Andrea Arcangeli [interview] offered a tiny Python script called KLive for tracking kernel usage. He explained, "during the Kernel Summit somebody raised the point that it's not clear how much testing each rc/pre/git kernel gets before the final release." The simple script is a proof of concept, and is designed to be started at boot time. It collects a small amount of information about your computer (kernel version, amount of RAM, number of CPUs, speed in megahertz, and number of devices) and routinely sends this data to a central server. The collected data is then displayed in a simple chart, with the hope that it provides a useful estimate as to how much testing each kernel is getting.

Running Andrea's KLive script requires the Twisted Python networking framework. Once installed, you simply execute "twistd -oy klive.tac" and the script begins running in the background. Ideally the script would be launched automatically at boot time. Andrea noted, "I setup a server to track automatically the amount of testing that each kernel gets. Clearly this will be a very rough approximation and it can't be reliable, but perhaps it'll be useful." He went on to note that if the project was considered useful, it might make sense to get rid of the userland script and move everything into the kernel, making it a configurable option to simplify use. He adds, "if this won't be useful, the time I spent on it is very minor so no problem ;)."

From: Andrea Arcangeli [email blocked]
To:  linux-kernel
Subject: KLive: Linux Kernel Live Usage Monitor
Date:	Tue, 30 Aug 2005 05:09:59 +0200

Hello,

During the Kernel Summit somebody raised the point that it's not clear
how much testing each rc/pre/git kernel gets before the final release.

So I setup a server to track automatically the amount of testing that
each kernel gets. Clearly this will be a very rough approximation and it
can't be reliable, but perhaps it'll be useful. If this won't be useful,
the time I spent on it is very minor so no problem ;).

All the details can be found in the project website:

	http://klive.cpushare.com/

Full source (server included) is here:

	http://klive.cpushare.com/downloads/klive-0.0.tar.bz2

To run the client:

	wget http://klive.cpushare.com/klive.tac

Then at every boot (like in /etc/init.d/boot.local):

	twistd -oy klive.tac

In theory we could get rid of the client entirely and make it a kernel
config option, but I've no idea if this project is useful, so I don't
want to spend too much time on it at this point.

Thank you.

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