Characterizing the Distributions of Commits in Large Source Code Repositories
Abstract
Modern software development is based on software repositories and changes committed to those repositories. However, there is an inadequate insight into the nature of changes committed to repositories of different sizes. A data-based characterization of commit activity in large software hubs contributes to a better understanding of software development and can feed into early detection of bugs at the earliest phases. Here, we present preliminary results from characterizing the distribution of 452 million commits in a metadata listing from GitHub repositories. Based on multiple distributions, we find the best fits and second best fits across different ranges in the data. The characterization is aimed at synthetic repository generation suitable for use in simulation and machine learning.
Kalyan Perumalla
Kalyan Perumalla is a computer scientist focused on research in supercomputing, quantum computing, and artificial intelligence, as research staff member, faculty, and program manager with the U.S. government, national labs, and universities. As a Federal Program Manager in Advanced Scientific Computing Research at the U.S. Dept. of Energy, Office of Science, He managed a $100-million R&D portfolio covering AI, HPC, Quantum, SciDAC, and Basic Computer Science. In his 25-year R&D leadership experience, he previously led advanced R&D as Distinguished Research Staff Member at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) developing scalable software and applications on the world’s largest supercomputers for 17 years, including as a line manager and a founding group leader. He has held senior faculty and adjunct appointments at UTK, GT, and UNL, and was an IAS Fellow at Durham University.