Automatic test data generation from embedded C code

A fundamental area of software engineering that remains a challenge for software developers is the delivery of software with the minimum of remaining defects. While progress is constantly being made in the provision of static analysis tools to partly address this problem, the complementary dynamic testing approach, which remains an essential technique in the software industry for the verification and validation of software, has received less attention. Within the software testing activity, the actual generation of test data for the purpose of automated software testing is still mainly a manual task. We present CSET (C Symbolic Execution Tool) which automatically generates test data from C source code to fulfil code coverage criteria. CSET implements the symbolic execution technique with an intermediate path traversal conditions checker and a test data generation facility. We examine how the traditional problems associated with the symbolic execution technique have been overcome using Logic Programming and Constraint Logic Programming (CLP). The approach used to handle pointer manipulations is detailed. Interprocedural results on previously published sample code and industrial embedded C code with pointers are presented.