MuRS: Mutant Ranking and Suppression using Identifier Templates

Abstract

Diff-based mutation testing is a mutation testing approach that only mutates lines affected by a code change under review. This approach scales independently of the code-base size and introduces test goals (mutants) that are directly relevant to an engineer’s goal such as fixing a bug, adding a new feature, or refactoring existing functionality. Google’s mutation testing service integrates diff-based mutation testing into the code review process and continuously gathers developer feedback on mutants surfaced during code review. To enhance the developer experience, the mutation testing service uses a number of manually-written rules that suppress not-useful mutants—mutants that have consistently received negative developer feedback. However, while effective, manually implementing suppression rules requires significant engineering time.