The traditional method to assert who has contributed to any specific part of the kernel relies on the information retrieved using git blame. However, the major challenge of this method is that it tracks lines of code, potentially occluding previous authors of the same line. In this presentation we will describe a method to map every token in the source code of the kernel with its corresponding commit. We will also describe a method to map a commit with its mailing list review. By doing this, we are able to map each token in the source code of the kernel with everybody involved in its creation. We will show the results of our analysis and how they compare to the traditional line-based approach We will also discuss that, even with blame information at the token level, they are many challenges to accurately assert who authored a given section of the kernel.
