Understanding Source Code Variability in Cloned Android Families: An Empirical Study on 75 Families

Software developers rely on the clone-and-own approach to rapidly develop software product variants (PVs) that meet variability in market needs. To improve the comprehension of how PVs are evolved and varied, we analyze the clone-and-own practices applied by developers of these PVs. We perform an empirical study on 75 android families to gain insights about observable phenomena related to the commonality and variability between the source code of PVs of these families. In particular, we study three research questions to identify the commonality and variability related to the organization of source code files, cloning Java methods, and configuration parameters of AndroidManifest.xml files. The results show that cloning packages, Java files and Java methods is a common practice used by developers of all android families. Maintainers should put efforts for managing the diverse implementations (bodies) of the modified cloned methods and it is essential to consider the commonality and variability of configuration parameters.