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Tue 29 Apr 2025 17:00 - 17:20 at 210 - APR Session 4 Chair(s): Tegawendé F. Bissyandé, Chao Peng

Automatic program repair (APR) has made significant progress in autonomously locating and fixing software faults. However, developers face uncertainty in trusting and validating patches, as the boundaries of the patch and the concrete inputs the patch fixes often remain unclear.

In this paper, we introduce AvicennaPatch, a novel tool designed to provide precise explanations of the input structures that are covered by the patch. Building on the Avicenna framework, AvicennaPatch uses a differential testing strategy, executing both the original and patched program versions to identify inputs where behavior diverges. By leveraging ISLA constraints, AvicennaPatch generates human-readable, grammar-based explanations that characterize patch-triggering inputs in terms of syntactic and semantic features. To refine these explanations, AvicennaPatch iteratively generates new inputs and adjusts its hypotheses, ensuring that the explanations are both precise and generalizable. Our approach not only enhances transparency in APR by clarifying the operational boundaries of patches but also supports developers in evaluating the reliability and robustness of automated fixes across diverse input scenarios. Our evaluation on 12 patches for 7 different subjects shows that AvicennaPatch can provide effective and general explanations.

Tue 29 Apr

Displayed time zone: Eastern Time (US & Canada) change

16:00 - 17:30
APR Session 4APR at 210
Chair(s): Tegawendé F. Bissyandé University of Luxembourg, Chao Peng ByteDance
16:00
20m
Talk
Simple Fault Localization using Execution Traces
APR
Julian Prenner Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, Romain Robbes CNRS, LaBRI, University of Bordeaux
16:20
20m
Talk
Studying and Understanding the Effectiveness and Failures of Conversational LLM-Based Repair
APR
Aolin Chen Wuhan University, Haojun Wu Wuhan University, Qi Xin Wuhan University, Steven P. Reiss Brown University, Jifeng Xuan Wuhan University
16:40
20m
Talk
Towards Unveiling Vulnerability Remediation Tactics from OSS Community
APR
Lyuye Zhang Nanyang Technological University, Wu Jiahui , Chengwei Liu Nanyang Technological University, Kaixuan Li East China Normal University, Sen Chen Nankai University, Yang Liu Nanyang Technological University
17:00
20m
Talk
Which Inputs Trigger my Patch?
APR
Martin Eberlein Humboldt-Universtität zu Berlin, Moeketsi Raselimo Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Germany and Stellenbosch University, South Africa, Lars Grunske Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
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