InEx-Bug: A Human Annotated Dataset of Intrinsic and Extrinsic Bugs in the NPM Ecosystem

TL;DR

This paper introduces InEx-Bug, a manually annotated dataset of 377 GitHub issues from NPM projects, distinguishing intrinsic internal bugs from extrinsic dependency or environment issues, with detailed metadata and analysis.

Contribution

The paper presents a novel, richly annotated dataset that categorizes bugs as intrinsic or extrinsic in the NPM ecosystem, enabling deeper defect analysis.

Findings

Intrinsic bugs resolve faster than extrinsic bugs.

Intrinsic bugs are more likely to be closed with code changes.

Extrinsic bugs have higher reopen rates and longer recurrence times.

Abstract

Understanding the causes of software defects is essential for reliable software maintenance and ecosystem stability. However, existing bug datasets do not distinguish between issues originating within a project from those caused by external dependencies or environmental factors. In this paper we present InEx-Bug, a manually annotated dataset of 377 GitHub issues from 103 NPM repositories, categorizing issues as Intrinsic (internal defect), Extrinsic (dependency/environment issue), Not-a-Bug, or Unknown. Beyond labels, the dataset includes rich temporal and behavioral metadata such as maintainer participation, code changes, and reopening patterns. Analyses show Intrinsic bugs resolve faster (median 8.9 vs 10.2 days), are close more often (92% vs 78%), and require code changes more frequently (57% vs 28%) compared to Extrinsic bugs. While Extrinsic bugs exhibit higher reopen rates (12% vs 4%) and delayed recurrence (median 157 vs 87 days). The dataset provides a foundation for further studying Intrinsic and Extrinsic defects in the NPM ecosystem.