Identifying Redundancy in Source Code Using Fingerprints

Abstract

A prototype implementation of a mechanism that uses fingerprints to identify exact repetitions of text in large program source trees has been built and successfully applied to a legacy source of over 300 megabytes. This prototype system has provided useful information as well as establishing the scalability of the technology. The approach will form the basis of a suite of tools for the visualization and understanding of programs and will complement other approaches currently under investigation.