Transferring an Automated Test Generation Tool to Practice: From Pex to Fakes, Code Digger, and Pex4Fun

Tao XieUniversity of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Part of the research work described in this talk was done in collaboration with the Pex team (Nikolai Tillmann, Peli de Halleux, et al.) @Microsoft Research, students @Illinois ASE, and other collaborators; part of the research work was done by the Pex team only

2

Successful Samples: Research Practice

…

MSR SAGE

ASTRÉE

Statechart

XIAO

MSR STACKMINEMSR

SPIN

ACM SIGSOFT Impact Project

http://www.sigsoft.org/impact/

ICSE Papers: Industry vs. Academia

Source© Carlo Ghezzi

OSDI 2008 26% vs. xSE ?%Developers, Programmers, Architects Among All Attendees

ICSM 11 Keynote

ICSE 09 Keynote

MSR 12 Keynote

MSR 11 Keynote

SCAM 12 Keynote

"Are Automated Debugging [Research] Techniques Actually Helping Programmers?" 50 years of automated debugging research

N papers only 5 evaluated with actual programmers“

” [Parnin&Orso ISSTA’11]http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=20014

45

(Automated) Test Generation

Human Expensive, incomplete, …

Brute Force Pairwise, predefined data, etc…

Tool Automation!!

State-of-the-Art/Practice Test Generation Tools

Running Symbolic PathFinder ...…=============================

========================= results

no errors detected=============================

========================= statistics

elapsed time: 0:00:02states: new=4, visited=0,

backtracked=4, end=2search: maxDepth=3, constraints=0choice generators: thread=1, data=2heap: gc=3, new=271, free=22instructions: 2875max memory: 81MBloaded code: classes=71, methods=884

…

7

Successful Case of MSR Testing Tool: Pex & Relatives

Pex (released on May 2008) 30,388 download# (20 months, Feb 08-Oct 09) Active user community: 1,436 forum posts

during ~3 years (Oct 08- Nov 11) Moles (released on Sept 2009)

Shipped with VS 12 as Fakes “Provide Microsoft Fakes w/ all Visual Studio

editions” got 1,457 community votes Code Digger (released on Oct 2008 for VS

08/10, on Apr 2013 in VS Gallery for VS 12) 22,466 download# (10 months, Apr 13-Jan 14)

Example Comments for Code Digger in VS Gallery

“Great tool to generate unit tests for parameter boundary tests. I like to see it integrated into Visual Studio and the testing features as far as in ReSharper! :)”

“What an awesome tool.. Help us to explore our logic by providing accurate input parameter for each logic branch.. You should try this as one of your ultimate tool :) It really saves a lot of our time to explore every logic branch in our apps..”

Example Comments for Code Digger in VS Gallery cont.

“What a fantastic tool. Whilst it’s not bullet proof, it shows amazing promise. I ran the Code Digger over a number of real-world methods and it immediately identified dozens of edge cases we hadn’t thought of. This is getting rolled-out to my team TODAY! Well done. Brilliant. Really brilliant.”

“Top stuff here. Very anxious for more of the Pex features that were available in VS 2010 Pex & Moles (like auto-gen unit tests). This tool is poised to become indispensable for anyone writing solid suites of unit tests.”

Pex4Fun

1,462,489 clicked 'Ask Pex!'

http://pex4fun.com/

Behind the Scene of Pex4Fun

Secret Implementation class Secret {

public static int Puzzle(int x) { if (x <= 0) return 1; return x * Puzzle(x-1); }}

Player Implementation

class Player { public static int Puzzle(int x) { return x; }}

class Test {public static void Driver(int x) { if (Secret.Puzzle(x) != Player.Puzzle(x)) throw new Exception(“Mismatch”); }}

behaviorSecret Impl == Player Impl

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Example User Feedback on Pex4Fun

“It really got me *excited*. The part that got me most is about spreading interest in teaching CS: I do think that it’s REALLY great for teaching | learning!”

“I used to love the first person shooters and the satisfaction of blowing away a whole team of Noobies playing Rainbow Six, but this is far more fun.”

“I’m afraid I’ll have to constrain myself to spend just an hour or so a day on this really exciting stuff, as I’m really stuffed with work.”

X

Code Hunt: Redesigned as Game

https://www.codehunt.com/

What Lie Behind Pex

NOT Random: Cheap, Fast “It passed a thousand tests” feeling

…But Dynamic Symbolic Execution:

e.g., Pex, CUTE,EXE White box Constraint Solving

Dynamic Symbolic Execution

Code to generate inputs for:

Constraints to solve

a!=null a!=null &&a.Length>0

a!=null &&a.Length>0 &&a[0]==1234567890

void CoverMe(int[] a){ if (a == null) return; if (a.Length > 0) if (a[0] == 1234567890) throw new Exception("bug");}

Observed constraints

a==nulla!=null &&!(a.Length>0)a!=null &&a.Length>0 &&a[0]!=1234567890

a!=null &&a.Length>0 &&a[0]==1234567890

Data

null

{}

{0}

{123…}a==null

a.Length>0

a[0]==123…T

TF

T

F

F

Execute&MonitorSolve

Choose next path

Done: There is no path left.

Negated condition

There are decision procedures for individual path conditions, but… Number of potential paths grows

exponentially with number of branches Reachable code not known initially Without guidance, same loop might be

unfolded forever

Fitnex search strategy [Xie et al. DSN 09]

Explosion of Search Space

DSE Example

public bool TestLoop(int x, int[] y) {if (x == 90) {

for (int i = 0; i < y.Length; i++) if (y[i] == 15)

x++; if (x == 110) return true;

} return false;}

TestLoop(0, {0})

Path condition:!(x == 90) ↓New path condition:(x == 90) ↓New test input:TestLoop(90, {0})

DSE Example

public bool TestLoop(int x, int[] y) {if (x == 90) {

for (int i = 0; i < y.Length; i++)if (y[i] == 15) x++;

if (x == 110) return true;

} return false;}

TestLoop(90, {0})

Path condition:(x == 90) && !(y[0] ==15) ↓New path condition:(x == 90) && (y[0] ==15) ↓New test input:TestLoop(90, {15})

Challenge in DSE

public bool TestLoop(int x, int[] y) {if (x == 90) {

for (int i = 0; i < y.Length; i++)if (y[i] == 15) x++;

if (x == 110)return true;

} return false;}

TestLoop(90, {15})

Path condition:(x == 90) && (y[0] ==15)

&& !(x+1 == 110) ↓New path condition:(x == 90) && (y[0] ==15)

&& (x+1 == 110) ↓New test input:No solution!?

A Closer Look

public bool TestLoop(int x, int[] y) {if (x == 90) {

for (int i = 0; i < y.Length; i++)if (y[i] == 15) x++;

if (x == 110)return true;

} return false;}

TestLoop(90, {15})

Path condition:(x == 90) && (y[0] ==15)

&& (0 < y.Length) && !(1 < y.Length) && !(x+1 == 110) ↓New path condition:(x == 90) && (y[0] ==15)

&& (0 < y.Length) && (1 < y.Length) Expand array size

A Closer Look

public bool TestLoop(int x, int[] y) {if (x == 90) {

for (int i = 0; i < y.Length; i++)if (y[i] == 15) x++;

if (x == 110)return true;

} return false;}

TestLoop(90, {15})

We can have infinite paths!

Manual analysis need at least 20 loop iterations to cover the target branch

Exploring all paths up to 20 loop iterations is infeasible:

220 paths

Fitnex: Fitness-Guided Explorationpublic bool TestLoop(int x, int[] y) { if (x == 90) { for (int i = 0; i < y.Length; i++)

if (y[i] == 15) x++;

if (x == 110) return true;

} return false;}

Key observations: with respect to the coverage target not all paths are equally promising

for branch-node flipping not all branch nodes are equally

promising to flip

• Our solution: – Prefer to flip branch nodes on the most promising paths

– Prefer to flip the most promising branch nodes on paths

– Fitness function to measure “promising” extents

TestLoop(90, {15, 0})TestLoop(90, {15, 15})

[Xie et al. DSN 2009]

Fitness Function

FF computes fitness value (distance between the current state and the goal state)

Search tries to minimize fitness value

[Tracey et al. 98, Liu at al. 05, …]

Fitness Function for (x == 110)

public bool TestLoop(int x, int[] y) { if (x == 90) { for (int i = 0; i < y.Length; i++)

if (y[i] == 15) x++;

if (x == 110) return true;

} return false;}

Fitness function: |110 – x |

Compute Fitness Values for Paths

public bool TestLoop(int x, int[] y) { if (x == 90) { for (int i = 0; i < y.Length; i++)

if (y[i] == 15) x++;

if (x == 110) return true;

} return false;}

(90, {0}) 20(90, {15}) 19(90, {15, 0}) 19(90, {15, 15}) 18(90, {15, 15, 0}) 18(90, {15, 15, 15}) 17(90, {15, 15, 15, 0}) 17(90, {15, 15, 15, 15}) 16(90, {15, 15, 15, 15, 0}) 16(90, {15, 15, 15, 15, 15}) 15…

Fitness Value(x, y)

Fitness function: |110 – x |

Give preference to flip paths with better fitness valuesWe still need to address which branch node to flip on paths …

Compute Fitness Gains for Branches

public bool TestLoop(int x, int[] y) {

if (x == 90) { for (int i = 0; i < y.Length; i+

+) if (y[i] == 15) x++;

if (x == 110) return true;

} return false;}

(90, {0}) 20(90, {15}) flip b4 19(90, {15, 0}) flip b2 19(90, {15, 15}) flip b4 18(90, {15, 15, 0}) flip b2 18(90, {15, 15, 15}) flip b4 17(90, {15, 15, 15, 0}) flip b2 17(90, {15, 15, 15, 15}) flip b4 16(90, {15, 15, 15, 15, 0}) flip b2 16(90, {15, 15, 15, 15, 15}) flip b4 15…

Fitness Value(x, y)

Fitness function: |110 – x |Branch b1: i < y.LengthBranch b2: i >= y.LengthBranch b3: y[i] == 15Branch b4: y[i] != 15

•Flipping Branch b4 (b3) gives us average 1 (-1) fitness gain (loss)•Flipping branch b2 (b1) gives us average 0 fitness gain (loss)

Compute Fitness Gain for Branches cont.

For a flipped node leading to Fnew, find out the old fitness value Fold before flipping• Assign Fitness Gain (Fold – Fnew) for the branch of the

flipped node• Assign Fitness Gain (Fnew – Fold ) for the other branch

of the branch of the flipped node

Compute the average fitness gain for each branch over time

Search Frontier

Each branch node candidate for being flipped is prioritized based on its composite fitness value: • (Fitness value of node – Fitness gain of its

branch)

Select first the one with the best composite fitness value

Successful Case of MSR Testing Tool: Pex & Relatives

Pex (released on May 2008): 30,388 download# (20 months, Feb 08-Oct 09) Active user community: 1,436 forum posts

during ~3 years (Oct 08- Nov 11) Moles (released Sept 2009)

Shipped with VS 12 as Fakes “Provide Microsoft Fakes w/ all Visual Studio

editions” got 1,457 community votes Code Digger (released on Oct 2008 for VS

08/10, on Apr 2013 in VS Gallery for VS 12) 22,466 download# (10 months, Apr 13-Jan 14)

How to make such successful case????

Lesson 1. Started as (Evolved) Dream

void TestAdd(ArrayList a, object o) { Assume.IsTrue(a!=null); int i = a.Count; a.Add(o); Assert.IsTrue(a[i] == o);}

Parameterized Unit Tests Supported by Pex

Moles/Fakes

Code Digger

Pex4Fun/Code Hunt

Surrounding (Moles/Fakes) Simplifying (Code Digger) Retargeting (Pex4Fun/Code

Hunt)

Lesson 2. Chicken and Egg

Developer/manager: “Who is using your tool?”

Pex team: “Do you want to be the first?” Developer/manager: “I love your tool but

no.”

Tool Adoption by (Mass) Target Users

Tool Shipping with Visual Studio

Macro Perspective

Micro Perspective

Lesson 3. Human Factors – Generated Data Consumed by Human

Developer: “Code digger generates a lot of “\0” strings as input. I can’t find a way to create such a string via my own C# code. Could any one show me a C# snippet? I meant zero terminated string.”

Pex team: “In C#, a \0 in a string does not mean zero-termination. It’s just yet another character in the string (a very simple character where all bits are zero), and you can create as Pex shows the value: “\0”.”

Developer: “Your tool generated “\0”” Pex team: “What did you expect?” Developer: “Marc.”

Lesson 3. Human Factors – Generated Name Consumed by Human

Developer: “Your tool generated a test called Foo001. I don’t like it.”

Pex team: “What did you expect?” Developer:“Foo_Should_Fail_When_Bar_Is_Ne

gative.”

Lesson 3. Human Factors – Generated Results Consumed by Human

Object Creation messages suppressed (related to Covana by Xiao et al. [ICSE’11])

Exception Tree View Exploration Tree

View

Exploration Results View

Lesson 4. Best vs. Worst Cases

public bool TestLoop(int x, int[] y) { if (x == 90) { for (int i = 0; i < y.Length; i++)

if (y[i] == 15) x++;

if (x == 110) return true;

} return false;}

Key observations: with respect to the coverage target not all paths are equally promising

for branch-node flipping not all branch nodes are equally

promising to flip

• Our solution: – Prefer to flip branch nodes on the most promising paths

– Prefer to flip the most promising branch nodes on paths

– Fitness function to measure “promising” extents

Fitnex by Xie et al. [DSN’09]

To avoid local optimal or biases, the fitness-guided strategy is integrated with Pex’s fairness search strategies

Lesson 5. Tool Users’ Stereotypical Mindset or Habits

“Simply one mouse click and then everything would work just perfectly” Often need environment isolation w/ Moles/Fakes or

factory methods, … “One mouse click, a test generation tool would

detect all or most kinds of faults in the code under test” Developer: “Your tool only finds null references.” Pex team: “Did you write any assertions?” Developer: “Assertion???”

“I do not need test generation; I already practice unit testing (and/or TDD). Test generation does not fit into the TDD process”

Lesson 6. Practitioners’ Voice

Gathered feedback from target tool users Directly, e.g., via

MSDN Pex forum, tech support, outreach to MS engineers and .NET user groups

Indirectly, e.g., via interactions with MS Visual Studio team (a tool

vendor to its huge user base) Motivations of Moles

Refactoring testability issue faced resistance in practice

Observation at Agile 2008: high attention on mock objects and tool supports

Lesson 7. Collaboration w/ Academia

Win-win collaboration model Win (Ind Lab): longer-term research innovation, man

power, research impacts, … Win (Univ): powerful infrastructure,

relevant/important problems in practice, both research and industry impacts, …

Industry-located Collaborations Faculty visits, e.g., Fitnex, Pex4Fun Student internships, e.g., FloPSy, DyGen,

state cov Academia-located Collaborations

Lesson 7. Collaboration w/ Academia

Academia-located Collaborations Immediate indirect impacts, e.g.,

Reggae [ASE’09s] Rex MSeqGen [FSE’09] DyGen Guided Cov [ICSM’10] state coverage

Long-term indirect impacts, e.g., DySy by Csallner et al. [ICSE’08] Seeker [OOPSLA’11] Covana [ICSE’11]

Summary

Pex practice impacts Moles/Fakes, Code Digger, Pex4Fun/Code

Hunt Lessons in transferring tools

Started as (Evolved) Dream Chicken and Egg Human Factors Best vs. Worst Cases Tool Users’ Stereotypical Mindset or Habits Practitioners’ Voice Collaboration w/ Academia

Thank you

http://research.microsoft.com/pexhttps://sites.google.com/site/asergrp/

Summary

Pex practice impacts Moles/Fakes, Code Digger, Pex4Fun/Code

Hunt Lessons in transferring tools

Started as (Evolved) Dream Chicken and Egg Human Factors Best vs. Worst Cases Tool Users’ Stereotypical Mindset or Habits Practitioners’ Voice Collaboration w/ Academia