Abstract Interpretation of Programs for Model-Based Debugging

Wolfgang Mayer, Markus Stumptner

Developing model-based automatic debugging strategies has been an active research area for several years. We present a model-based debugging approach that is based on Abstract Interpretation, a technique borrowed from program analysis. The Abstract Interpretation mechanism is integrated with a classical model-based reasoning engine. We test the approach on sample programs and provide the first experimental comparison with earlier models used for debugging. The results show that the Abstract Interpretation based model provides more precise explanations than previous models or standard non-model based approaches.