An Effective Git And Org-Mode Based Workflow For Reproducible Research

Abstract

In this paper we address the question of developing a lightweight and effective workflow for conducting experimental research on modern parallel computer systems in a reproducible way. Our approach builds on two well-known tools (Git and Org-mode) and enables to address, at least partially, issues such as running experiments, provenance tracking, experimental setup reconstruction or replicable analysis. We have been using such a methodology for two years now and it enabled us to recently publish a fully reproducible article [12]. To fully demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposal, we have opened our two year laboratory notebook with all the attached experimental data. This notebook and the underlying Git revision control system enable to illustrate and to better understand the workflow we used.