Maintainability of the Linux Kernel

TitleMaintainability of the Linux Kernel
Publication TypeJournal Article
Year of Publication2003
AuthorsSchach, SR, Jin, B, Wright, DR
Secondary TitleProceedings of the 2nd Workshop on Open Source Software Engineering ICSE2002
Date PublishedOctober
Keywordscoupling, kernel, linux, linux kernel, modules, source code
Abstract

We have examined 365 versions of Linux. For every version, we counted the number of instances of common (global) coupling between each of the 17 kernel modules and all the other modules in that version of Linux. We found that the number of instances of common coupling grows exponentially with version number. This result is significant at the 99.99% level, and no additional variables are needed to explain this increase. We conclude that, unless Linux is restructured with a bare minimum of common coupling, the dependencies induced by common coupling will, at some future date, make Linux exceedingly hard to maintain without inducing regression faults.

Notes

"We have examined 365 versions of Linux. For every version, we counted the number of
instances of common (global) coupling between each of the 17 kernel modules and all the other
modules in that version of Linux."

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