Feature-to-Code Mapping in Two Large Product Lines

摘要

Large software product lines have complex build systems that enable compiling the source code into different products that make up the product line. Unfortunately, the dependencies among the available build options, which we refer to as features and their mapping to the source code they control, are implicit in complex imperative build-related logic. As a result, reasoning about dependencies is difficu this not only makes maintenance of the variability harder, but also hinders development of support tools such as feature-oriented traceability support, debuggers for variability models, variability-aware code analyzers, or test schedulers for the product line. Thus, we advocate the use of explicit variability models, consisting of a feature model specifying the available features and their dependencies and a mapping between product specifications conforming to the feature model and the implementation assets.