OSPORT- A Practical Tool for Porting or Adjusting Operating System Source-Code

Abstract. Many projects frequently uses the “trial and error ” approach for Operating System (OS) porting or maintenance, resulting in incomplete or inconsistent modifications. This can be partially explained due the absence of useful tools helping the source-code analysis, in order to determine what source-code must be modified for adjusting it to another hardware platform. In this paper, we present an application called OSPORT, based on a seminal method for detecting OS parts that should be adjusted in order to port or adjust the OS for a new hardware platform. The OSPORT provides: a complete list of source-codes that must be adjusted; the interdependence between these source-codes; the priority order of modifications for each source-code; and an effort-based schedule, in order to plan the modifications. 1