Year: 2025
Type: preprint
Abstract: We describe the implementation of the prime path coverage support introduced the GNU Compiler Collection 15, a structural coverage metric that focuses on paths of execution through the program. Prime path coverage strikes a good balance between the number of tests and coverage, and requires that loops are taken, taken more than once, and skipped. We show that prime path coverage subsumes modified condition/decision coverage (MC/DC). We improve on the current state-of-the-art algorithms for enumerating prime paths by using a suffix tree for efficient pruning of duplicated and redundant subpaths, reducing it to $O(n^2m)$ from $O(n^2m^2)$, where $n$ is the length of the longest path and $m$ is the number of candidate paths. We can efficiently track candidate paths using a few bitwise operations based on a compact representation of the indices of the ordered prime paths. By analyzing the control flow graph, GCC can observe and instrument paths in a language-agnostic manner, and accurately report what code must be run in what order to achieve coverage.
Source: arXiv (Cornell University)
Author: Kvalsvik, Jørgen
Language: English
Subfield: Software
Field: Computer Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W4415320152
Cites:
Cited by:
Related to: