[TechDebt 2026 - Replication Package] When Do You Repeat Yourself? Voices from the Trenches of Linux Kernel Maintainers on Code Duplication

Description

Replication package for the short paper of TechDebt2026 titled "When Do You Repeat Yourself? Voices from the Trenches of Linux Kernel Maintainers on Code Duplication". This package contains the anonymized email threads from Linux development mailing lists that represent the review process for contributions sent, which served as the primary data source for the paper.

Anonymization

The anonymization process involved removing information such as names, emails, timestamps, unnecessary email protocol headers, and, in general, any Personally Identifiable Information (PII). Nevertheless, we did not anonymize the patchset titles, commit message bodies, or files modified, as they are paramount for the package. If someone attempts to use this information to cross-reference with the merged commits or the messages from the mailing lists, it is possible to identify the unanonymized threads. However, if the reader averts from doing this external verification (we assume this is the proper way to read the paper), the identities of the people and organizations involved will be kept hidden.

Package format

The format of the package is as follows:

• One directory per group named g<XX>, where <XX> is the group number.
• Each directory contains one or more .mbox files, where each file is an email thread. Although it would typically be possible to import these files into email clients for better visualization, the removal of headers may render this impossible.
• Each email thread represents a version of the patchset sent by the group. The format of these filenames is v<X>.mbox, where <X> is the patchset version, except for Group 1 (submitted one patchset to AMDGPU and another to IIO, so the format is <amd/iio>-v<X>.mbox) and Group 2 (version 2 was sent twice, so they are v2-1.mbox and v2-2.mbox).