A Replication Study of Communication Style Analysis in the Linux Kernel Mailing List
Resumo
The Linux Kernel Mailing List (LKML) has long served as an important empirical source for studying communication dynamics in large-scale open-source software development. However, replicating historical LKML studies under contemporary data conditions remains challenging due to differences in archival infrastructures, metadata consistency, and dataset construction practices. This paper presents a qualitative replication of the study Differentiating Communication Styles of Leaders on the Linux Kernel Mailing List using the LKML5Ws curated dataset. We first investigate the feasibility of reconstructing LKML corpora directly from official archives using the lei interface and discuss the practical limitations encountered during large-scale data acquisition. We then re-execute the original analytical pipeline using LKML5Ws, maintaining high fidelity to the original methodological assumptions and execution environment. Through this replicated analysis, we evaluate multiple dimensions, including authorship classification, lexical statistics, expletive usage, and part-of-speech distributions. Ultimately, this work explores both the feasibility and the methodological challenges of revisiting established empirical studies using a contemporary LKML dataset.
Palavras-chave:
Linux Kernel Mailing List, empirical software engineering, replication study, communication analysis
Referências
Linux Kernel Organization [n. d.]. lore.kernel.org: Linux Kernel Mailing List Archives. Linux Kernel Organization. Retrieved January 29, 2026 from [link]
Júlia Azevedo, Theo Canuto, Heraldo Borges, Mathieu Acher, and Juliana Alves Pereira. 2026. A Replication Study of Communication Style Analysis in the Linux Kernel Mailing List – Supplementary Material. [link]. Accessed on: 10/08/2026.
Lorena A. Barba. 2018. Terminologies for Reproducible Research. arXiv:1802.03311 [cs.DL] [link]
Thomas Bock, Niklas Schneider, Angelika Schmid, Sven Apel, and Janet Siegmund. 2025. Understanding the low inter-rater agreement on aggressiveness on the Linux Kernel Mailing List. Journal of Systems and Software 222 (2025), 112339.
Heraldo Borges, Juliana Alves Pereira, Djamel Eddine Khelladi, and Mathieu Acher. 2025. Linux Kernel Configurations at Scale: A Dataset for Performance and Evolution Analysis. In Proceedings of the 29th International Conference on Evaluation and Assessment in Software Engineering. 1066–1075.
Carolyn D Egelman, Emerson Murphy-Hill, Elizabeth Kammer, Margaret Morrow Hodges, Collin Green, Ciera Jaspan, and James Lin. 2020. Predicting developers’ negative feelings about code review. In Proceedings of the ACM/IEEE 42nd international conference on software engineering. 174–185.
Isabella Ferreira, Jinghui Cheng, and Bram Adams. 2021. The “Shut the f**k up” Phenomenon: Characterizing incivility in open source code review discussions. Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction 5, CSCW2 (2021), 1–35.
Isabella Ferreira, Kate Stewart, Daniel German, and Bram Adams. 2019. A longitudinal study on the maintainers’ sentiment of a large scale open source ecosystem. In 2019 IEEE/ACM 4th International Workshop on Emotion Awareness in Software Engineering (SEmotion). IEEE, 17–22.
Daniel M German, Gregorio Robles, Germán Poo-Caamaño, Xin Yang, Hajimu Iida, and Katsuro Inoue. 2018. " Was my contribution fairly reviewed?" a framework to study the perception of fairness in modern code reviews. In Proceedings of the 40th International Conference on Software Engineering. 523–534.
Anja Guzzi, Alberto Bacchelli, Michele Lanza, Martin Pinzger, and Arie Van Deursen. 2013. Communication in open source software development mailing lists. In 2013 10th Working Conference on Mining Software Repositories (MSR). IEEE, 277–286.
Rafael Passos, Arthur Pilone, Eduardo Mendes, David Tadokoro, and Paulo Meirelles. 2025. LKML5Ws: The What, When, Who, Where, and Why in the Linux Kernel Mailing Lists. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17567225
Rafael Passos, Arthur Pilone, David Tadokoro, and Paulo Meirelles. 2025. DUKS: visualizações e análises unificadas para o Kernel Linux. InWorkshop de Visualização, Evolução e Manutenção de Software (VEM). SBC, 90–95.
Huilian Sophie Qiu, Bogdan Vasilescu, Christian Kästner, Carolyn Egelman, Ciera Jaspan, and Emerson Murphy-Hill. 2022. Detecting interpersonal conflict in issues and code review: cross pollinating open-and closed-source approaches. In Proceedings of the 2022 ACM/IEEE 44th International Conference on Software Engineering: Software Engineering in Society. 41–55.
Nicolas P Rougier, Konrad Hinsen, Frédéric Alexandre, Thomas Arildsen, Lorena A Barba, Fabien CY Benureau, C Titus Brown, Pierre De Buyl, Ozan Caglayan, Andrew P Davison, et al. 2017. Sustainable computational science: the ReScience initiative. PeerJ Computer Science 3 (2017), e142.
Daniel Schneider, Scott Spurlock, and Megan Squire. 2016. Differentiating communication styles of leaders on the linux kernel mailing list. In Proceedings of the 12th international symposium on open collaboration. 1–10.
Klaas-Jan Stol and Brian Fitzgerald. 2018. The ABC of software engineering research. ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology (TOSEM) 27, 3 (2018), 1–51.
Xin Tan andMinghui Zhou. 2019. How to communicate when submitting patches: An empirical study of the linux kernel. Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction 3, CSCW (2019), 1–26.
Claes Wohlin, Per Runeson, Martin Höst, Magnus Ohlsson, Björn Regnell, and Anders Wesslén. 2012. Experimentation in Software Engineering (1st ed.). Springer Science & Business Media.
Júlia Azevedo, Theo Canuto, Heraldo Borges, Mathieu Acher, and Juliana Alves Pereira. 2026. A Replication Study of Communication Style Analysis in the Linux Kernel Mailing List – Supplementary Material. [link]. Accessed on: 10/08/2026.
Lorena A. Barba. 2018. Terminologies for Reproducible Research. arXiv:1802.03311 [cs.DL] [link]
Thomas Bock, Niklas Schneider, Angelika Schmid, Sven Apel, and Janet Siegmund. 2025. Understanding the low inter-rater agreement on aggressiveness on the Linux Kernel Mailing List. Journal of Systems and Software 222 (2025), 112339.
Heraldo Borges, Juliana Alves Pereira, Djamel Eddine Khelladi, and Mathieu Acher. 2025. Linux Kernel Configurations at Scale: A Dataset for Performance and Evolution Analysis. In Proceedings of the 29th International Conference on Evaluation and Assessment in Software Engineering. 1066–1075.
Carolyn D Egelman, Emerson Murphy-Hill, Elizabeth Kammer, Margaret Morrow Hodges, Collin Green, Ciera Jaspan, and James Lin. 2020. Predicting developers’ negative feelings about code review. In Proceedings of the ACM/IEEE 42nd international conference on software engineering. 174–185.
Isabella Ferreira, Jinghui Cheng, and Bram Adams. 2021. The “Shut the f**k up” Phenomenon: Characterizing incivility in open source code review discussions. Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction 5, CSCW2 (2021), 1–35.
Isabella Ferreira, Kate Stewart, Daniel German, and Bram Adams. 2019. A longitudinal study on the maintainers’ sentiment of a large scale open source ecosystem. In 2019 IEEE/ACM 4th International Workshop on Emotion Awareness in Software Engineering (SEmotion). IEEE, 17–22.
Daniel M German, Gregorio Robles, Germán Poo-Caamaño, Xin Yang, Hajimu Iida, and Katsuro Inoue. 2018. " Was my contribution fairly reviewed?" a framework to study the perception of fairness in modern code reviews. In Proceedings of the 40th International Conference on Software Engineering. 523–534.
Anja Guzzi, Alberto Bacchelli, Michele Lanza, Martin Pinzger, and Arie Van Deursen. 2013. Communication in open source software development mailing lists. In 2013 10th Working Conference on Mining Software Repositories (MSR). IEEE, 277–286.
Rafael Passos, Arthur Pilone, Eduardo Mendes, David Tadokoro, and Paulo Meirelles. 2025. LKML5Ws: The What, When, Who, Where, and Why in the Linux Kernel Mailing Lists. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17567225
Rafael Passos, Arthur Pilone, David Tadokoro, and Paulo Meirelles. 2025. DUKS: visualizações e análises unificadas para o Kernel Linux. InWorkshop de Visualização, Evolução e Manutenção de Software (VEM). SBC, 90–95.
Huilian Sophie Qiu, Bogdan Vasilescu, Christian Kästner, Carolyn Egelman, Ciera Jaspan, and Emerson Murphy-Hill. 2022. Detecting interpersonal conflict in issues and code review: cross pollinating open-and closed-source approaches. In Proceedings of the 2022 ACM/IEEE 44th International Conference on Software Engineering: Software Engineering in Society. 41–55.
Nicolas P Rougier, Konrad Hinsen, Frédéric Alexandre, Thomas Arildsen, Lorena A Barba, Fabien CY Benureau, C Titus Brown, Pierre De Buyl, Ozan Caglayan, Andrew P Davison, et al. 2017. Sustainable computational science: the ReScience initiative. PeerJ Computer Science 3 (2017), e142.
Daniel Schneider, Scott Spurlock, and Megan Squire. 2016. Differentiating communication styles of leaders on the linux kernel mailing list. In Proceedings of the 12th international symposium on open collaboration. 1–10.
Klaas-Jan Stol and Brian Fitzgerald. 2018. The ABC of software engineering research. ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology (TOSEM) 27, 3 (2018), 1–51.
Xin Tan andMinghui Zhou. 2019. How to communicate when submitting patches: An empirical study of the linux kernel. Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction 3, CSCW (2019), 1–26.
Claes Wohlin, Per Runeson, Martin Höst, Magnus Ohlsson, Björn Regnell, and Anders Wesslén. 2012. Experimentation in Software Engineering (1st ed.). Springer Science & Business Media.
Publicado
11/09/2026
Como Citar
AZEVEDO, Júlia; CANUTO, Theo; BORGES, Heraldo; ACHER, Mathieu; PEREIRA, Juliana Alves.
A Replication Study of Communication Style Analysis in the Linux Kernel Mailing List. In: WORKSHOP DE VISUALIZAÇÃO, EVOLUÇÃO E MANUTENÇÃO DE SOFTWARE (VEM), 14. , 2026, São Paulo/SP.
Anais [...].
Porto Alegre: Sociedade Brasileira de Computação,
2026
.
p. 82-88.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5753/vem.2026.32950.
