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The Classics Never Go Out of Style: An Empirical Study of Downgrades from the Bazel Build Technology.

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Title: The Classics Never Go Out of Style: An Empirical Study of Downgrades from the Bazel Build Technology.
Authors: Alfadel, Mahmoud1 malfadel@uwaterloo.ca, McIntosh, Shane1 shane.mcintosh@uwaterloo.ca
Source: ICSE: International Conference on Software Engineering. 2024, p1-12. 12p.
Subjects: Computer software, Computer files, Investments, Software engineering, Empirical research
Abstract: Software build systems specify how source code is transformed into deliverables. Keeping build systems in sync with the software artifacts that they build while retaining their capacity to quickly produce updated deliverables requires a serious investment of development effort. Enticed by advanced features, several software teams have migrated their build systems to a modern generation of build technologies (e.g., Bazel, Buck), which aim to reduce the maintenance and execution overhead that build systems impose on development. However, not all migrations lead to perceived improvements, ultimately culminating in abandonment of the build technology. While prior work has focused on upward migration towards more advanced technologies, so-called downgrades, i.e., abandonment of a modern build technology in favour of a traditional one, remains largely unexplored. In this paper, we perform an empirical study to better understand the abandonment of Bazel---a modern build technology with native support for multi-language software projects and (local/distributed) artifact caching. Our investigation of 542 projects that adopt Bazel reveals that (1) 61 projects (11.2%) have abandoned Bazel; and (2) abandonment tends to occur after investing in Bazel for a substantial amount of time (a median of 638 days). Thematic analysis reveals seven recurring reasons for abandonment, such as technical challenges, lack of platform integration, team coordination issues, and upstream trends. After abandoning Bazel, the studied projects have adopted a broad set of alternatives, spanning from language-specific tools like Go Build, to more traditional build technologies like CMake and even pure Make. These results demonstrate that choosing a build technology involves balancing tradeoffs that are not always optimized by adopting the latest technology. This paper also lays the foundation for future work on balancing the tradeoffs that are associated with build technology choice (e.g., feature richness vs. maintenance costs) and the development of tools to support migration away from modern technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Copyright of ICSE: International Conference on Software Engineering is the property of Association for Computing Machinery and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)
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  Data: The Classics Never Go Out of Style: An Empirical Study of Downgrades from the Bazel Build Technology.
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  Data: Software build systems specify how source code is transformed into deliverables. Keeping build systems in sync with the software artifacts that they build while retaining their capacity to quickly produce updated deliverables requires a serious investment of development effort. Enticed by advanced features, several software teams have migrated their build systems to a modern generation of build technologies (e.g., Bazel, Buck), which aim to reduce the maintenance and execution overhead that build systems impose on development. However, not all migrations lead to perceived improvements, ultimately culminating in abandonment of the build technology. While prior work has focused on upward migration towards more advanced technologies, so-called downgrades, i.e., abandonment of a modern build technology in favour of a traditional one, remains largely unexplored. In this paper, we perform an empirical study to better understand the abandonment of Bazel---a modern build technology with native support for multi-language software projects and (local/distributed) artifact caching. Our investigation of 542 projects that adopt Bazel reveals that (1) 61 projects (11.2%) have abandoned Bazel; and (2) abandonment tends to occur after investing in Bazel for a substantial amount of time (a median of 638 days). Thematic analysis reveals seven recurring reasons for abandonment, such as technical challenges, lack of platform integration, team coordination issues, and upstream trends. After abandoning Bazel, the studied projects have adopted a broad set of alternatives, spanning from language-specific tools like Go Build, to more traditional build technologies like CMake and even pure Make. These results demonstrate that choosing a build technology involves balancing tradeoffs that are not always optimized by adopting the latest technology. This paper also lays the foundation for future work on balancing the tradeoffs that are associated with build technology choice (e.g., feature richness vs. maintenance costs) and the development of tools to support migration away from modern technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
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  Data: <i>Copyright of ICSE: International Conference on Software Engineering is the property of Association for Computing Machinery and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract.</i> (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)
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        Value: 10.1145/3597503.3639169
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      – Code: eng
        Text: English
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        PageCount: 12
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      – SubjectFull: Computer software
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Computer files
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Investments
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      – TitleFull: The Classics Never Go Out of Style: An Empirical Study of Downgrades from the Bazel Build Technology.
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            – D: 01
              M: 05
              Text: 2024
              Type: published
              Y: 2024
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            – TitleFull: ICSE: International Conference on Software Engineering
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