Coevolution of variability models and related artifacts: A case study from the Linux kernel

  • Leonardo Passos
  • , Jianmei Guo
  • , Leopoldo Teixeira
  • , Krzysztof Czarnecki
  • , Andrzej Wa̧sowski
  • , Paulo Borba

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

43 Scopus citations

Abstract

Variability-aware systems are subject to the coevolution of variability models and related artifacts. Surprisingly, little knowledge exists to understand such coevolution in practice. This shortage is directly reflected in existing approaches and tools for variability management, as they fail to provide effective support for such a coevolution. To understand how variability models and related artifacts coevolve in a large and complex real-world variability-aware system, we inspect over 500 Linux kernel commits spanning almost four years of development. We collect a catalog of evolution patterns, capturing the coevolution of the Linux kernel variability model, Makefiles, and C source code. Further, we extract general findings to guide further research and tool development.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationProceedings of the 17th International Software Product Line Conference, SPLC 2013
Pages91-100
Number of pages10
DOIs
StatePublished - 2013
Externally publishedYes
Event17th International Software Product Line Conference, SPLC 2013 - Tokyo, Japan
Duration: 26 Aug 201330 Aug 2013

Publication series

NameACM International Conference Proceeding Series

Conference

Conference17th International Software Product Line Conference, SPLC 2013
Country/TerritoryJapan
CityTokyo
Period26/08/1330/08/13

Keywords

  • Linux
  • catalog
  • evolution
  • patterns
  • variability

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