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Re: [RFC] Hardware Breakpoint support for systemtap translator
- From: Prerna Saxena <prerna at linux dot vnet dot ibm dot com>
- To: systemtap at sourceware dot org
- Date: Fri, 24 Jul 2009 17:52:25 +0530
- Subject: Re: [RFC] Hardware Breakpoint support for systemtap translator
- References: <4A699A1C.6080205@linux.vnet.ibm.com>
Prerna Saxena wrote:
Hi,
The attached set patches enable systemtap translator to probe kernel
hardware breakpoints on x86.
It introduces the following language constructs :
1. probe kernel.data(ADDRESS).write {....} : To probe writes at
the given address
2. probe kernel.data(ADDRESS).rw {....} : To probe read &
write access to the given address.
3. probe kernel.data("SYMBOL").write {....}
4. probe kernel.data("SYMBOL").rw {....} : Similar to 1,2, but
using a symbol name as argument.
These are agnostic to dwarf/debuginfo and depend on the hardware
breakpoint infrastructure for resolving symbols.
Things that remain to be done :
1. Translator support for probing hardware breakpoints on other
architectures (ppc/s390 etc)
2. Implementation of userspace hardware breakpoints.
I'm still testing it...Looking for comments and feedback :-)
Forgot to mention that the underlying kernel infrastructure is in -tip.
Would advise ppl to try these patches on systems running -tip kernel
only :-)
--
Prerna Saxena
Linux Technology Centre,
IBM Systems and Technology Lab,
Bangalore, India