The Linux 4.9 Kernel Is Around 22.3 Million Lines

Earlier today while waiting for the Linux 4.9 release, I ran some fresh gitstats on the latest Linux kernel Git tree to see the latest numbers on the kernel for those interested in some analytics.

With the Linux 4.9 code in the Git repository there are 56,233 files made up of 22,345,566 lines. Keep in mind that it's pure lines and including non-core kernel code like the various in-tree tools, the many Kconfig files, documentation, etc. Nevertheless, it's a huge amount!

The 22.3 million lines came over the span of 635,539 commits from around 16,000 authors.

So far this year there have been 60,558 commits, compared to 75,603 last year. But with the Linux 4.10 merge window now open, we might end the year close to last year's highs. This year we are already ahead of 2015 when it comes to lines added as well as lines removed.

Among the most prolific authors this year have been Linus Torvalds, Arnd Bergmann, David S. Miller, Mauro Carvalho Chehab, Chris Wilson, and Al Viro. Commits in 2016 have come from 3,522 individuals so far this year, down a few hundred from the previous high last year of 4,004 or in 2014 there was 3,766.

When looking at commits by domain, while ignoring gmail.com in first, Intel leads the race followed quickly by Red Hat and then further down the road is the Linux Foundation, Kernel.org, Linaro, SUSE, TI, linux.intel.com, and Samsung.

Those wanting to dig through these numbers with Linux 4.9 now wrapped up and nearing the end of the 2016 calendar year, all of the Git statistics as of today can be found here.