Generic patch inference

Jesper Andersen; Julia Lawall

doi:10.1007/s10515-010-0062-z

Generic patch inference

Jesper Andersen, Julia Lawall

Datalogisk Institut

15 Citationer (Scopus)

Abstract

A key issue in maintaining Linux device drivers is the need to keep them up
to date with respect to evolutions in Linux internal
libraries. Currently, there is little tool support for performing and
documenting such changes.
In this paper we present a tool, spdiff, that identifies common
changes made in a set of files and their updated versions,
and extracts a generic patch performing those changes. Library
developers can use our tool to extract a generic patch based on the
result of manually updating a few typical driver files, and then apply
this generic patch to other drivers. Driver developers can use it to
extract an abstract representation of the set of changes that others
have made.
Our experiments on recent changes in Linux show that the inferred
generic patches are more concise than the corresponding patches found
in commits to the Linux source tree while being safe with respect to
the changes performed in the provided driver files.

Originalsprog	Engelsk
Tidsskrift	Automated Software Engineering
Vol/bind	17
Udgave nummer	2
Sider (fra-til)	119-148
Antal sider	30
ISSN	0928-8910
DOI	https://doi.org/10.1007/s10515-010-0062-z
Status	Udgivet - jun. 2010

Adgang til dokumentet

10.1007/s10515-010-0062-z

Citationsformater

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title = "Generic patch inference",

abstract = "A key issue in maintaining Linux device drivers is the need to keep them up to date with respect to evolutions in Linux internal libraries. Currently, there is little tool support for performing and documenting such changes. In this paper we present a tool, spdiff, that identifies common changes made in a set of files and their updated versions, and extracts a generic patch performing those changes. Library developers can use our tool to extract a generic patch based on the result of manually updating a few typical driver files, and then apply this generic patch to other drivers. Driver developers can use it to extract an abstract representation of the set of changes that others have made. Our experiments on recent changes in Linux show that the inferred generic patches are more concise than the corresponding patches found in commits to the Linux source tree while being safe with respect to the changes performed in the provided driver files. ",

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AB - A key issue in maintaining Linux device drivers is the need to keep them up to date with respect to evolutions in Linux internal libraries. Currently, there is little tool support for performing and documenting such changes. In this paper we present a tool, spdiff, that identifies common changes made in a set of files and their updated versions, and extracts a generic patch performing those changes. Library developers can use our tool to extract a generic patch based on the result of manually updating a few typical driver files, and then apply this generic patch to other drivers. Driver developers can use it to extract an abstract representation of the set of changes that others have made. Our experiments on recent changes in Linux show that the inferred generic patches are more concise than the corresponding patches found in commits to the Linux source tree while being safe with respect to the changes performed in the provided driver files.

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