Towards slice-based semantic clone detection

This paper presents our proposed approach for detecting code clones based on similar slices of different versions of large software systems. We begin by presenting our initial thoughts on realizing software slice clone detection. We describe our initial results obtained by means of scripts to identify clones at different levels of granularity. The clones between versions are represented as pairs of cloned slices. Our results include a case study of over 191 versions of the Linux kernel, spanning over 10 years. In the near future, we plan on experimenting with established clone detectors to realize a complete and robust analysis approach.