Using Prolog for Software System Maintenance

Maintenance of large, portable software systems often leads to requirements which cannot be solved by the traditional make tool. Abstract naming schemes for les and programs, as they are used by preprocessors in actual make tools, are fundamental for a more general solution. But, as shown in this paper, a preprocessor is not powerful enough for all requirements. Some kind of \database" with the information for making speciic les is needed. Abstract names looking very close to Prolog terms and the need for a \knowledge base" lead directly to the idea of having a Prolog interpreter doing the le update task. As a prototype, prom has been implemented which is introduced at the end of this paper.