Re: HW breakpoints perf_events request

Frank Ch. Eigler
2010-01-19T17:44:41Z

Hi -

On Tue, Jan 19, 2010 at 05:21:02PM +0100, Frederic Weisbecker wrote:
> [...]
> But I rather hope we can extend ptrace interface to handle such new
> needs instead (ie: having a more scalable breakpoint interface
> support by ptrace).

According to its maintainer, ptrace per se appears to be not well
suited for extensions that affect control flow, but maybe.
(http://www.mail-archive.com/utrace-devel@redhat.com/msg02276.html)

> > Another is using the gdbstub, extended with gdb watchpoint support (Z*
> > packets), which would tie into the hw-breakpoint system directly.
> > [...]

> Is this gdbstub an interface to utrace?
> This: http://lwn.net/Articles/364268/ ?

Yes, but I wouldn't think of it that way ("an interface to utrace").
Yes, it uses utrace, but that's an implementation detail. To
userspace it presents gdb's existing wire protocol for debugging
processes.

> > > Do you plan a resubmission soon?
> >
> > Utrace core has been resubmitted at the end of December
> > (http://lkml.org/lkml/2009/12/17/466), with no further comments
> > received.
>
> Hmm, there has been deep review from Peter, IIRC.

I haven't seen any after that particular resubmission. Rather, there
has been lots of discussion lately about *uprobes*, which is a
separate & optional process breakpoint management layer that happens
to use utrace and happens to be used by systemtap and the gdbstub.

- FChE