Compiler Testing

Readings

An empirical comparison of compiler testing techniques
- International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE 2016)
- Junjie Chen, Wenxiang Hu, Dan Hao, Yingfei Xiong, Hongyu Zhang, Lu Zhang, Bing Xie
- http://sei.pku.edu.cn/~xiongyf04/papers/ICSE16.pdf
- http://emponcc.github.io/
- https://github.com/emponcc/emponcc.github.io/blob/master/CompilerTestingComparison.md
- https://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=2884878
Automatic Test Case Reduction for OpenCL
- IWOCL 2016
- Moritz Pflanzer, Alastair F. Donaldson, Andrei Lascu
- https://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=2909439
- paper: https://spiral.imperial.ac.uk/handle/10044/1/39576
- slides: http://www.iwocl.org/wp-content/uploads/iwocl-2016-automatic-test-case-reduction.pdf
Automated Testing of Graphics Shader Compilers
- SPLASH 2017 OOPSLA
- Alastair F. Donaldson, Hugues Evrard, Andrei Lascu, Paul Thomson
- https://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=3152284.3133917
- https://www.doc.ic.ac.uk/~afd/homepages/papers/pdfs/2017/OOPSLA.pdf
- Overview of the GLFuzz transformations - https://medium.com/@afd_icl/overview-of-the-glfuzz-transformations-d530540a5a18
Automatic Testing of Symbolic Execution Engines via Program Generation and Differential Testing
- ASE 2017
- Timotej Kapus, Cristian Cadar
- https://srg.doc.ic.ac.uk/files/papers/symex-engine-tester-ase-17.pdf
Causal Distance-Metric-Based Assistance for Debugging After Compiler Fuzzing
- IEEE International Symposium on Software Reliability Engineering (ISSRE) 2018
- Josie Holmes and Alex Groce
- https://agroce.github.io/issre18.pdf
Checking Correctness of Code Generator Architecture Specifications
- Code Generation and Optimization (CGO) 2015
- N. Hasabnis, R. Qiao, R. Sekar
- http://www3.cs.stonybrook.edu/~nhasabni/papers/cgo15.pdf
- http://www3.cs.stonybrook.edu/~nhasabni/papers/cgo15_talk.pdf
Compiler fuzzing, part 1
- http://www.vegardno.net/2018/06/compiler-fuzzing.html
Compiler Fuzzing through Deep Learning
- International Symposium on Software Testing and Analysis (ISSTA) 2018
- Chris Cummins, Pavlos Petoumenos, Hugh Leather and Alastair Murray
- http://homepages.inf.ed.ac.uk/hleather/publications/2018_deepfuzzing_issta.pdf
- https://chriscummins.cc/deepsmith
Compiler Fuzzing: How Much Does It Matter?
- OOPSLA 2019
- Michael Marcozzi, Qiyi Tang, Alastair Donaldson, Cristian Cadar
- https://srg.doc.ic.ac.uk/projects/compiler-bugs/
- https://sites.google.com/view/michaelmarcozzi/software-tools/compiler-bugs-impact
- A Systematic Impact Study for Fuzzer-Found Compiler Bugs
  - 2019 arXiv (pre-print)
  - https://arxiv.org/abs/1902.09334
  - https://sites.google.com/view/michaelmarcozzi/compiler-bugs
- PapersWeLove London 2020
  - Michael Marcozzi
  - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUBmXYahTb0
Coverage Prediction for Accelerating Compiler Testing
- IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering (2019)
- Junjie Chen, Guancheng Wang, Dan Hao, Yingfei Xiong, Hongyu Zhang, Lu Zhang, Bing Xie
- https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/8588375
CUDAsmith: A Fuzzer for CUDA Compilers
- Computers, Software and Applications Conference (COMPSAC) 2020
- Bo Jiang, Xiaoyan Wang, W. K. Chan, T. H. Tse, Na Li, Yongfeng Yin, Zhenyu Zhang
- https://www.cs.hku.hk/data/techreps/document/TR-2020-05.pdf
- https://github.com/gongbell/CUDAsmith
DATm: Diderot's Automated Testing Model.
- 39th International Conference on Software Engineering ICSE (12th International Workshop on Automation of Software Test AST) 2017
- C. Chiw, G. Kindlmann, J. Reppy
- https://www.researchgate.net/publication/317836930_DATm_Diderot%27s_Automated_Testing_Model
- https://www.dropbox.com/s/5twsrp12vg4or7t/datm_talk.key?dl=0
Deep Differential Testing of JVM Implementations
- ICSE 2019
- Yuting Chen, Ting Su, Zhendong Su
- https://tingsu.github.io/files/icse19-classming.pdf
DeepFuzz: Automatic Generation of Syntax Valid C Programs for Fuzz Testing
- AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) 2019
- Xiao Liu, Xiaoting Li, Rupesh Prajapati, Dinghao Wu
- https://faculty.ist.psu.edu/wu/papers/DeepFuzz.pdf
- https://github.com/s3team/DeepFuzz
Differential Testing for Software
- Digital Technical Journal 10, 1 (1998)
- William M. McKeeman
- http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.83.445
Effect-Driven QuickChecking of Compilers
- ICFP 2017
- Jan Midtgaard, Mathias Nygaard Justesen, Patrick Kasting, Flemming Nielson, Hanne Riis Nielson
- paper: http://janmidtgaard.dk/papers/Midtgaard-al%3AICFP17-full.pdf
- implementation: https://github.com/jmid/efftester
- talk
  - http://podcasts.ox.ac.uk/effect-driven-quickchecking-compilers
  - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KrZzaShDew&list=PLnqUlCo055hW7kU-SBQEhC_87etA5Gqlq&index=15
Extending Equivalence Transformation Based Program Generator for Random Testing of C Compilers
- A-TEST 2018
- Shogo Takakura, Mitsuyoshi Iwatsuji, Nagisa Ishiura
- https://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?doid=3278186.3278188
- https://ist.ksc.kwansei.ac.jp/~ishiura/publications/C2018-11a.pdf
Finding and Analyzing Compiler Warning Defects
- ICSE 2016
- Chengnian Sun, Vu Le, Zhendong Su
- http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/7886904/
- https://web.cs.ucdavis.edu/~su/publications/icse16-warning.pdf
Finding and Understanding Bugs in C Compilers
- PLDI 2011
- Xuejun Yang, Yang Chen, Eric Eide, John Regehr
- http://www.cs.utah.edu/~regehr/papers/pldi11-preprint.pdf
- https://www.flux.utah.edu/download?uid=114
- https://blog.regehr.org/archives/492
- http://lambda-the-ultimate.org/node/4241
Fuzzing with Grammars
- In "The Fuzzing Book" - https://www.fuzzingbook.org/
- Andreas Zeller, Rahul Gopinath, Marcel Böhme, Gordon Fraser, Christian Holler
- https://www.fuzzingbook.org/html/Grammars.html
Fuzzing the .NET JIT Compiler
- http://mattwarren.org/2018/08/28/Fuzzing-the-.NET-JIT-Compiler/
- Fuzzlyn: Fuzzer for the .NET toolchains
  - https://github.com/jakobbotsch/Fuzzlyn
History-Guided Configuration Diversification for Compiler Test-Program Generation
- Automated Software Engineering (ASE) 2019
- Junjie Chen, Guancheng Wang, Dan Hao, Yingfei Xiong, Hongyu Zhang, Lu Zhang
- https://xiongyingfei.github.io/publications.html#ASE19b
Improving the Utility of Compiler Fuzzers
- 2014 Ph.D. Dissertation; Yang Chen
- http://www.cs.utah.edu/~chenyang/papers/thesis_draft.pdf
- https://search.proquest.com/openview/4799de27b7f7d50c7d4f1d2335316065/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=18750&diss=y
K-CONFIG: Using Failing Test Cases to Generate Test Cases in GCC Compilers
- Automated Software Engineering (ASE 2019) Late Breaking Research-Track
- Md Rafiqul Islam Rabin, Mohammad Amin Alipour
- https://arxiv.org/abs/1908.10481
Learning to Accelerate Compiler Testing
- International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE), Doctoral Symposium, 2018
- Junjie Chen
- https://www.icse2018.org/event/icse-2018-doctoral-symposium-learning-to-accelerate-compiler-testing
- Slides (2017): http://materials.dagstuhl.de/files/17/17502/17502.JunjieChen.Slides.pdf
Learning to Prioritize Test Programs for Compiler Testing
- International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE 2017)
- Junjie Chen, Yanwei Bai, Dan Hao, Yingfei Xiong, Hongyu Zhang, Bing Xie
- http://sei.pku.edu.cn/~xiongyf04/papers/ICSE17b.pdf
Nautilus: Fishing for Deep Bugs with Grammars
- Network and Distributed System Security Symposium (NDSS) 2019
- Cornelius Aschermann, Tommaso Frassetto, Thorsten Holz, Patrick Jauernig, Ahmad-Reza Sadeghi, Daniel Teuchert
- https://www.syssec.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/research/publications/nautilus/
- https://github.com/RUB-SysSec/nautilus
- testing applications: ChakraCore (the JavaScript engine of Microsoft Edge), PHP, mruby, and Lua
RandIR: Differential Testing for Embedded Compilers
- SCALA 2016
- Georg Ofenbeck, Tiark Rompf, Markus Püschel
- https://www.cs.purdue.edu/homes/rompf/papers/ofenbeck-scala16.pdf
ReduKtor: How We Stopped Worrying About Bugs in Kotlin Compiler
- Automated Software Engineering (ASE) 2019
- Daniil Stepanov, Marat Akhin, Mikhail Belyaev
- https://arxiv.org/abs/1909.07331
System Under Test: LLVM - https://systemundertest.org/llvm/
Taming compiler fuzzers
- PLDI 2013
- Y. Chen, A. Groce, C. Zhang, W.-K. Wong, X. Fern, E. Eide, J. Regehr
- https://www.cs.utah.edu/~regehr/papers/pldi13.pdf
- Fuzzers Need Taming - https://blog.regehr.org/archives/925
Test-Case Reduction for C Compiler Bugs
- PLDI 2012
- John Regehr, Yang Chen, Pascal Cuoq, Eric Eide, Chucky Ellison, Xuejun Yang
- https://www.cs.utah.edu/~regehr/papers/pldi12-preprint.pdf
Testing LLVM - http://blog.regehr.org/archives/1450
Testing Static Analyses for Precision and Soundness
- Code Generation and Optimization (CGO) 2020
- Jubi Taneja, Zhengyang Liu, John Regehr
- http://www.cs.utah.edu/~regehr/cgo20.pdf
- https://github.com/jubitaneja/souper-cgo20-artifact
- Testing Dataflow Analyses for Precision and Soundness
  - https://blog.regehr.org/archives/1709
  - LLVM Dataflow Info Printer Pass
    - https://github.com/regehr/llvm-dataflow-info
The problem with differential testing is that at least one of the compilers must get it right
- http://blog.frama-c.com/index.php?post/2013/09/25/The-problem-with-differential-testing-is-that-at-least-one-of-the-compilers-must-get-it-right

Performance Optimization

Compiler Testing via a Theory of Sound Optimisations in the C11/C++11 Memory Model
- Programming Language Design and Implementation (PLDI) 2013
- Robin Morisset, Pankaj Pawan, Francesco Zappa Nardelli
- https://www.di.ens.fr/~zappa/readings/pldi13.pdf
Detecting Arithmetic Optimization Opportunities for C Compilers by Randomly Generated Equivalent Programs
- IPSJ Transactions on System LSI Design Methodology, vol. 9, 2016; A. Hashimoto and N. Ishiura
- https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/ipsjtsldm/9/0/9_21/_article
Detecting Missed Arithmetic Optimization in C Compilers by Differential Random Testing
- The 20th Workshop on Synthesis And System Integration of Mixed Information technologies (SASIMI 2016)
- Mitsuyoshi Iwatsuji, Atsushi Hashimoto, Nagisa Ishiura
- http://ist.ksc.kwansei.ac.jp/~ishiura/publications/C2016-10a.pdf
Evaluating the Effects of Compiler Optimizations on Mutation Testing at the Compiler IR Level
Finding Missed Compiler Optimizations by Differential Testing
- Compiler Construction (CC) 2018
- Gergö Barany
- https://github.com/gergo-/missed-optimizations/raw/master/missed_optimizations_preprint.pdf
- Missed optimizations in C compilers: https://github.com/gergo-/missed-optimizations/
- https://hal.inria.fr/hal-01682683
Lost in translation: Exposing hidden compiler optimization opportunities
- 2019 arXiv
- Kyriakos Georgiou, Zbigniew Chamski, Andres Amaya Garcia, David May, Kerstin Eder
- https://arxiv.org/abs/1903.11397
- https://github.com/TrustworthySystemLab/LostInTranslation
Random Testing of Compilers’ Performance Based on Mixed Static and Dynamic Code Comparison
- A-TEST 2018
- Kota Kitaura, Nagisa Ishiura
- https://ist.ksc.kwansei.ac.jp/~ishiura/publications/C2018-11b.pdf
- https://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=3278192
Reinforcing Random Testing of Arithmetic Optimization of C Compilers by Scaling up Size and Number of Expressions
- IPSJ Transactions on System LSI Design Methodology, vol. 7, 2014
- E. Nagai, A. Hashimoto, N. Ishiura
- https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/ipsjtsldm/7/0/7_91/_article
Scaling up Size and Number of Expressions in Random Testing of Arithmetic Optimization of C Compilers
- SASIMI 2013
- E. Nagai, A. Hashimoto, N. Ishiura
- http://ist.ksc.kwansei.ac.jp/~ishiura/publications/C2013-10.pdf
The Correctness-Security Gap in Compiler Optimization
- LangSec 2015, IEEE SPW
- Vijay D'Silva, Mathias Payer, Dawn Song
- paper: https://research.google.com/pubs/pub43856.html
- slides: https://nebelwelt.net/publications/files/15LangSec-presentation.pdf
- talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6LCtHz_MDc&list=PL0pRF4xvoD0kuECJuowraVIIHlT3pN1Cm&index=3

Software

CF3: Test suite for arithmetic optimization of C compilers
- https://ist.ksc.kwansei.ac.jp/~ishiura/pub/CF3/
- https://github.com/ishiura-compiler/CF3
Csmith, a random generator of C programs
C-Reduce, a C program reducer
- https://embed.cs.utah.edu/creduce/
- https://github.com/csmith-project/creduce
- https://github.com/zjturner/creduce-windows
- Design and Evolution of C-Reduce
  - Part 1: https://blog.regehr.org/archives/1678
  - Part 2: https://blog.regehr.org/archives/1679
Fuzzing LLVM libraries and tools - https://llvm.org/docs/FuzzingLLVM.html
- Adventures in Fuzzing Instruction Selection
  - 2017 EuroLLVM Developers’ Meeting; Justin Bogner
  - http://llvm.org/devmtg/2017-03/assets/slides/adventures_in_fuzzing_instruction_selection.pdf
  - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBbQ_s6hNgg
- Structure-aware fuzzing for Clang and LLVM with libprotobuf-mutator
  - 2017 LLVM Developers’ Meeting; Kostya Serebryany, Vitaly Buka, Matt Morehouse
  - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U60hC16HEDY
gcc-for-llvm-testing: A modified GCC test suite suitable for testing non-GCC compilers
- https://github.com/embecosm/gcc-for-llvm-testing
- Using the GCC regression test suite for LLVM (and other compilers)
  - GNU Tools Cauldron 2018; Simon Cook
  - https://speakerdeck.com/simonpcook/using-the-gcc-regression-test-suite-for-llvm-and-other-compilers
- Repurposing GCC Regression for LLVM Based Tool Chains
  - 2018 LLVM Developers’ Meeting; Jeremy Bennett
  - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GV4PoWu0UZ0
GraphicsFuzz: A testing framework for automatically finding and simplifying bugs in graphics shader compilers.
- https://github.com/google/graphicsfuzz
- GraphicsFuzz: Metamorphic Testing for Graphics Shader Compilers
  - VF Conference 2019; Alastair Donaldson
  - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2GHwhCbcKo
kscope
- a library which recursively generates randomized code while keeping it 100% equivalent to the original one
- http://ithare.com/c17-compiler-bug-hunt-very-first-results-12-bugs-reported-3-already-fixed/
- https://github.com/ITHare/kscope
lang_tester: Rust testing framework for compilers and VMs
- https://crates.io/crates/lang_tester
ldrgen: Liveness-driven random C code generator - https://github.com/gergo-/ldrgen
llvm-mutate – mutate LLVM IR - http://eschulte.github.io/llvm-mutate/
opt-fuzz: a simple implementation of bounded exhaustive testing for LLVM programs
- https://github.com/regehr/opt-fuzz
Orange3
- a tool to test C compilers with randomly generated programs; mainly targets arithmetic optimization such as constant folding.
- https://ist.ksc.kwansei.ac.jp/~ishiura/pub/orange3/
- https://github.com/ishiura-compiler/Orange3
Orange4
- a tool to test C compilers by randomly generated programs; based on equivalent transformations on C programs and can generate wider class of C test programs than Orange3.
- https://ist.ksc.kwansei.ac.jp/~ishiura/pub/orange4/
- https://github.com/ishiura-compiler/Orange4
OutputCheck: A tool for checking tool output inspired by LLVM's FileCheck
- https://github.com/stp/OutputCheck/
prog-fuzz: Compiler/source code fuzzing tool using AFL instrumentation
- https://github.com/vegard/prog-fuzz
Quest: A tool for testing C compilers - https://github.com/lindig/quest
shader-compiler-bugs: A collection of shader compiler bugs - https://github.com/mc-imperial/shader-compiler-bugs
yarpgen: Yet Another Random Program Generator
- a random C/C++ program generator, which produces correct runnable C/C++ programs
- specifically designed to trigger compiler optimization bugs and is intended for compiler testing
- https://github.com/intel/yarpgen

Talks

A Year of Experience with Broad Based Continuous Testing with GCC
Adventures in Fuzzing Instruction Selection
- EuroLLVM 2017; Justin Bogner
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBbQ_s6hNgg
- http://llvm.org/devmtg/2017-03//assets/slides/adventures_in_fuzzing_instruction_selection.pdf
Coverage-Directed Differential Testing of JVM Implementations
- PLDI 2016; Yuting Chen
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Reaqfp4v-g
- http://cse.sjtu.edu.cn/~zhao/pub/pdf/pldi2016.pdf
Exposing Difficult Compiler Bugs With Random Testing
- GCC Developers' Summit 2010; John Regehr, Xuejun Yang, Yang Chen, Eric Eide
- https://gcc.gnu.org/wiki/summit2010?action=AttachFile&do=get&target=regehr_gcc_summit_2010.pdf
FileCheck
- FileCheck Follies
  - 2016 LLVM Developers’ Meeting; Paul Robinson
  - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rhW8knj0L8
  - http://www.llvm.org/devmtg/2016-11/Slides/Robinson-FilecheckFollies.pdf
- FileCheck: learning arithmetic
  - 2019 LLVM Developers’ Meeting; Thomas Preud'homme
  - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcrQ5f-mASw
  - https://llvm.org/devmtg/2019-10/slides/Preudhomme-FileCheck.pdf
Finding Missed Optimizations in LLVM (and other compilers)
- EuroLLVM 2018; Gergö Barany
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6ug3e3jC54
- http://llvm.org/devmtg/2018-04/slides/Barany-Finding%20Missed%20Optimizations%20in%20LLVM.pdf
- https://github.com/gergo-/missed-optimizations/
Getting Started with the LLVM Testing Infrastructure
- 2019 LLVM Developers’ Meeting; Brian Homerding, Michael Kruse
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isVQ8kYqaSA
- https://llvm.org/devmtg/2019-10/slides/Homerding-Kruse-LLVMTestingInfrastructureTutorial.pdf
Testing and Qualification of Optimizing Compilers for Functional Safety
- 2019 EuroLLVM Developers’ Meeting; José Luis March Cabrelles
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSfT4oND9dU
Testing Language Implementations
- Programming Language Implementation Summer School (PLISS) 2017; Alastair Donaldson
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJUk8_k1HbY

Tags: language development

Last modified 11 October 2025

Compiler Testing

A collection of links and reading on compiler testing.

Readings

Performance Optimization

Software

Talks