Extracting and analyzing code dependencies for large software

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Developers reuse code. Despite its advantages, reuse can cause unwanted bad code dependencies, which have become major problems for large software companies and organizations. Therefore, the two main goals of the proposed research are: (1) to identify unwanted bad dependencies; and (2) suggest alternative dependencies and other dependency breaking solutions. Specifically, we will statically analyze large code bases to automatically identify code locations where breaking dependencies is beneficial, and suggest dependency breaking solutions. The proposed research is novel in three key aspects. First, we will scale the dependency extraction and analysis to tens of millions of lines of code, by exploring new optimizations that previous techniques cannot afford, as we are interested in a special type of bad dependencies --- bad dependencies across project/library boundaries. We will also explore dependencies at coarser granularity levels to improve scalability. Second, we will analyze both comments written in a natural language and source code to automatically suggest alternative dependencies. Third, we plan to leverage software configuration files to automatically compile more source code, which will benefit not only our prototype for comprehensive dependency extraction but also other tools to analyze more code and find more bugs. The proposed research is highly relevant to the Canadian software industry. The project will be conducted in collaboration with engineers from Google Canada and will result in prototypes and tools that Google engineers can deploy with their build management systems and version control systems. These developments will save computing resources, and engineers' time on compiling, testing and maintaining software, which directly translates to cost savings. By removing bad dependencies and suggesting alternative dependencies, it will also dramatically improve software quality and software reliability. The project will train 11 highly qualified personnel, 4 at the graduate level and 7 at the undergraduate level, who will be exposed to industry-relevant research problems. The personnel will become professionals, entrepreneurs, researchers, and teachers, contributing to the growth of the Canadian economy.