CLIK: Cloud‐based Linux kernel practice environment and judgment system

Abstract

AbstractAssignments on kernel programming are essential parts of operating system (OS) courses taught to computer science students to provide them a deep understanding of real‐world OSs. However, these assignments require tremendous effort from both students and instructors. Students are routinely flustered by the daunting task of building a practice environment from scratch; instructors are pressurized for time while validating a student's work that requires several kernel installations and reboots. To minimize this effort, we propose CLIK, a cloud‐based Linux kernel practice environment supporting automatic judgment. It provides students with an individual and easy‐to‐use kernel practice environment and instructors with a fast and easy evaluation of students' work with live feedback. Our experiences with two assignments from a real‐world OS course carried out on CLIK show that CLIK can successfully provide Linux kernel environments for 40 students and help instructors greatly by validating their kernels within one minute using parallel and automated judgments. We also describe detailed lessons learned from developing CLIK that will help both researchers and instructors building similar systems.