2026-07-22T13:49:35Z https://drops.dagstuhl.de/oai

oai:drops-oai.dagstuhl.de:24792 2026-02-09T07:47:23Z ddc:004 open_access

Combining Dynamic Slicing and Spectrum-Based Fault Localization - A First Experimental Evaluation Schleich, Jonas Wotawa, Franz Software fault localization program slicing spectrum-based fault localization automated debugging Identifying and localizing bugs in programs has always been considered a complex but essential topic. Whereas the former has led to substantial progress in areas like formal verification and testing with a high degree of automation, the latter has not been satisfactorily automated. Approaches like program slicing, model-based diagnosis, and, more recently, spectrum-based fault localization can be used to find possible causes of a misbehaving program automatically, but often come with high computational complexity or a larger list of diagnoses, which require additional manual effort. In this paper, we present the first experimental results of an approach that combines program slicing with spectrum-based fault localization aiming at improving the outcome of automated debugging methods. In contrast to previous work, where we illustrated potential improvements only by considering a particular use case, we present an evaluation based on 22 different example programs in this paper. The approach improves the wasted effort on average by around 5 to 15% on average. Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik Jonas Schleich and Franz Wotawa 2025 Is Part Of OASIcs, Volume 136, 36th International Conference on Principles of Diagnosis and Resilient Systems (DX 2025) InProceedings Text doc-type:ResearchArticle publishedVersion application/pdf doi:10.4230/OASIcs.DX.2025.3 urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-247927 https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/OASIcs.DX.2025.3 eng https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode