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Re: SystemTap on Ubuntu 7.04 i386
- From: Peter Bach <peterzbach at comcast dot net>
- To: Mike Mason <mmlnx at us dot ibm dot com>
- Cc: SystemTAP <systemtap at sources dot redhat dot com>
- Date: Thu, 07 Jun 2007 09:20:24 -0400
- Subject: Re: SystemTap on Ubuntu 7.04 i386
- References: <46659C45.9010309@us.ibm.com>
Mike Mason wrote:
I'm wondering if we could get the distros to install the vmlinux-only
debuginfo by default. I'm guessing this would allow 95% of systemtap
to work out-of-box.
This is a great idea, to have the debuginfo available. The situation I
find myself in is to load the distro (usually RedHat or SuSE), and use
online repositories to keep up to date. The problem is that if a new
kernel gets installed, I have to recompile with debuginfo just to get
the usefulness of SystemTap. I always take the defaults for a kernel
build, I want to use a computer for useful stuff; I would hate to
calculate how much time I've wasted compiling kernels just to get
debuginfo for SystemTap. Is there a better way?
I don't know if this is a function of having the distros compile a
version with debuginfo, or just making it available in the online
repositories, but this would seem to be a big hurdle that impedes that
uptake of SystemTap for all but die hard users.
The real value is that SystemTap is not only useful for solving problems
in during the development cycle, but illuminates how Linux works under
the covers, in the most dynamic way, when it is actually running. This
is much more useful that perusing the code. The target audience for this
is only every CS student on the planet.