Automatic Patch Linkage Detection in Code Review Using TextualContent and File Location Features

TL;DR

This paper investigates how patch linkages affect code review processes and proposes models using textual and file location features to detect these linkages, aiming to improve review efficiency in large development teams.

Contribution

It provides an exploratory analysis of linkage impact and introduces detection models based on textual and file location similarities, with promising results for certain linkage types.

Findings

Latency exists in linkage notification.

Alternative Solution linkages are reviewed faster.

Detection models show high recall for certain linkages.

Abstract

Context: Contemporary code review tools are a popular choice for software quality assurance. Using these tools, reviewers are able to post a linkage between two patches during a review discussion. Large development teams that use a review-then-commit model risk being unaware of these linkages. Objective: Our objective is to first explore how patch linkage impacts the review process. We then propose and evaluate models that detect patch linkage based on realistic time intervals. Method: First, we carry out an exploratory study on three open source projects to conduct linkage impact analysis using 942 manually classified linkages. Second, we propose two techniques using textual and file location similarity to build detection models and evaluate their performance. Results: The study provides evidence of latency in the linkage notification. We show that a patch with the Alternative Solution linkage (i.e., patches that implement similar functionality)undergoes a quicker review and avoids additional revisions after the team has been notified, compared to other linkage types. Our detection model experiments show promising recall rates for the Alternative Solution linkage (from 32% to 95%), but precision has room for improvement. Conclusion: Patch linkage detection is promising, with likely improvements if the practice of posting linkages becomes more prevalent. From our implications, this paper lays the groundwork for future research on how to increase patch linkage awareness to facilitate efficient reviews.