Software Engineering Group - Kiel University
Published August 20, 2025 | Version v1
Preprint Open

Visualization of the Linux Kernel With ExplorViz

Creators

  • 1. ROR icon Kiel University

Description

The Linux kernel is one of the largest and longest-maintained open-source projects in existence. With tens of thousands of source code files, understanding the program's internal structure and behavior is a great challenge. In this paper, we present an approach to visualize the Linux kernel using our software visualization tool ExplorViz. We analyze commits from the Linux Git repository using srcML and our custom backend service for static analysis. We visualize the folder structure and included source code files using the city metaphor. Users can visually compare the structure of different commits to gain insight into the kernel's software evolution.

In addition to the visualization of the structure of the Linux kernel, ExplorViz processes traces that provide runtime information about the kernel's behavior. Therefore, we employ the function tracer ftrace and convert the gathered traces to the OpenTelemetry format. The accumulated traces are displayed as arcs between communicating files.

When combined with the numerous configuration options of ExplorViz for customizing its visualization, our approach offers new and versatile perspectives on the Linux kernel.

Video URL: https://youtu.be/cBouE5eQOjE

Files

VISSOFT-2025-Linux-Challenge-ExplorViz-Preprint.pdf

Files (3.6 MB)

Additional details

References

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