Detecting equivalent mutants and the feasible path problem

Mutation testing is a technique for testing software units that has great potential for improving the quality of testing, and thereby increasing our ability to assure the high reliability of critical software. The paper presents a technique that uses mathematical constraints to automatically detect equivalent mutant programs. The paper also describes how the approach is used for the feasible path problem. The paper describes how test criteria are formalized as mathematical constraint systems, how equivalent mutants are represented as infeasible constraints, and how infeasible constraints are detected. A proof of concept implementation has been developed to demonstrate this technique, and experimental results from using this tool are presented. Limitations of the system and the method are described, and proposals for improvements are made.