Automated classification of change messages in open source projects

Abstract

Source control systems permit developers to attach a free form message to every committed change. The content of these change messages can support software maintenance activities. We present an automated approach to classify a change message as either a bug fix, a feature introduction, or a general maintenance change. Researchers can study the evolution of project using our classification. For example, researchers can monitor the rate of bug fixes in a project without having access to bug reporting databases like Bugzilla.