SHF:Small: Build Code Maintenance and Detecting, Testing, Locating Configuration and Build Errors

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Software has become a critical infrastructure in our society with itspervasive use in all kinds of products from home appliances toautomobiles, from individual pacemakers and smart phones to airtraffic control systems and high-end computers in large-scale powergrids. During software development, the build process is vital to makesure that a software product is correctly and reliably constructed andconfigured in accordance with different users' operation environments,operating systems, platforms, and devices. To reliably build asoftware product, a build tool is used to execute build code togenerate the executable and deliverable files according to the rulesspecified in the build files. As a software project evolves over time,build code continually evolves and is defect-prone due to the highrate of changes and complexity of the build files. The complexity ofbuild code leads to two important issues. First, the maintenance ofcomplex build code has imposed much extra effort on softwaredevelopers. Second, its complexity is a source for configuration andbuild errors in software development.This project aims to improve software reliability with a comprehensiveapproach to develop a scientific foundation for build code analysis toprovide automatic supports for 1) build code maintenance and 2)detecting, testing, and locating configuration and build errors. Wewill first examine configuration and build code errors and related maintenance tasks in real-world projects. Second, we will develop a scientific foundationwith novel concepts, techniques, and algorithms for build code staticanalysis, build code smell and configuration error detection,refactoring, and change analysis. Third, we will investigate afoundation for build code dynamic analysis and leverage it to supportfault localization in build code given a reported buildfailure. Finally, a theoretical foundation and tool supports(e.g. semi-automatic test generation) for build code testing will bedeveloped. Our research will fundamentally advance the body ofknowledge in theoretical foundation for software building, build codeanalysis and maintenance. Our results will lead to more reliablesoftware and improvement in code quality as well as in the developers'productivity. Our validation efforts involve students andprofessionals, promoting teaching and training in informationassurance and software reliability.