Mining for Graph-Based Library Usage Patterns in COBOL Systems

Ruben Opdebeeck; Johan Fabry; Tim Christiaan Molderez; Jonas De Bleser; Coen De Roover

doi:10.1109/SANER50967.2021.00072

Mining for Graph-Based Library Usage Patterns in COBOL Systems

Ruben Opdebeeck, Johan Fabry, Tim Christiaan Molderez, Jonas De Bleser, Coen De Roover

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference paper

2 Citations (Scopus)

136 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

When migrating legacy systems to more contemporary platforms, it is not always feasible to migrate their external library dependencies as well. A workaround can be to partially reimplement the library dependencies on the new platform, limiting oneself to the features that are used by the migrated system. For contemporary programming languages, several approaches to mining for library usage patterns have been proposed. For legacy programming languages, in contrast, such tools are lacking. This encumbers establishing what parts of a library need to be rewritten during a migration project, especially when considering large-scale systems.
In this industry track paper, we present an approach to mining library usage patterns in COBOL code. We describe a library usage extractor for COBOL, which produces graphs that capture the control and data flow involved in library calls. The extractor supports legacy control flow features, such as GO TO. We use these graphs as input to two state-of-the-art frequent subgraph mining algorithms, and report on the scalability of their use for mining common library usage patterns in two industrial COBOL systems. The mined library usage patterns can help assess and subsequently steer the migration effort.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	Proceedings of the 2021 IEEE International Conference on Software Analysis, Evolution and Reengineering
Publisher	IEEE
Pages	595-599
Number of pages	5
ISBN (Electronic)	978-1-7281-9630-5
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1109/SANER50967.2021.00072
Publication status	Published - Mar 2021
Event	28th IEEE International Conference on Software Analysis, Evolution, and Reengineering - Honolulu, United States Duration: 9 Mar 2021 → 12 Mar 2021 Conference number: 2021

Publication series

Name	Proceedings - 2021 IEEE International Conference on Software Analysis, Evolution and Reengineering, SANER 2021

Conference

Conference	28th IEEE International Conference on Software Analysis, Evolution, and Reengineering
Abbreviated title	SANER
Country/Territory	United States
City	Honolulu
Period	9/03/21 → 12/03/21

Keywords

legacy code
software renovation
library usage pattern mining

Access to Document

10.1109/SANER50967.2021.00072

vub-tr-soft-21-01Accepted author manuscript, 138 KB

https://soft.vub.ac.be/Publications/2021/vub-tr-soft-21-01.pdf

Cite this

Opdebeeck, R., Fabry, J., Molderez, T. C., De Bleser, J., & De Roover, C. (2021). Mining for Graph-Based Library Usage Patterns in COBOL Systems. In Proceedings of the 2021 IEEE International Conference on Software Analysis, Evolution and Reengineering (pp. 595-599). Article 9425905 (Proceedings - 2021 IEEE International Conference on Software Analysis, Evolution and Reengineering, SANER 2021). IEEE. https://doi.org/10.1109/SANER50967.2021.00072

Opdebeeck, Ruben ; Fabry, Johan ; Molderez, Tim Christiaan et al. / Mining for Graph-Based Library Usage Patterns in COBOL Systems. Proceedings of the 2021 IEEE International Conference on Software Analysis, Evolution and Reengineering. IEEE, 2021. pp. 595-599 (Proceedings - 2021 IEEE International Conference on Software Analysis, Evolution and Reengineering, SANER 2021).

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title = "Mining for Graph-Based Library Usage Patterns in COBOL Systems",

abstract = "When migrating legacy systems to more contemporary platforms, it is not always feasible to migrate their external library dependencies as well. A workaround can be to partially reimplement the library dependencies on the new platform, limiting oneself to the features that are used by the migrated system. For contemporary programming languages, several approaches to mining for library usage patterns have been proposed. For legacy programming languages, in contrast, such tools are lacking. This encumbers establishing what parts of a library need to be rewritten during a migration project, especially when considering large-scale systems.In this industry track paper, we present an approach to mining library usage patterns in COBOL code. We describe a library usage extractor for COBOL, which produces graphs that capture the control and data flow involved in library calls. The extractor supports legacy control flow features, such as GO TO. We use these graphs as input to two state-of-the-art frequent subgraph mining algorithms, and report on the scalability of their use for mining common library usage patterns in two industrial COBOL systems. The mined library usage patterns can help assess and subsequently steer the migration effort.",

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author = "Ruben Opdebeeck and Johan Fabry and Molderez, {Tim Christiaan} and {De Bleser}, Jonas and {De Roover}, Coen",

year = "2021",

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Opdebeeck, R, Fabry, J, Molderez, TC, De Bleser, J & De Roover, C 2021, Mining for Graph-Based Library Usage Patterns in COBOL Systems. in Proceedings of the 2021 IEEE International Conference on Software Analysis, Evolution and Reengineering., 9425905, Proceedings - 2021 IEEE International Conference on Software Analysis, Evolution and Reengineering, SANER 2021, IEEE, pp. 595-599, 28th IEEE International Conference on Software Analysis, Evolution, and Reengineering, Honolulu, Hawaii, United States, 9/03/21. https://doi.org/10.1109/SANER50967.2021.00072

Mining for Graph-Based Library Usage Patterns in COBOL Systems. / Opdebeeck, Ruben; Fabry, Johan; Molderez, Tim Christiaan et al.
Proceedings of the 2021 IEEE International Conference on Software Analysis, Evolution and Reengineering. IEEE, 2021. p. 595-599 9425905 (Proceedings - 2021 IEEE International Conference on Software Analysis, Evolution and Reengineering, SANER 2021).

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference paper

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T1 - Mining for Graph-Based Library Usage Patterns in COBOL Systems

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AU - Fabry, Johan

AU - Molderez, Tim Christiaan

AU - De Bleser, Jonas

AU - De Roover, Coen

N1 - Conference code: 2021

PY - 2021/3

Y1 - 2021/3

N2 - When migrating legacy systems to more contemporary platforms, it is not always feasible to migrate their external library dependencies as well. A workaround can be to partially reimplement the library dependencies on the new platform, limiting oneself to the features that are used by the migrated system. For contemporary programming languages, several approaches to mining for library usage patterns have been proposed. For legacy programming languages, in contrast, such tools are lacking. This encumbers establishing what parts of a library need to be rewritten during a migration project, especially when considering large-scale systems.In this industry track paper, we present an approach to mining library usage patterns in COBOL code. We describe a library usage extractor for COBOL, which produces graphs that capture the control and data flow involved in library calls. The extractor supports legacy control flow features, such as GO TO. We use these graphs as input to two state-of-the-art frequent subgraph mining algorithms, and report on the scalability of their use for mining common library usage patterns in two industrial COBOL systems. The mined library usage patterns can help assess and subsequently steer the migration effort.

AB - When migrating legacy systems to more contemporary platforms, it is not always feasible to migrate their external library dependencies as well. A workaround can be to partially reimplement the library dependencies on the new platform, limiting oneself to the features that are used by the migrated system. For contemporary programming languages, several approaches to mining for library usage patterns have been proposed. For legacy programming languages, in contrast, such tools are lacking. This encumbers establishing what parts of a library need to be rewritten during a migration project, especially when considering large-scale systems.In this industry track paper, we present an approach to mining library usage patterns in COBOL code. We describe a library usage extractor for COBOL, which produces graphs that capture the control and data flow involved in library calls. The extractor supports legacy control flow features, such as GO TO. We use these graphs as input to two state-of-the-art frequent subgraph mining algorithms, and report on the scalability of their use for mining common library usage patterns in two industrial COBOL systems. The mined library usage patterns can help assess and subsequently steer the migration effort.

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KW - software renovation

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BT - Proceedings of the 2021 IEEE International Conference on Software Analysis, Evolution and Reengineering

PB - IEEE

T2 - 28th IEEE International Conference on Software Analysis, Evolution, and Reengineering

Y2 - 9 March 2021 through 12 March 2021

ER -

Opdebeeck R, Fabry J, Molderez TC, De Bleser J, De Roover C. Mining for Graph-Based Library Usage Patterns in COBOL Systems. In Proceedings of the 2021 IEEE International Conference on Software Analysis, Evolution and Reengineering. IEEE. 2021. p. 595-599. 9425905. (Proceedings - 2021 IEEE International Conference on Software Analysis, Evolution and Reengineering, SANER 2021). doi: 10.1109/SANER50967.2021.00072

Mining for Graph-Based Library Usage Patterns in COBOL Systems

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