As a mixed result of intensive dependency on third-party libraries, flexible mechanisms to declare dependencies and increased number of modules in a project, different modules of a project directly depend on multiple versions of the same third-party library. Such library version inconsistencies could increase dependency maintenance cost, or even lead to dependency conflicts when modules are inter-dependent. Although automated build tools (e.g., Maven's enforcer plugin) provide partial support to detect library version inconsistencies, they do not provide any support to harmonize inconsistent library versions.
We first conduct a survey with 131 Java developers from GitHub to retrieve first-hand information about the root causes, detection methods, reasons for fixing or not fixing, fixing strategies, fixing efforts, and tool expectations on library version inconsistencies. Then, based on the insights from our survey, we propose LibHarmo, an interactive, effort-aware library version harmonization technique, to detect library version inconsistencies, interactively suggest a harmonized version with the least harmonization efforts based on library API usage analysis, and refactor build configuration files.
LibHarmo is currently developed for Java Maven projects. Our experimental study on 443 highly-starred Java Maven projects from GitHub shows that i) LibHarmo detected 621 library version inconsistencies in 152 (34.3%) projects with a false positive rate of 16.8%, while Maven's enforcer plugin only detected 219 of them; and ii) LibHarmo saved 87.5% of the harmonization efforts. Further, 31 library version inconsistencies have been confirmed, and 17 of them have been already harmonized by developers.
Tue 10 NovDisplayed time zone: (UTC) Coordinated Universal Time change
08:30 - 09:00 | |||
08:30 2mTalk | DiffTech: A Tool for Differencing Similar Technologies from Question-and-Answer Discussions Tool Demos Han Wang , Chunyang Chen Monash University, Australia, Zhenchang Xing Australian National University, Australia, John Grundy Monash University, Australia DOI | ||
08:33 1mTalk | Enhancing Developer Interactions with Programming Screencasts through Accurate Code Extraction Tool Demos Lingfeng Bao Zhejiang University, Shengyi Pan Zhejiang University of Technology, China, Zhenchang Xing Australian National University, Australia, Xin Xia Monash University, David Lo Singapore Management University, Xiaohu Yang Zhejiang University, China DOI | ||
08:35 1mTalk | Interactive, Effort-Aware Library Version Harmonization Research Papers Kaifeng Huang Fudan University, China, Bihuan Chen Fudan University, China, Bowen Shi Fudan University, China, Ying Wang Fudan University, China, Congying Xu Fudan University, China, Xin Peng Fudan University, China DOI | ||
08:37 1mTalk | JITO: A Tool for Just-in-Time Defect Identification and Localization Tool Demos Fangcheng Qiu Zhejiang University, China, Meng Yan Chongqing University, Xin Xia Monash University, Xinyu Wang Zhejiang University, Yuanrui Fan Zhejiang University, Ahmed E. Hassan Queen's University, David Lo Singapore Management University DOI | ||
08:39 1mTalk | Reusing Software Engineering Knowledge from Developer Communication Paper Presentations Camila Costa Silva University of Canterbury | ||
08:41 19mTalk | Conversations on Developer Support 1 Paper Presentations Camila Costa Silva University of Canterbury, Fangcheng Qiu Zhejiang University, China, Han Wang , Kaifeng Huang Fudan University, China, Shengyi Pan Zhejiang University of Technology, China, M: Ayushi Rastogi | ||