The Classics Never Go Out of Style: An Empirical Study of Downgrades from the Bazel Build Technology

Software build systems specify how source code is transformed into deliverables. Keeping build systems in sync with the software artifacts that they build while retaining their capacity to quickly produce updated deliverables requires a serious investment of development effort. Enticed by advanced features, several software teams have migrated their build systems to a modern generation of build technologies (e.g., Bazel, Buck), which aim to reduce the maintenance and execution overhead that build systems impose on development. However, not all migrations lead to perceived improvements, ultimately culminating in abandonment of the build technology. While prior work has focused on upward migration towards more advanced technologies, so-called downgrades, i.e., abandonment of a modern build technology in favour of a traditional one, remains largely unexplored.