Using the uniqueness of global identifiers to determine the provenance of Python software source code

• Published in: Empirical software engineering : an international journal Vol. 28; no. 5; p. 107
• Main Authors: Sun, Yiming, German, Daniel, Zacchiroli, Stefano
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 01.10.2023; Springer Nature B.V; Springer Verlag
• Subjects: Compilers; Computer Science; Interpreters; Mathematical analysis; Names; Open source software; Programming Languages; Software Engineering; Software Engineering/Programming and Operating Systems; Software packages; Source code; Source code tracking; Identifiers; Open source software; Software provenance; Python; python; software provenance; source code tracking; open source software; identifiers

We consider the problem of identifying the provenance of free/open source software (FOSS) and specifically the need of identifying where reused source code has been copied from. We propose a lightweight approach to solve the problem based on software identifiers—such as the names of variables, class...