Prioritizing Configuration Relevance via Compiler-Based Refined Feature Ranking
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arXiv
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| Format: | Preprint |
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2026
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| _version_ | 1866914273069891584 |
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| author | Bruzzone, Federico Cazzola, Walter Favini, Luca |
| author_facet | Bruzzone, Federico Cazzola, Walter Favini, Luca |
| contents | Modern programming languages, most notably Rust, offer advanced linguistic constructs for building highly configurable software systems as aggregation of features -- identified by a configuration. However, they pose substantial challenges for program analysis, optimization, and testing, as the combinatorial explosion of configurations often makes exhaustive exploration infeasible. In this manuscript, we present the first compiler-based method for prioritizing configurations. Our approach consists of four main steps: 1. extracting a tailored intermediate representation from the Rust compiler, 2. constructing two complementary graph-based data structures, 3. using centrality measures to rank features, and 4. refining the ranking by considering the extent of code they impact. A fixed number of most relevant configurations are generated based on the achieved feature ranking. The validity of the generated configurations is guaranteed by using a SAT solver that takes a representation of this graph in conjunctive normal form. We formalized this approach and implemented it in a prototype, RustyEx, by instrumenting the Rust compiler. An empirical evaluation on higher-ranked open source Rust projects shows that RustyEx efficiently generates user-specified sets of configurations within bounded resources, while ensuring soundness by construction. The results demonstrate that centrality-guided configuration prioritization enables effective and practical exploration of large configuration spaces, paving the way for future research in configuration-aware analysis and optimization. |
| format | Preprint |
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arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2601_16008 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2026 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Prioritizing Configuration Relevance via Compiler-Based Refined Feature Ranking Bruzzone, Federico Cazzola, Walter Favini, Luca Programming Languages D.3.4; D.2.10; D.2.4 Modern programming languages, most notably Rust, offer advanced linguistic constructs for building highly configurable software systems as aggregation of features -- identified by a configuration. However, they pose substantial challenges for program analysis, optimization, and testing, as the combinatorial explosion of configurations often makes exhaustive exploration infeasible. In this manuscript, we present the first compiler-based method for prioritizing configurations. Our approach consists of four main steps: 1. extracting a tailored intermediate representation from the Rust compiler, 2. constructing two complementary graph-based data structures, 3. using centrality measures to rank features, and 4. refining the ranking by considering the extent of code they impact. A fixed number of most relevant configurations are generated based on the achieved feature ranking. The validity of the generated configurations is guaranteed by using a SAT solver that takes a representation of this graph in conjunctive normal form. We formalized this approach and implemented it in a prototype, RustyEx, by instrumenting the Rust compiler. An empirical evaluation on higher-ranked open source Rust projects shows that RustyEx efficiently generates user-specified sets of configurations within bounded resources, while ensuring soundness by construction. The results demonstrate that centrality-guided configuration prioritization enables effective and practical exploration of large configuration spaces, paving the way for future research in configuration-aware analysis and optimization. |
| title | Prioritizing Configuration Relevance via Compiler-Based Refined Feature Ranking |
| topic | Programming Languages D.3.4; D.2.10; D.2.4 |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.16008 |