Understanding Compiler Effects on Clone Detection Process

Lerina Aversano, Mario Bernardi, Marta Cimitile, Martina Iammarino, Debora Montano

2023

Abstract

Copying and pasting code snippets, with or without intent, is a very common activity in software development. These have both positive and negative aspects because they save time, but cause an increase in costs for software maintenance. However, often the copied code changes due to bug fixes or refactorings, which could affect clone detection. In this regard, this study aims to investigate whether the transformations performed by the compiler on the code can determine the appearance of a set of previously undetectable clones. The proposed approach involves the extraction of software quality metrics on both decompiled and source code to bring to light any differences due to the presence of undetectable clones on the source code. Experiments were conducted on five open-source Java software systems. The results show that indeed compiler optimizations lead to the appearance of a set of previously undetected clones, which can be called logical clones. This phenomenon in Java appears to be marginal as it amounts to 5% more clones than normal, therefore a statistically negligible result in small projects, but in the future, it would be interesting to extend the study to other programming languages to evaluate any different cases.

Paper Citation

in Harvard Style

Aversano L., Bernardi M., Cimitile M., Iammarino M. and Montano D. (2023). Understanding Compiler Effects on Clone Detection Process. In Proceedings of the 18th International Conference on Software Technologies - Volume 1: ICSOFT; ISBN 978-989-758-665-1, SciTePress, pages 345-352. DOI: 10.5220/0012080100003538

in Bibtex Style

@conference{icsoft23,
author={Lerina Aversano and Mario Bernardi and Marta Cimitile and Martina Iammarino and Debora Montano},
title={Understanding Compiler Effects on Clone Detection Process},
booktitle={Proceedings of the 18th International Conference on Software Technologies - Volume 1: ICSOFT},
year={2023},
pages={345-352},
publisher={SciTePress},
organization={INSTICC},
doi={10.5220/0012080100003538},
isbn={978-989-758-665-1},
}

in EndNote Style

TY - CONF

JO - Proceedings of the 18th International Conference on Software Technologies - Volume 1: ICSOFT
TI - Understanding Compiler Effects on Clone Detection Process
SN - 978-989-758-665-1
AU - Aversano L.
AU - Bernardi M.
AU - Cimitile M.
AU - Iammarino M.
AU - Montano D.
PY - 2023
SP - 345
EP - 352
DO - 10.5220/0012080100003538
PB - SciTePress