Identifying and selecting high-quality Metamorphic Relations (MRs) is a challenge in Metamorphic Testing (MT). While some techniques for automatically selecting MRs have been proposed, they are either domain-specific or rely on strict assumptions about the applicability of a pre-defined MRs. This paper presents a preliminary evaluation of MetaTrimmer, a method for selecting and constraining MRs based on test data. MetaTrimmer comprises three steps: generating random test data inputs for the SUT (Step 1), performing test data transformations and logging MR violations (Step 2), and conducting manual inspections to derive constraints (Step 3). The novelty of MetaTrimmer is its avoidance of complex prediction models that require labeled datasets regarding the applicability of MRs. Moreover, MetaTrimmer facilitates the seamless integration of MT with advanced fuzzing for test data generation. In a preliminary evaluation, MetaTrimmer shows the potential to overcome existing limitations and enhance MR effectiveness.

翻译：蜕变测试中，识别与选择高质量蜕变关系是一大挑战。尽管已有部分自动选择蜕变关系的技术被提出，但它们或局限于特定领域，或对预定义蜕变关系的适用性存在严格假设。本文提出MetaTrimmer方法——一种基于测试数据的选择与约束蜕变关系方案，并进行初步评估。MetaTrimmer包含三个步骤：为被测系统生成随机测试数据输入（步骤1）、执行测试数据转换并记录蜕变关系违反情况（步骤2）、通过人工审查推导约束条件（步骤3）。其创新性在于无需依赖标注蜕变关系适用性数据集的复杂预测模型，同时能实现蜕变测试与高级模糊测试技术在测试数据生成层面的无缝集成。初步评估表明，MetaTrimmer具备突破现有局限性、提升蜕变关系有效性的潜力。