Ariadne: An Eclipse-based system for tracking originality of source code

In this paper we introduce Ariadne, an Eclipse-based system for tracking the originality of source code in collaborative software development environments in which software reuse is a common practice. We describe its architecture within the Eclipse framework, the originality metadata of which it keeps track, and the history clue—the data structure used to implement the tracking mechanism. We also discuss the implementation of the Ariadne client, the main component of the system, and show how digital signatures are used to validate the integrity of the metadata-handling process. We demonstrate the functions of Ariadne in two typical scenarios: tracking of software bugs and generating originality claims for Certificate of Originality reports. Although our Eclipse-based prototype is designed to handle Java source code, our approach can be extended to other kinds of artifacts.