Automation in backporting for GitHub repositories : an overview
Pyyny, Nuutti (2025-03-07)
Pyyny, Nuutti
N. Pyyny
07.03.2025
© 2025 Nuutti Pyyny. Ellei toisin mainita, uudelleenkäyttö on sallittu Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC-BY 4.0) -lisenssillä (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Uudelleenkäyttö on sallittua edellyttäen, että lähde mainitaan asianmukaisesti ja mahdolliset muutokset merkitään. Sellaisten osien käyttö tai jäljentäminen, jotka eivät ole tekijän tai tekijöiden omaisuutta, saattaa edellyttää lupaa suoraan asianomaisilta oikeudenhaltijoilta.
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:oulu-202503071907
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:oulu-202503071907
Tiivistelmä
Using literature review, the state of research into backporting automation was investigated. Backporting is the act of propagating patches backward to older versions of the software from the newer version. It commonly plays a role in the maintenance of stable releases of software. The goals of this paper were to identify a common backporting procedure and examine whether automation research exists for each step of the process. The study also aimed to understand motivations behind this automation research, identify any automation research gaps regarding the procedure, and explore whether an automated workflow could be formed based on the research. These efforts were focused on the social coding environment GitHub.
Through previous research, the backporting procedure was identified as a four-part process, consisting of identifying the backporting need, adapting the patch, merging the patch, and documenting the changes made. Research into automating this process has been extensive and multifaceted. It was motivated by the difficulty of the task, shortcomings of project management, and delays caused by the backporting process. Some of these issues were found to potentially have serious consequences for the project and the end user.
Automation tools and methods could be identified for most parts of the backporting process. Some of these tools had issues and areas for further improvement, but all could still provide considerable assistance for the developer. Probable research gaps were found, and they were to do with identifying if a stable branch needs a backport and with the adaptation of backports containing documentation changes. An automated workflow based on the discussed automation tools was presented, but it was indicated that it is heavily tied to the circumstances of the project and that more development could be needed to make it practical.
Through previous research, the backporting procedure was identified as a four-part process, consisting of identifying the backporting need, adapting the patch, merging the patch, and documenting the changes made. Research into automating this process has been extensive and multifaceted. It was motivated by the difficulty of the task, shortcomings of project management, and delays caused by the backporting process. Some of these issues were found to potentially have serious consequences for the project and the end user.
Automation tools and methods could be identified for most parts of the backporting process. Some of these tools had issues and areas for further improvement, but all could still provide considerable assistance for the developer. Probable research gaps were found, and they were to do with identifying if a stable branch needs a backport and with the adaptation of backports containing documentation changes. An automated workflow based on the discussed automation tools was presented, but it was indicated that it is heavily tied to the circumstances of the project and that more development could be needed to make it practical.
Kokoelmat
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