Kernel space: no shortage of tracing options
Three weeks ago, LWN looked at the renewed interest in dynamic tracing, with an emphasis on SystemTap. Tracing is a perennial presence on end-user wishlists; it remains a handy tool for companies like Sun Microsystems, which wish to show that their offerings (Solaris, for example) are superior to Linux. It is not surprising that there is a lot of interest in tracing implementations for Linux; the main surprise is that, after all this time, Linux still does not have a top-quality answer to DTrace - though, arguably, Linux had a working tracing mechanism long before DTrace made its appearance.
Even a casual reader of the kernel mailing list will have noticed that there are a lot of tracing-related patches in circulation at the moment. There are so many, in fact, that it is hard to keep track of them all. So this article will take a quick look at the code which has been posted in an attempt to make the various options a bit clearer.
SystemTap
SystemTap remains the presumptive Linux tracing solution of choice. It is hampered by a few problems, though, including usability issues, a complete lack of static trace points in the mainline kernel, and no user-space tracing capability. On the usability side, we are seeing a few more kernel developers trying to put SystemTap to work and posting about the problems they are having. If one takes as a working hypothesis the notion that, if kernel hackers cannot make SystemTap work, many other users are likely to encounter difficulties as well, then one might conclude that addressing the reported problems would be a priority for the SystemTap developers.
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