logseq/pages/hls__SATToSE_2023_paper_2_1683209902072_0.md

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• CI/CD practices play a significant role in collaborative software developmen ls-type:: annotation hl-page:: 1 hl-color:: green id:: 6453c57a-202c-4cb1-902b-2b87bd08484e hl-stamp:: 1683211645559
• We report on preliminary findings of a quantitative analysis on how GitHub Actions workflows are being changed over time. ls-type:: annotation hl-page:: 1 hl-color:: green id:: 6453c590-8e56-41d8-9119-0c7838cafb24
• he study is based on a dataset of 22,733 GitHub repositories. We extracted over 4 million weekly snapshots of workflow files from November 2019 to September 2022. ls-type:: annotation hl-page:: 1 hl-color:: green id:: 6453c59f-7f32-4586-9b6a-b1c1db36f7f7
• The findings of this quantitative analysis provide preliminary insights on how GitHub Actions workflows are being changed over time by developers, and pave the way for further analysis on the type of modifications they apply on workflows to cover their needs in software projects. ls-type:: annotation hl-page:: 1 hl-color:: green id:: 6453c5cd-70c5-4d48-90fb-66181f434dd1
• making it a crucial aspect of modern software developmen ls-type:: annotation hl-page:: 1 hl-color:: green id:: 6453c6ce-6303-4155-a76f-b9835b122957
• GitHub Actions (GHA) was introduced as a new CI/CD solution in November 201 ls-type:: annotation hl-page:: 1 hl-color:: green id:: 6453c6e7-261e-4a16-a66f-e20906547085
• Knowing when, why and how developers modify workflow files can be helpful to improve CI/CD practices, to detect common patterns and mistakes developers do in their workflows, and to create tools to assist them in writing and maintaining workflows. ls-type:: annotation hl-page:: 1 hl-color:: purple id:: 6453c6ff-790b-476a-a0f1-5b531a431e91 hl-stamp:: 1683212033864
• characterise and quantify the coarsegrained changes being made to GHA workflows over their lifetime. ls-type:: annotation hl-page:: 1 hl-color:: purple id:: 6453c71e-e9b3-48a0-bd34-d8d094628237
• hanges that are made in the content of the workflows. ls-type:: annotation hl-page:: 2 hl-color:: purple id:: 6453c73d-a812-4696-acc7-cc49e9fe247a
• As with any other software development component, workflow files evolve over time to better serve their purposes ls-type:: annotation hl-page:: 3 hl-color:: green id:: 6453ced4-b6a7-4097-beb0-1a5736779f5a hl-stamp:: 1683214051725
• Figure 1 presents a visual diff of some changes made to a workflow file that automates the building, testing and code coverage analysis of some Java projec ls-type:: annotation hl-page:: 3 hl-color:: green id:: 6453cedf-e75e-404e-9df0-03171f06d653 hl-stamp:: 1683214049615
• This example shows the various possible changes in workflow files and justifies the need for studies on when, why, and how developers modify workflow files. Such studies are likely to improve CI/CD practices, for example, by identifying common patterns and issues during workflow modifications and by providing tools to assist developers in writing and maintaining workflows. ls-type:: annotation hl-page:: 3 hl-color:: green id:: 6453cf11-05e5-49ae-954c-08a910c9f182 hl-stamp:: 1683214100078
• 2022 that were still active in2022, had at least 100 stars and 100 commits, and were not forks ls-type:: annotation hl-page:: 3 hl-color:: green id:: 6453cf65-7741-48d7-90f7-0642448d4a94
• 2,673 instances ls-type:: annotation hl-page:: 3 hl-color:: green id:: 6453cf6b-3398-4d38-b370-0d64ffaef7f1
• 22,733 repositories satisfying this criterion. ls-type:: annotation hl-page:: 3 hl-color:: purple id:: 6453cf74-c0bb-4a8e-bc59-5972773a0874 hl-stamp:: 1683214198953
• By considering weekly snapshots instead of all the commits that modified the workflow files, we mitigate the usual threats related to commits performed on parallel branches that are eventually merged [22]. ls-type:: annotation hl-page:: 3 hl-color:: purple id:: 6453cf89-39b8-4942-9175-53256f185ee5
• more and more repositories are making use of GHA and more and more workflow files are created in these repositories ls-type:: annotation hl-page:: 3 hl-color:: purple id:: 6453cfa1-bbbc-4e53-83b1-9c5620bbb6b7
• from Travis CI to GHA during these two months, as already observed by Golzadeh et al. [8]. ls-type:: annotation hl-page:: 4 hl-color:: purple id:: 6453cfb5-82a1-418a-ae1c-7bc7d784d9b6
• whether the repository was created before or after GHA’s official release. ls-type:: annotation hl-page:: 5 hl-color:: purple id:: 6453cfd3-0703-4fde-ba07-6fd15d8a9c6b
• On the other hand, it took more than one year since GHA’s release for most of the older repositories to adopt GHA ls-type:: annotation hl-page:: 5 hl-color:: purple id:: 6453cfdc-231a-4376-a4aa-96b8398d56fe
• Repositories are more likely to change their workflow files within the first weeks after having adopted GHA ls-type:: annotation hl-page:: 6 hl-color:: purple id:: 6453cff3-081a-4e61-abb4-d72b76b32992
• continuing change and continuing growth. ls-type:: annotation hl-page:: 6 hl-color:: purple id:: 6453cff8-b1d1-4da5-b127-583489a56b06
• Modifying and adding lines are the most frequent operations made to workflow files ls-type:: annotation hl-page:: 7 hl-color:: purple id:: 6453d00e-f113-4b98-ade2-9dc04910648f
• This suggests that the content of workflow files is subject to continuing change and continuing growth ls-type:: annotation hl-page:: 8 hl-color:: purple id:: 6453d023-ba6f-4951-9bab-ec324c198d18