Automated migration of build scripts using dynamic analysis and search-based refactoring

The efficiency of a build system is an important factor for developer productivity. As a result, developer teams have been increasingly adopting new build systems that allow higher build parallelization. However, migrating the existing legacy build scripts to new build systems is a tedious and error-prone process. Unfortunately, there is insufficient support for automated migration of build scripts, making the migration more problematic. We propose the first dynamic approach for automated migration of build scripts to new build systems. Our approach works in two phases. First, from a set of execution traces, we synthesize build scripts that accurately capture the intent of the original build. The synthesized build scripts are typically long and hard to maintain. Second, we apply refactorings that raise the abstraction level of the synthesized scripts (e.g., introduce functions for similar fragments). As different refactoring sequences may lead to different build scripts, we use a search-based approach that explores various sequences to identify the best (e.g., shortest) build script. We optimize search-based refactoring with partial-order reduction to faster explore refactoring sequences. We implemented the proposed two phase migration approach in a tool called METAMORPHOSIS that has been recently used at Microsoft

Search based software engineering: Trends, techniques and applications

© ACM, 2012. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of ACM for your personal use. Not for redistribution. The definitive version is available from the link below.In the past five years there has been a dramatic increase in work on Search-Based Software Engineering (SBSE), an approach to Software Engineering (SE) in which Search-Based Optimization (SBO) algorithms are used to address problems in SE. SBSE has been applied to problems throughout the SE lifecycle, from requirements and project planning to maintenance and reengineering. The approach is attractive because it offers a suite of adaptive automated and semiautomated solutions in situations typified by large complex problem spaces with multiple competing and conflicting objectives. This article provides a review and classification of literature on SBSE. The work identifies research trends and relationships between the techniques applied and the applications to which they have been applied and highlights gaps in the literature and avenues for further research.EPSRC and E