Goal-oriented test data generation for programs with pointer variables

Automatic test data generation leads to identify input values on which a selected path or a selected branch is executed within a program (path-oriented vs goal-oriented methods). In both cases, several approaches based on constraint solving exist, but in the presence of pointer variables only path-oriented methods have been proposed. This paper extends an existing goal-oriented test data generation technique to deal with multi-level pointer variables. These pointers are responsible for the existence of difficult conditional aliasing problems that usually provoke the failure of the test data generation process. The key point of our approach is the definition of a new static single assignment form based on the results of an intraprocedural flow-sensitive points-to analysis. This form allows us to propose an overall approach for generating goal-oriented test data in the presence of pointer variables based on the Constraint Logic Programming framework. The approach has been implemented and tested over a few examples extracted from the literature.

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Source https://inria.hal.science/inria-00070479
Author Gotlieb, Arnaud, Denmat, Tristan, Botella, Bernard
Maintainer CCSD
Last Updated May 16, 2026, 00:59 (UTC)
Created May 16, 2026, 00:59 (UTC)
Identifier Report N°: RR-5528
Language en
Rights https://about.hal.science/hal-authorisation-v1/
contributor Logiciel : ANalyse et DEveloppement (Lande) ; Institut de Recherche en Informatique et Systèmes Aléatoires (IRISA) ; Université de Rennes (UR)-Institut National des Sciences Appliquées - Rennes (INSA Rennes) ; Institut National des Sciences Appliquées (INSA)-Institut National des Sciences Appliquées (INSA)-Institut National de Recherche en Informatique et en Automatique (Inria)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université de Rennes (UR)-Institut National des Sciences Appliquées - Rennes (INSA Rennes) ; Institut National des Sciences Appliquées (INSA)-Institut National des Sciences Appliquées (INSA)-Institut National de Recherche en Informatique et en Automatique (Inria)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Centre Inria de l'Université de Rennes ; Institut National de Recherche en Informatique et en Automatique (Inria)
creator Gotlieb, Arnaud
date 2005-05-16T00:00:00
harvest_object_id bffd79e9-c944-4d84-874c-1d0665549bbe
harvest_source_id 3374d638-d20b-4672-ba96-a23232d55657
harvest_source_title test moissonnage SELUNE
metadata_modified 2025-03-28T00:00:00
set_spec type:REPORT