[Kubuxu]

One of them would be a fuzz testing. You start with a predefined 'corpus' of inputs which are then modified by the fuzzer to reach yet not covered code paths. In the process it discovers many bugs and crashes.

The input fuzzing process is rarely purely random. There are advanced techniques that allow the fuzzer to link input data to conditions of not covered branches.

It is quite useful mechanism for checking inputs, formats, behaviour patterns (if you have two solutions but one model, one simple that works 100% but is slowish and one more complex but very fast).

See: https://github.com/dvyukov/go-fuzz#trophies and http://lcamtuf.coredump.cx/afl/

[kasparsklavins]

Fuzzing is essentially the same as just throwing values at it hoping its all okay.

What I meant was what @AstralStorm said about mathematical and logic proofs that it works for all defined values.

[jacques_chester]

Fuzz testing is useful at testing whole systems in vivo.

Proofs are powerful, but you can still make errors in the proof or the transcription into code. And of course you don't know what other emergent behaviours will surprise you when the proved code interacts with unproved code.

Depending on your means and needs, you want to try both.

[nuclx]

Parent was talking about full coverage. While fuzzers are great tools, able to generate test inputs for easily coverable parts of the code, formally correct software has to be designed for provability.