The Path-wise Approach to Data Flow Testing with Pointer Variables

This paper describes a new approach to performing data flow testing on programs that use pointer variables and a tool based on this approach. Our technique is based on the observation that, under certain reasonable assumptions, we can determine which dereferenced pointers are aliased whenever control reaches a given program point via a particular path. Furthermore, we can group together paths which behave similarly and represent them by regular expressions. The resulting test requirements demand that the test data execute representatives of particular sets of paths between variable definitions and uses. 1 Introduction Many researchers view data flow testing techniques as promising approaches, which may offer better faultdetecting ability than techniques based purely on control flow analysis, at fairly reasonable cost. It is reasonable to conjecture that data flow testing tools based on Supported in part by NSF grant CCR-9206910. Proceedings of MASPLAS'96, The Mid-Atlantic Student W..