Open Source Summit North America 2025

There are numerous tools to measure boot-time performance of Linux. However, there is no standard regression test of boot performance for Linux. This is due to a number of factors, including disparities in system performance, different requirements for quickly-needed functionality, and differences in bootloader, kernel and user-space configuration. In this session Tim will present a boot-time regression test that utilizes a collection of reference value data files for different platforms, kernel versions and configurations. A meta-data matching system is used to select an appropriate reference data file. Boot time data (including initcall durations, and the durations of pre-selected boot operations) is compared with reference values, in order to report regressions in boot-time duration for specific elements of the boot sequence. The upstream status of this effort, along with the test and supporting tools, as well as issues found with this approach, will be discussed.