Search papers, labs, and topics across Lattice.
This paper investigates the use of migration guides by developers, focusing on the Log4j library as a case study. The authors analyzed how developers reference and utilize the official Log4j migration guide in real-world pull requests. They found that developers primarily link to the entire guide in pull request descriptions and that migration guides are used beyond initial major version updates, extending to maintenance tasks.
Developers aren't surgically extracting information from migration guides; they're largely linking to the whole document, suggesting opportunities for improved guide structure and searchability.
Migration guides are a form of software documentation that helps developers address breaking changes introduced in library version updates. Prior studies have examined documents such as release notes, API reference manuals, and patch notes. However, research that focuses specifically on migration guides remains limited. Improving the usability and coverage of migration guides is essential for helping developers resolve breaking changes efficiently. Yet, we still lack a clear understanding of how migration guides are currently provided and how developers use them in practice. To fill this gap, we first investigate whether libraries known to introduce incompatibilities provide migration guides. We then conduct a detailed case study on Log4j, a library that has experienced large-scale breaking updates in the past. We empirically analyze how developers refer to and use the official migration guide in real-world projects. We find that pull request authors most frequently reference the migration guide in the pull request description, and that most references (82.81\%) link to the entire guide rather than specific sections. We also find that developers use migration guides not only during major version updates but also during subsequent maintenance tasks, suggesting that the guides serve as a resource throughout the entire migration process.
