Abstract

Large open-source projects such as the Linux kernel provide a unique opportunity to analyze many of the socio-technical processes of open-source software development. Understanding how cognitive workload affects the quality of code and productivity of work in such environments can help better protect open-source projects from potential vulnerabilities and better utilize limited developer resources. In this paper, we present two agent-based simulation models of developer interactions on the Linux Kernel Mailing List (LKML). We also develop several non-simulation machine learning (ML) models predicting patch reversal, to compare with our agent-based simulation models. In our experiments, simulation models perform slightly better than ML models at predicting the expected number and proportion of reverted patches, and considerably better in matching the distribution of these values. Results are further improved using an explicit process model within the simulation, modeling the patch view process and associated cognitive load on LKML reviewers when new code changes are introduced by developers. We find that the process model can capture the repeated, structured multi-agent activities within a socio-technical community.

Date

October 11, 2025

Authors

Alexey Tregubov, Jeremy Abramson, Christophe Hauser, Alefiya Hussain, Jim Blythe

Journal

Multi-agent-based Simulation XXIV: 24th International Workshop, MABS 2023, London, UK, May 29–June 2, 2023, Revised Selected Papers

Volume

14558

Pages

146

Publisher

Springer Nature