Compilation dependency resolution from a diverse group of candidate resources

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9069568-B2
Application number	US-201213720269-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 19, 2012
Priority date	Dec 19, 2012
Publication date	Jun 30, 2015
Grant date	Jun 30, 2015

Abstract

A determination is made that at least one missing dependency reference of a portion of a software code build prevents full dependency resolution of the software code build. Search path processing is invoked using a SEARCHPATH definition to locate all additional accessible code modules that are potential candidate code modules to resolve the at least one missing dependency reference. The SEARCHPATH definition includes a set of predefined alternative search locations relative to dependency locations specified for the software code build. An interface definition of each coded method is identified within each located additional accessible code module found by the search path processing. A code module found by the search path processing that includes an identified interface definition of at least one coded method that resolves at least a portion of interface requirements of the at least one missing dependency reference is selected.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method, comprising:
determining, as part of compilation dependency resolution via a processor using CLASSPATH information that specifies dependency locations for a software code build, that a compilation dependency reference of the software code build is missing from the dependency locations specified in the CLASSPATH information and prevents full compilation dependency resolution of the software code build;
invoking, using a SEARCHPATH definition responsive to determining the missing compilation dependency reference using the CLASSPATH information, programmatic search path processing that iteratively and comprehensively searches and locates all additional accessible code modules comprising a plurality of code modules that are potential candidate compilation code modules to resolve the missing compilation dependency reference, where the SEARCHPATH definition comprises a set of predefined alternative code module search locations that are different from the dependency locations specified for the software code build;
ranking each search path processing-located additional accessible code module in accordance with a degree of matching between the respective code module and the missing compilation dependency reference by assigning a suitability index to each search path processing-located additional accessible code module based upon similarity of an interface definition of each coded method to the missing compilation dependency reference, with a highest ranking applied to a search path processing-located additional accessible code module with a maximal matching set of parameter and interface mappings relative to the missing compilation dependency reference; and
selecting the highest ranked search path processing-located additional accessible code module to resolve the missing compilation dependency reference.

2. The method of claim 1 , where:
the SEARCHPATH definition is defined separately from the CLASSPATH information, and the SEARCHPATH definition specifies additional alternative code module search locations usable in an event of unresolved dependencies to resolve the missing compilation dependency reference; and
determining, as part of the compilation dependency resolution via the processor using the CLASSPATH information that specifies dependency locations for the software code build, that the compilation dependency reference of the software code build is missing from the dependency locations specified in the CLASSPATH information and prevents full compilation dependency resolution of the software code comprises:
determining the missing compilation dependency reference during static code build dependency analysis of the software code build; and

invoking, using the SEARCHPATH definition responsive to determining the missing compilation dependency reference using the CLASSPATH information, the programmatic search path processing that iteratively and comprehensively searches and locates all additional accessible code modules comprising the plurality of code modules that are the potential candidate compilation code modules to resolve the missing compilation dependency reference comprises:
searching using each alternative code module search location specified by the SEARCHPATH definition to locate at least one potential candidate compilation code module unavailable via the CLASSPATH information.

3. The method of claim 1 , where invoking, using the SEARCHPATH definition responsive to determining the missing compilation dependency reference using the CLASSPATH information, the programmatic search path processing that iteratively and comprehensively searches and locates all additional accessible code modules comprising the plurality of code modules that are the potential candidate compilation code modules to resolve the missing compilation dependency reference comprises:
comprehensively searching a plurality of file location paths specified by the SEARCHPATH definition; and
locating each file accessible via each of the plurality of file location paths that contains at least one potential candidate compilation code module to resolve one or more of the missing compilation dependency reference.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising identifying the interface definition of each coded method within each located additional accessible code module of the plurality of code modules found by the search path processing that is the potential candidate compilation code module to resolve the missing compilation dependency reference comprising:
parsing each located additional accessible code module found by the search path processing that is the potential candidate compilation code module to resolve the missing compilation dependency reference;
identifying at least one class within at least one of a parsed programming language class file and a parsed programming language archive file;
performing introspection, using programming language reflection, of the identified at least one class within at least one of the parsed programming language class file and the parsed programming language archive file; and
identifying at least one method signature of the identified at least one class within the at least one of the parsed programming language class file and the parsed programming language archive file that is a candidate method to resolve the missing compilation dependency reference.

5. The method of claim 1 , where:
the missing compilation dependency reference comprises one of a plurality of missing compilation dependency references; and
ranking each search path processing-located additional accessible code module in accordance with the degree of matching between the respective code module and the missing compilation dependency reference by assigning the suitability index to each search path processing-located additional accessible code module based upon similarity of the interface definition of each coded method to the missing compilation dependency reference, with the highest ranking applied to the search path processing-located additional accessible code module with the maximal matching set of parameter and interface mappings relative to the missing compilation dependency reference comprises:
counting, in response to a compilation dependency resolution collision where a plurality of potential candidate compilation code modules resolve missing compilation dependency references, a number of missing compilation dependency references resolved within each of the plurality of potential candidate compilation code modules;
generating the suitability index of each of the plurality of potential candidate compilation code modules based upon the counted number of missing compilation dependency references resolved, where a potential candidate compilation code module with a highest suitability index resolves a highest number of missing compilation dependency references; and
promoting the potential candidate compilation code module with the highest generated suitability index to a rank of CLASSPATH.

6. The method of claim 5 , where promoting the potential candidate compilation code module with the highest generated suitability index to the rank of CLASSPATH comprises:
concatenating a location of the potential candidate compilation code module with the highest generated suitability index to the CLASSPATH information that specifies the dependency locations for the software code build.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
identifying the interface definition of each coded method within each search path processing-located additional accessible code module; and
generating a report comprising the selected code module, the identified interface definition of the selected code module, and each missing compilation dependency reference resolved by the selected code mo

Assignees

• IBM

Inventors

• Schmidt David L
• Will Scott A

Classifications

• G06F8/43 Primary

  Checking; Contextual analysis · CPC title

• G06F8/70 Primary

  Software maintenance or management · CPC title

• G06F8/427

  Parsing · CPC title