#6339. Can we trust tests to automate dependency updates? A case study of Java Projects

October 2026publication date
Proposal available till 19-05-2025
4 total number of authors per manuscript0 $

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Information Systems;
Hardware and Architecture;
Software;
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Abstract:
Developers are increasingly using services such as Dependabot to automate dependency updates. However, recent research has shown that developers perceive such services as unreliable, as they heavily rely on test coverage to detect conflicts in updates. To understand the prevalence of tests exercising dependencies, we calculate the test coverage of direct and indirect uses of dependencies in 521 well-tested Java projects.
Keywords:
Dependency management; Library updates; Package management; Semantic versioning; Software migration

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