ART: An Efficient Framework for Automated Regression Testing for C/C++ Projects

Regression testing, a critical phase in a software life cycle, often incurs significant time and cost for software companies, underscoring the need for an effective automated regression testing method. This paper introduces an efficient framework, ART, designed for automated regression testing of C/C++ projects. The fundamental concept of ART is to employ the Concolic testing method for comprehensive automated test generation for the initial version of a software product. Upon testing the updated version of the software, ART identifies all modifications in the new version. Subsequently, ART utilizes a change impact analysis (CIA) method, Wave-CIA, to determine the impact set of components in the updated software version. Ultimately, ART applies the Concolic testing method exclusively to the modified and impacted components. As a result, ART significantly reduces the time and cost associated with regression testing of the updated version. Preliminary experimental results indicate that ART can reduce the required testing time for the new version of a software product by up to 92%. Further discussions regarding the ART framework are provided in the paper.