On Path Cover Problems in Digraphs and Applications to Program Testing

In this paper various path cover problems, arising in program testing, are discussed. Dilworth's theorem for acyclic digraphs is generalized. Two methods for fmding a minimum set of paths (minimum path cover) that covers the vertices (or the edges) of a digraph are given. To model interactions among code segments, the notions of required pairs and required paths are introduced. It is shown that rmding a minimum path cover for a set of required pairs is NP-hard. An efficient algorithm is given for findng a minimum path cover for a set of required paths. Other constrained path problems are contsidered and their complexities are discussed.