A patch for a specific Linux kernel is provided in bt/kernel (where bt is the name of the directory from the above git sequence). The detailed actual patching instructions for a Linux kernel is outside the scope of this document, but the following may be used as a sample template. Note that you may skip this step, if you kernel is at least 2.6.17-rc1.
As an example, bt/kernel contains blk-trace-2.6.14-rc1-git-G2, download linux-2.6.13.tar.bz2 and patch-2.6.14-rc1.bz2
% tar xjf linux-2.6.13.tar.bz2 % mv linux-2.6.13 linux-2.6.14-rc1 % cd linux-2.6.14-rc1 % bunzip2 -c ../patch-2.6.14-rc1.bz2 | patch -p1
At this point you may (optionally) remove linux-2.6.13.tar.bz2 and patch-2.6.14-rc1.bz2.
At this point you should configure the Linux kernel for your specific system - again, outside the scope of this document - and then enable Support for tracing block io actions. To do this, run
% make menuconfig or make xconfig, or edit .config, or ...
and navigate through Device Drivers and Block devices and then down to Support for tracing block io actions and hit Y.
Install the new kernel (and modules...) and reboot.