Jaguar: A Spectrum-Based Fault Localization Tool for Real-World Software

Abstract

We present the Jaguar fault localization tool, which uses Spectrum-based Fault Localization techniques (SFL) to indicate faulty code excerpts. Jaguar supports both control-flow and data-flow spectra. It also provides visualization of lists containing suspicious program elements that are more likely to be faulty. These lists can be used to inspect suspicious methods, lines, and variables to locate bugs. Although data-flow spectrum provides more comprehensive information than control-flow, it is rarely used in SFL due to its high execution costs. Jaguar uses the ba-dua coverage tool, which gathers data-flow spectrum using a lightweight approach. Thus, Jaguar can be used in large programs at affordable execution costs. Jaguar is an open source tool for Java programs, which is available as an Eclipse plug-in and as a command line tool.