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DateTue, 19 Sep 2006 12:24:18 -0700
FromMartin Bligh <>
SubjectRe: [PATCH] Linux Kernel Markers
Mathieu Desnoyers wrote:
> * Vara Prasad (prasadav@us.ibm.com) wrote:
> 
>>Martin Bligh wrote:
>>
>>
>>>[...]
>>>Depends what we're trying to fix. I was trying to fix two things:
>>>
>>>1. Flexibility - kprobes seem unable to access all local variables etc
>>>easily, and go anywhere inside the function. Plus keeping low overhead
>>>for doing things like keeping counters in a function (see previous
>>>example I mentioned for counting pages in shrink_list).
>>>
>>
>>Using tools like systemtap on can consult DWARF information and put 
>>probes in the middle of the function and access local variables as well, 
>>that is not the real problem. The issue here is compiler doesn't seem to 
>>generate required DWARF information in some cases due to optimizations.  
>>The other related problem is when there exists debug information, the 
>>way to specify the breakpoint location is using line number which is not 
>>maintainable, having a marker solves this problem as well. Your proposal 
>>still doesn't solve the need for markers if i understood correctly.
>
> His implementation makes a heavy use of a marker mechanism : this is exactly
> what permits to create the instrumented objects from the same source code, but
> with different #defines.

I don't think it ties us to markers, though I think they're superior for
maintaintance, personally. It could equally well be an out of tree
normal flat patch with all the tracing in, which would make Andrew
happy, even if I think it sucks ;-)

M.
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