveness of the CLPS-MFL approach for localizing multiple faults.