Are Similar Bugs Fixed with Similar Change Operations? An Empirical Study

BO Lili; ZHU Xuanrui; SUN Xiaobing; NI Zhen; LI Bin

doi:10.1049/cje.2020.10.010

Volume 30 Issue 1

Jan. 2021

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BO Lili, ZHU Xuanrui, SUN Xiaobing, et al., “Are Similar Bugs Fixed with Similar Change Operations? An Empirical Study,” Chinese Journal of Electronics, vol. 30, no. 1, pp. 55-63, 2021, doi: 10.1049/cje.2020.10.010

Citation:

BO Lili, ZHU Xuanrui, SUN Xiaobing, et al., “Are Similar Bugs Fixed with Similar Change Operations? An Empirical Study,” Chinese Journal of Electronics, vol. 30, no. 1, pp. 55-63, 2021, doi: 10.1049/cje.2020.10.010

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Are Similar Bugs Fixed with Similar Change Operations? An Empirical Study

doi: 10.1049/cje.2020.10.010

BO Lili^{1, 2, 3
,},
ZHU Xuanrui^{1, 2
,},
SUN Xiaobing^{1, 2, 3
,
,},
NI Zhen^{1, 2},
LI Bin^{1, 2}

1.
School of Information Engineering, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou 225127, China
2.
Jiangsu Engineering Research Center of Knowledge Management and Intelligent Service, Yangzhou 225127, China
3.
State Key Laboratory for Novel Software Technology, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210023, China

Funds:

the National Natural Science Foundation of China 61872312

the National Natural Science Foundation of China 61972335

the National Natural Science Foundation of China 62002309

the Yangzhou city-Yangzhou University Science and Technology Cooperation Fund Project YZU201803

the Six Talent Peaks Project in Jiangsu Province RJFW-053

the Jiangsu "333" Project, Yangzhou University Top-level Talents Support Program 2019

the Open Funds of State Key Laboratory for Novel Software Technology of Nanjing University KFKT2020B15

the Open Funds of State Key Laboratory for Novel Software Technology of Nanjing University KFKT2020B16

More Information

Author Bio:
BO Lili  was born in 1989. She received the Ph.D. degree in computer software and theory from China University of Mining and Technology. She is a lecturer in School of Information Engineering, Yangzhou University. Her research interests include software testing and software security. (Email: lilibo@yzu.edu.cn)

ZHU Xuanrui  was born in 1995. She is a student of School in Software Engineer, Yangzhou University. Her research interests include software bug fixing. (Email: MZ120170635@yzu.edu.cn)

NI Zhen  was born in 1987. She is a student in School of Information Engineering, Yangzhou University. Her current research interests include data-driven automated software repair and software data analysis

LI Bin  was born in 1965. He is a professor in School of Information Engineering, Yangzhou University. His current research interests include web service analysis, cloud computing
Corresponding author: SUN Xiaobing (corresponding author) was born in 1985. He is a professor in School of Information Engineering, Yangzhou University. His current research interests include change comprehension, analysis and testing, software data analytics. (Email: xbsun@yzu.edu.cn)
Received Date: 2020-03-04
Accepted Date: 2020-05-23
Publish Date: 2021-01-01

Abstract

Abstract

Fine-grained change operations can help software developers fix software bugs more accurately and efficiently. However, the current fine-grained change operations are only used in specific fixing process, such as fixing of If statement. In this paper, we conducted an empirical study to explore the fine-grained change operations for bug fixing. Based on the Mozilla bug data, we examined whether similar bugs are fixed with similar change operations. The results show that: First, for bug reports with similar descriptions or bug-fix commits with similar descriptions, their corresponding fine-grained change operations are not related; Second, in the case where the descriptions of both bug reports and bug-fix commits are similar, the fine-grained change operations in patch code are not related; Third, by classifying bug reports, we find that the change operations in the same bug report category are similar; Finally, by analyzing the fine-grained change operations for each bug, we present some combined patterns that are often used together.
- Automatic bug fixing,
- Change operation,
- Bug classification,
- Empirical study

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References(20)

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