English

Towards Modified Condition/Decision Coverage of Rust

Software Engineering 2025-11-25 v1

Abstract

Testing is an essential tool to assure software, especially so in safety-critical applications. To quantify how thoroughly a software item has been tested, a test coverage metric is required. Maybe the strictest such metric known in the safety critical systems is Modified Condition/Decision Coverage (MC/DC), which DO-178C prescribes for the highest software assurance level in aviation. In the past, ambiguities in the interpretation of MC/DC have been resolved already, i. e. in CAST-10. However, some central features of the Rust programming language necessitate further clarification. This work investigates aforementioned features, in particular pattern matching, providing a consistent view on how to apply MC/DC to Rust. Hence, this paper informs the implementation of Rust MC/DC tools, paving the road towards Rust in high-assurance applications.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2409.08708,
  title  = {Towards Modified Condition/Decision Coverage of Rust},
  author = {Wanja Zaeske and Pietro Albini and Florian Gilcher and Umut Durak},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2409.08708},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

19 pages, 1 figure, 9 listings

R2 v1 2026-06-28T18:43:31.824Z