Is my dependency up-to-date? Exploring challenges with automated dependency updates

Is my dependency up-to-date? Exploring challenges with automated dependency updates | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Is my dependency up-to-date? Exploring challenges with automated dependency updates Miguel Botto-Tobar, Santiago A. Vidal, Claudia Marcos This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-9390837/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Under Review Version 1 posted 6 You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Dependency upgrades often require coordinated edits in application or test code, yet mainstream automation tools update only build manifests and leave code adaptation to developers. This paper evaluates whether these co-changes can be learned for JUnit upgrades in Maven-based Java projects. From 2,223 upgrade commits mined from GitHub, we derive a snippet-level dataset of 8,735 input-output pairs, each combining an XML dependency block, a Java test fragment, and a natural-language instruction. A four-part empirical analysis shows that most JUnit 3.x/4.x upgrades are conservative: 78.8% of method-level pairs change less than 8% of characters (median normalised Levenshtein distance 0.02), and magnitude varies little across release types (mean edit distances 0.466--0.486; Kruskal--Wallis $p=0.026$). Snippet decomposition, modality markers, and near-duplicate filtering yield a copy rate of 0.71 within a 512-token budget. A fine-tuned CodeT5 model attains EM-Java 38.5% and CodeBLEU 0.854 on held-out snippets, outperforming a manifest-only baseline (0% and 0.502), with the largest gains on substantial edits (+0.528 CodeBLEU). Under our build environment, model-generated patches compile and pass tests in all 37 evaluable cases (5 of 21 repositories); manifest-only bumps fail in 50% of control cases. The dataset and evaluation framework are publicly released. dependency management JUnit test-code co-evolution code generation Maven software maintenance Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Under Review Version 1 posted Reviews received at journal 18 May, 2026 Reviewers agreed at journal 07 May, 2026 Reviewers invited by journal 04 May, 2026 Editor assigned by journal 12 Apr, 2026 Submission checks completed at journal 12 Apr, 2026 First submitted to journal 11 Apr, 2026 You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. 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Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-9390837","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":636098515,"identity":"4fc7da4e-5ecc-4e6d-9991-2884ece1838f","order_by":0,"name":"Miguel Botto-Tobar","email":"data:image/png;base64,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","orcid":"","institution":"Universidad Abierta Interamericana","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Miguel","middleName":"","lastName":"Botto-Tobar","suffix":""},{"id":636098516,"identity":"a8d58356-9107-4705-8bd9-c07ae040378a","order_by":1,"name":"Santiago A. 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