How do developers update dependencies in iOS libraries?

Abstract

Software developers use third-party libraries to help with their coding process. Although they are often tested by multiple developers, they still need to be regularly updated. For example, when a library adds a new feature or library contains a bug. It is helpful to know if there are any updating patterns for libraries, so that library developers can better understand their users. Multiple related studies have analysed the updating patterns of many environments, but none are for iOS environments. The goal of this study is to analyse iOS libraries and find if there are any patterns for updating them. We will use the preexisting Swift Library Dependency Network (Swift LDN) dataset that contains libraries from CocoaPods, Carthage and SwiftPM package managers. We will check if and how the iOS developers update their libraries. During the analysis, we found that iOS developers usually choose the latest version of the library and later do not update that library anymore.