Towards a framework for analysis, transformation, and manipulation of Makefiles

Abstract

Build systems are an integral part of the software development process, being responsible for turning source code into a deliverable product. They are, however, difficult to comprehend and maintain at times. Make, the most popular build language, is often cited as being difficult to debug. In this work, we propose a framework to analyze and manipulate Makefiles, and discover how the language is used in open source systems using existing software analysis techniques like source transformation and clone detection.