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Automated Repair of Python API Parameter Compatibility Issues

Documentation · Configuration Guide · How It Works · Examples · API Docs · PCBench

• 2026-07-24 - Released PCART v1.4, featuring isolated run workspaces, structured callsite identities, more flexible and safer cross-platform execution of Python scripts, modules, and tools such as pytest, and optional experimental PCResolve integration.

• 2026-05-22 - Experimental PCResolve integration: cross-file symbol-tracing replaces single-file string-matching for API call identification. Opt-in via pcresolve>=1.0.4; falls back to existing extraction when not installed.

PCART is an automated tool for detecting and repairing Python API parameter compatibility issues caused by library upgrades.

It supports common parameter compatibility changes, including addition, deletion, renaming, reordering, replacement, positional/keyword conversion, and partial type-change analysis. Default-value changes are not currently implemented.

python main.py -cfg your_config.json

# Optionally generate repair patches and a repaired project copy
python main.py -cfg your_config.json --write-patch

Patch output is disabled by default. With --write-patch, PCART exports repair patches and a project copy containing only Successful repairs to Report/runs/{run_id}/{command_id}/. The original project remains unchanged.

PCART keeps run workspaces in PCARTRuns/runs/ by default. For repeated runs on large projects, use --clean-workspace to prevent excessive disk usage:

# Optionally remove a successful run workspace after report export
python main.py -cfg your_config.json --clean-workspace

Successful workspaces are removed only after reports are exported. Failed workspaces and all outputs under Report/runs/ are retained.

Each run uses one tool environment and two configured project environments: currentEnv and targetEnv.

PCART includes pre-extracted library API definitions in LibAPIExtraction for static mapping. If definitions for either configured library version are missing, run the following from the PCART repository root before running PCART to extract both versions from currentEnv and targetEnv:

python extractLibAPI.py -cfg your_config.json

See the Quick Start and Configuration Guide for setup details.

If PCART supports your research or development work, please cite the following publication:

@article{PCART_TSE2025,
  author={Zhang, Shuai and Xiao, Guanping and Wang, Jun and Lei, Huashan and He, Gangqiang and Liu, Yepang and Zheng, Zheng},
  journal={IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering},
  title={PCART: Automated Repair of Python API Parameter Compatibility Issues},
  year={2026},
  volume={52},
  number={3},
  pages={723-753},
  doi={10.1109/TSE.2025.3646150}
}

PCART is licensed under the GNU Affero General Public License v3.0. See LICENSE for details.