Mining Important Topological Properties in Large-Scale Computer Software Systems Based on Complex Networks

Recently, large-scale computer software systems have attached a great deal of attention when they are regarded as complex networks composed of interacting units. In this paper, the collaboration relationships between header files in the source code of Linux kernels are analyzed by constructing a weighted File Collaboration Network(FCN): each node represents a header file, two nodes are connected if corresponding header files are both included in the same source file at least once, also the link weight is assigned to evaluate the intensity of co inclusion of two header files. Through using appropriate non-weighted and weighted quantities, structural properties of FCNs are characterized and analyzed. The study of large-scale softwares from the viewpoint of complex networks can provide a better description of the organizational principles and evolving mechanism of complex software systems.