Linux is a Unix-like operating system kernel [1]. Developed by contributors worldwide, Linux is one of the most prominent examples of free software available today. Its main electronic mailing list is Linux Kernel Mailing List (LKML) [2], where developers and users share and (passionately) debate proposed and upcoming patches. The volume of messages on the list is quite high and varies from two to three hundred a day.
The main Linux revision control software is called Git [3]. Git's main characteristics include distributed development and cryptographic authentication of history. Git also introduced a notion of 'sign-offs' into mainstream free software development, where all the code contributors have to provide their email addresses and code then is signed by other developers as a form of code quality control.
The kernel gets larger amount of updates and improvements with each release. For example, release 2.6.20 added approximately 280 thousand lines of code and removed 160 thousand, while release 2.6.23 already features 430 thousand added lines and 406 thousand removed. Also, from 700 to 900 developers worldwide contribute to each kernel release [4].
While there have been modest attempts to do analysis of the most active kernel contributors [4,5] and discussed messages on LKML [2], no comprehensive system that provides either visualization of contributor network, or patch paths, have been done. Also, no attempts to find correlation between LKML and git patch sign-off system were made.
The goal of this project is to create a visual representation of kernel contributions from Git patch logs and LKML. Once completed, the project will be deployed as a service on UCD Open Source Lab hosting facilities, and its results and source code will be publish under General Public License v3.
[1] http://www.eu.kernel.org
[2] http://lkml.org/
[3] http://git.or.cz/
[4] http://lwn.net/Articles/247582/
[5] http://lwn.net/Articles/222773/