Re: [Ksummit-2008-discuss] Potential Systemtap topics for the Kernel Summit

[Stephen Hemminger <shemminger@vyatta.com>]

On Wed, 2 Jul 2008 17:39:38 -0400
Theodore Tso <tytso@mit.edu> wrote:

> On Wed, Jul 02, 2008 at 03:25:19PM -0400, Frank Ch. Eigler wrote:
> > So, one way a kernel developer could help write a tapset piece for us
> > is to encapsulate this into a tapset script fragment:
> > 
> > probe vfs.read = kernel.function ("vfs_read")
> >   {
> >     dev_nr = $...expression
> >     inode_nr = $...expression
> >   }
> > 
> > ****  or  ****
> > 
> > Kernel maintainers could add a marker or two right into their C code:
> > 
> > {
> >     /* ... */
> >     trace_mark (vfs_read, "dev %u inode %u whatever %s",
> >                           expression1, expression2, whatever);
> >     /* ... */
> > }

On a related topic. Why not figure out a way to embed the tapsets
into the kernel source (a.l.a Docbook)? If the tapsets are maintained in
a far-far away repository or even in a separate directory, then kernel
developers are sure to break tapsets all the time. But if the tapset
is "in your face" when dealing with code, then there is a chance of
keeping both up to date.