Simplifying and Isolating Failure-Inducing Input: A Retrospective on Delta Debugging

Zeller, Andreas; Hildebrandt, Ralf

doi:10.60882/cispa.28714898.v1

Simplifying and Isolating Failure-Inducing Input: A Retrospective on Delta Debugging

journal contribution

posted on 2025-04-02, 10:30 authored by Andreas ZellerAndreas Zeller, Ralf Hildebrandt

Delta Debugging is a technique to simplify and isolate failure-inducing changes. Its most popular application is on program inputs, where it reduces a failure-inducing input to a minimal input that still triggers the failure. This paper provides a retrospective on Delta Debugging, discussing its origins, applications, and impact. We also discuss the limitations of Delta Debugging and suggest directions for future research.

History

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ISSN - Is published in 0098-5589 (IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering)

Primary Research Area

Threat Detection and Defenses

CISPA Affiliation

Yes

Journal

IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering

Volume

51

Page Range

820-824

Publisher

Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)

Open Access Type

Not Open Access

Sub Type

Article

BibTeX

@article{Zeller:Hildebrandt:2025, title = "Simplifying and Isolating Failure-Inducing Input: A Retrospective on Delta Debugging", author = "Zeller, Andreas" AND "Hildebrandt, Ralf", year = 2025, month = 3, journal = "IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering", number = "3", pages = "820--824", publisher = "Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)", issn = "0098-5589", doi = "10.1109/tse.2025.3537167" }