The unique reference NCSLOC metric

We propose that by utilizing certain metrics and gathering operating system information it can be determined if a file is a version or duplicate of another file on the system. In a software development environment, knowing what files are versions of other files would be beneficial in many areas. It would help a manager estimate the amount of code that needs to be modified in a reengineering project. When comparing files to a software reuse library, the amount of reuse can be measured. If a survey is being done on the entire contents of the computer´s file system, then all code for a variety of programming languages can be located and the amount of new and reused code can be quantified. The authors present a description of the metrics, how they are collected, and the results of processing a large number of files using the metrics