Re: [PATCH 0/11] LTTng-core (basic tracing infrastructure) 0.5.108

Jose R. Santos
2006-09-15T19:20:24Z

Karim Yaghmour wrote:
> > Although IMO this is a bit lame - it is quite possible to go into
> > SexySystemTapGUI, click on a particular kernel file-n-line and have
> > systemtap userspace keep track of that place in the kernel source across
> > many kernel versions: all it needs to do is to remember the file+line and a
> > snippet of the surrounding text, for readjustment purposes.
>
> Sure, if you're a kernel developer, but as I've explained numberous
> times in this thread, there are far more many users of tracing than
> kernel developers.
>

This is so true (and the main reason we implemented a trace utility in
SystemTap).

Several of the people that work with in my team are _not_ kernel
developers. They do not necessarily know the Linux kernel code enough
to insert their own instrumentation. On the other had, they do posses
other very good knowledges about things specific to a particular
software stack or a HW subsystem. Structured predefined probe points
(dynamic or static) allow people with limited kernel hacking skills to
feedback useful information back to developers of the kernel.

I agree with Karim that a trace tool (while useful to developers) is
mostly targeted at a non kernel developer audience. They are mostly
meant to enhance the communication between developers and regular
users. Any solution that is intended to be dynamic replacement for
LTTng needs to take these kinds of users into account.

-JRS