@proceedings {1901,
	title = {Adoption of Academic Tools in Open Source Communities: The Debian Case Study},
	volume = {496},
	year = {2017},
	month = {05/2017},
	pages = {139-150},
	publisher = {Springer},
	abstract = {Component repositories play a key role in the open software ecosystem. Managing the evolution of these repositories is a challenging task, and maintainers are confronted with a number of complex issues that need automatic tools to be adressed properly.

In this paper, we present an overview of 10 years of research in this field and the process leading to the adoption of our tools in a FOSS community. We focus on the Debian distribution and in particular we look at the issues arising during the distribution lifecycle: ensuring buildability of source packages, detecting packages that cannot be installed and bootstrapping the distribution on a new architecture. We present three tools, distcheck, buildcheck and botch, that we believe of general interest for other open source component repositories.

The lesson we have learned during this journey may provide useful guidance for researchers willing to see their tools broadly adopted by the community.},
	keywords = {components, debian, distribution},
	doi = {10.1007/978-3-319-57735-7_14},
	url = {https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-57735-7_14},
	author = {Abate, Pietro and Di Cosmo, Roberto}
}
@proceedings {1888,
	title = {Technical Lag in Software Compilations: Measuring How Outdated a Software Deployment Is},
	volume = {496},
	year = {2017},
	month = {05/2017},
	pages = {182 - 192},
	publisher = {Springer International Publishing},
	abstract = {Large software compilations based on free, open source software (FOSS) packages are the basis for many software systems. When they are deployed in production, specific versions of the packages in the compilation are selected for installation. Over time, those versions become outdated with respect to the upstream software from which they are produced, and from the components available in the compilations as well. The fact that deployed components are outdated is not a problem in itself, but there is a price to pay for not being "as much updated as reasonable". This includes bug fixes and new features that could, at least potentially, be interesting for the deployed system. Therefore, a balance has to be maintained between "being up-to-date" and "keeping the good old working versions". This paper proposes a theoretical model (the "technical lag") for measuring how outdated a system is, with the aim of assisting in the decisions about upgrading in production. The paper explores several ways in which technical lag can be implemented, depending on requirements. As an illustration, it presents as well some specific cases in which the evolution of technical lag is computed.},
	isbn = {978-3-319-57735-7},
	issn = {1868-422X},
	doi = {10.1007/978-3-319-57735-7_17},
	url = {https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-57735-7_17},
	author = {Gonz{\'a}lez-Barahona, J.M. and Sherwood, P. and Robles, G. and Izquierdo, D.},
	editor = {Balaguer, Federico and Di Cosmo, Roberto and Garrido, Alejandra and Kon, Fabio and Gregorio Robles and Zacchiroli, Stefano}
}
@proceedings {1748,
	title = {Mining Component Repositories for Installability Issues},
	year = {2015},
	month = {05/2015},
	abstract = {Component repositories play an increasingly relevant
role in software life-cycle management, from software
distribution to end-user, to deployment and upgrade management.
Software components shipped via such repositories are
equipped with rich metadata that describe their relationship (e.g.,
dependencies and conflicts) with other components.
In this practice paper we show how to use a tool, distcheck,
that uses component metadata to identify all the components in
a repository that cannot be installed (e.g., due to unsatisfiable
dependencies), provides detailed information to help developers
understanding the cause of the problem, and fix it in the
repository.
We report about detailed analyses of several repositories: the
Debian distribution, the OPAM package collection, and Drupal
modules. In each case, distcheck is able to efficiently identify not
installable components and provide valuable explanations of the
issues. Our experience provides solid ground for generalizing the
use of distcheck to other component repositories.},
	keywords = {drupal, opam},
	url = {http://www.dicosmo.org/preprints/msr-2015-distcheck.pdf},
	attachments = {https://flosshub.org/sites/flosshub.org/files/msr-2015-distcheck.pdf},
	author = {Abate, Pietro and Di Cosmo, Roberto and Gesbert, Louis and Fabrice Le Fessant and Ralf Treinen and Zacchiroli, Stefano}
}
@conference {725,
	title = {EDOS: Environment for the Development and Distribution of Open Source Software},
	booktitle = {OSS2005: Open Source Systems },
	year = {2005},
	pages = {66-70},
	abstract = {The open-source software community is now comprised of a very large and growing number of contributors and users. The GNU/Linux operating system for instance has an estimated 18 million users worldwide and its contributing developers can be counted by thousands. The critical mass of contributors taking part in various opensource projects has helped to ensure high quality for open source software. However, despite the achievements of the open-source software industry, there are issues in the production of large scale open-source software (OSS) such as the GNU/Linux operating system that have to be addressed as the numbers of users, of contributors, and of available applications grow. EDOS is a European project supported by IST started October 2004 and ending in 2007, whose objective is to provide a new generation of methodologies, theoretical models, technical tools and quality models specifically tailored to OSS engineering and to software distribution over the Interne...},
	url = {http://pascal.case.unibz.it/handle/2038/737},
	author = {Abiteboul, Serge and Leroy, Xavier and Vrdoljak, Boris and Di Cosmo, Roberto and Fermigier, St{\'e}fane and Lauri{\`e}re, St{\'e}phane and Lepied, Fr{\'e}d{\'e}ric and Pop, Radu and Villard, Florent and Smets, Jean-Paul and Bryce, Ciar{\'a}n and Dittrich, Klaus R. and Milo, Tova and Sagi, Assaf and Shtossel, Yotam and Panto, Eleonora}
}
