Method-level historical information is useful in research on mining software repositories such as fault-prone module detection or evolutionary coupling identification. An existing technique named Historage converts a Git repository of a Java project to a finer-grained one. In a finer-grained repository, each Java method exists as a single file. Treating Java methods as files has an advantage, which is that Java methods can be tracked with Git mechanisms. The biggest benefit of tracking methods with Git mechanisms is that it can easily connect with any other tools and techniques build on Git infrastructure. However, Historage's tracking has an issue of accuracy, especially on small methods. More concretely, in the case that a small method is renamed or moved to another class, Historage has a limited capability to track the method. In this paper, we propose a new technique, FinerGit, to improve the trackability of Java methods with Git mechanisms. We implement FinerGit as a system and apply it to 182 open source software projects, which include 1,768K methods in total. The experimental results show that our tool has a higher capability of tracking methods in the case that methods are renamed or moved to other classes.

中文翻译：

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使用 Git 机制跟踪 Java 方法

方法级别的历史信息对于挖掘软件存储库的研究非常有用，例如容易出错的模块检测或进化耦合识别。一种名为 Historage 的现有技术将 Java 项目的 Git 存储库转换为更细粒度的存储库。在更细粒度的存储库中，每个 Java 方法都作为单个文件存在。将 Java 方法视为文件有一个优势，即可以使用 Git 机制跟踪 Java 方法。使用 Git 机制跟踪方法的最大好处是它可以轻松连接任何其他构建在 Git 基础架构上的工具和技术。但是，Historage 的跟踪存在准确性问题，尤其是在小方法上。更具体地说，在一个小方法被重命名或移动到另一个类的情况下，Historage 跟踪该方法的能力有限。在本文中，我们提出了一种新技术 FinerGit，以使用 Git 机制提高 Java 方法的可跟踪性。我们将 FinerGit 实现为一个系统，并将其应用于 182 个开源软件项目，其中总共包括 1,768K 方法。实验结果表明，在方法重命名或移动到其他类的情况下，我们的工具具有更高的跟踪方法的能力。