Variable-exponent fractional models attract increasing attentions in various applications, while rigorous mathematical and numerical analysis for typical models remains largely untreated. This work provides general tools to address these models. Specifically, we first develop a convolution method to study the well-posedness, regularity, an inverse problem and numerical approximation for the subdiffusion of variable exponent. For models such as the variable-exponent two-sided space-fractional boundary value problem (including the variable-exponent fractional Laplacian equation as a special case) and the distributed variable-exponent model, for which the convolution method does not apply, we develop a perturbation method to prove their well-posedness. The relations between the convolution method and the perturbation method are discussed, and we further apply the latter to prove the well-posedness of the variable-exponent Abel integral equation and discuss the constraint on the data under different initial values of variable exponent.