Overview

The LISA project provides a toolkit that supports regression testing and interactive analysis of Linux kernel behavior. LISA stands for Linux Integrated/Interactive System Analysis. LISA’s goal is to help Linux kernel developers measure the impact of modifications in core parts of the kernel. The focus is on the scheduler (e.g. EAS), power management and thermal frameworks. However LISA is generic and can be used for other purposes.

LISA has a “host”/”target” model. LISA itself runs on a host machine, and uses the devlib toolkit to interact with the target via SSH, ADB or telnet. LISA is flexible with regard to the target OS; its only expectation is a Linux kernel-based system. Android, GNU/Linux and busybox style systems have all been used.

LISA provides features to describe workloads (notably using rt-app) and run them on targets. It can collect trace files from the target OS (e.g. systrace and ftrace traces) and parse them. These traces can then be parsed and analysed in order to examine detailed target behaviour during the workload’s execution.