RESTORE: Retrospective Fault Localization Enhancing Automated Program Repair

TL;DR

RESTORE introduces a novel fault localization method that reuses failed patch validation outcomes to improve accuracy and efficiency in automated program repair, significantly enhancing repair success rates and speed.

Contribution

The paper presents retrospective fault localization, a new technique that integrates fault localization with patch validation to improve efficiency and effectiveness in automated program repair.

Findings

Fixes 41 Defects4J bugs, outperforming other tools.

Achieves over 3x speedup compared to JAID.

Enhances repair success rate with better fault localization.

Abstract

Fault localization is a crucial step of automated program repair, because accurately identifying program locations that are most closely implicated with a fault greatly affects the effectiveness of the patching process. An ideal fault localization technique would provide precise information while requiring moderate computational resources---to best support an efficient search for correct fixes. In contrast, most automated program repair tools use standard fault localization techniques---which are not tightly integrated with the overall program repair process, and hence deliver only subpar efficiency. In this paper, we present retrospective fault localization: a novel fault localization technique geared to the requirements of automated program repair. A key idea of retrospective fault localization is to reuse the outcome of failed patch validation to support mutation-based dynamic analysis---providing accurate fault localization information without incurring onerous computational costs. We implemented retrospective fault localization in a tool called RESTORE---based on the JAID Java program repair system. Experiments involving faults from the Defects4J standard benchmark indicate that retrospective fault localization can boost automated program repair: RESTORE efficiently explores a large fix space, delivering state-of-the-art effectiveness (41 Defects4J bugs correctly fixed, 8 more than any other automated repair tools for Java) while simultaneously boosting performance (speedup over 3 compared to JAID). Retrospective fault localization is applicable to any automated program repair techniques that rely on fault localization and dynamic validation of patches.