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

软件已经成为我们社会的关键基础设施，它广泛应用于从家用电器到汽车，从个人起搏器和智能手机到空中交通管制系统和大规模电网中的高端计算机的各种产品中。在软件开发过程中，构建过程对于确保根据不同用户的操作环境、操作系统、平台和设备正确可靠地构建和配置软件产品至关重要。为了可靠地构建软件产品，使用构建工具来执行构建代码，以根据构建文件中指定的规则来生成可执行和可交付文件。随着软件项目随着时间的推移而发展，构建代码也在不断地发展，并且由于构建文件的高更改率和复杂性而容易出现缺陷。构建代码的复杂性导致了两个重要问题。首先，复杂构建代码的维护给软件开发人员带来了很多额外的工作。第二，它的复杂性是软件开发中配置和构建错误的根源。该项目旨在通过全面的方法来提高软件可靠性，为构建代码分析提供科学基础，为1)构建代码维护和2)检测、测试和定位配置和构建错误提供自动支持。我们将首先检查真实项目中的配置和构建代码错误以及相关的维护任务。其次，我们将为构建代码静态分析、构建代码嗅觉和配置错误检测、重构和更改分析提供新的概念、技术和算法的科学基础。第三，我们将研究构建代码动态分析的基础，并利用它来支持构建代码中的错误定位(给定报告的构建失败)。最后，将开发用于构建代码测试的理论基础和工具支持(例如半自动测试生成)。我们的研究将从根本上推进软件构建、构建代码分析和维护的理论基础知识体系。我们的结果将导致更可靠的软件和代码质量的提高，以及开发人员的生产力。我们的认证工作涉及学生和专业人员，促进信息保障和软件可靠性方面的教学和培训。

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.