TBar: Revisiting Template-based Automated Program Repair

We revisit the performance of template-based APR to build com-prehensive knowledge about the effectiveness of fix patterns, andto highlight the importance of complementary steps such as faultlocalization or donor code retrieval. To that end, we first investi-gate the literature to collect, summarize and label recurrently-usedfix patterns. Based on the investigation, we buildTBar, a straight-forward APR tool that systematically attempts to apply these fixpatterns to program bugs. We thoroughly evaluateTBaron the De-fects4J benchmark. In particular, we assess the actual qualitative andquantitative diversity of fix patterns, as well as their effectivenessin yielding plausible or correct patches. Eventually, we find that,assuming a perfect fault localization,TBarcorrectly/plausibly fixes74/101 bugs. Replicating a standard and practical pipeline of APRassessment, we demonstrate thatTBarcorrectly fixes 43 bugs fromDefects4J, an unprecedented performance in the literature (includ-ing all approaches, i.e., template-based, stochastic mutation-basedor synthesis-based APR).