On the feasibility of an AOSD approach to linux kernel extensions

In previous work, we presented a domain-specific version of C, called C4, which was used for capturing extensions to the Linux 2.6 kernel using AOSD techniques as an alternative to the conventional patching approach [10, 19]. The focus of that work was on introducing new extensions represented as aspects in system software such as the Linux kernel with a focus on readablility, compatibility, performance, and the preservation of existing development workflows. However, other AOSD researchers (e.g. Lohmann et al. [8]) state that "... Linux, as a monolithic system, provides a low number of join-points for aspects and that those available were semantically ambiguous." This worrisome statement motivated us to study the feasibility of applying AOSD techniques to refactor existing Linux kernel extensions. To gain insight we analyzed the AOSD-ness of a large number of configurable options available in the Linux kernel and evaluated whether they could be converted into aspects - and for the AOSD fan the preliminary results are promising.