Evolutionary Fault Localization Based on the Diversity of Suspiciousness Values

Context.Fault localization (FL) is a software lifecycle activity and its automation is a challenge for researchers and practitioners.Method.The study focuses on evolutionary fault localization and introduces a novel Genetic Programming (GP) approach that evolves FL heuristics based on the diversity of the suspiciousness score of program statements -a score to grade how faulty a statement is.Experimental analysis.The approach was evaluated against baselines, which include the canonical GP, in benchmarks with real programs and real faults.Conclusion.The results showed the competitiveness of the approach through evaluation metrics commonly used in the research field.