The Linux kernel feature model has been studied as an example of large scale evolving feature model and yet details of its evolution are not known. We present here a classification of feature changes occurring on the Linux kernel feature model, as well as a tool, FMDiff, designed to automatically extract those changes. With this tool, we obtained the history of more than twenty architecture specific feature models, over ten releases and compared the recovered information with Kconfig file changes. We establish that FMDiff provides a comprehensive view of feature changes and show that the collected data contains promising information regarding the Linux feature model evolution.
Dintzner et al. REF present a classification of feature changes as well as a tool named FMDi↵ to automatically analyze di↵erences in Linux variability models.
Extracting feature model changes from the Linux kernel using FMDiff
VaMoS '14
Computer Science