linux-kernel - Re: linux-next: add utrace tree

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Message-ID: <20100124132009.GB4263@redhat.com>
Date:	Sun, 24 Jan 2010 08:20:09 -0500
From:	"Frank Ch. Eigler" <fche@...hat.com>
To:	tytso@....edu, Linus Torvalds <torvalds@...ux-foundation.org>,
	Kyle Moffett <kyle@...fetthome.net>,
	Oleg Nesterov <oleg@...hat.com>,
	Andrew Morton <akpm@...ux-foundation.org>,
	Stephen Rothwell <sfr@...b.auug.org.au>,
	Peter Zijlstra <a.p.zijlstra@...llo.nl>,
	Peter Zijlstra <peterz@...radead.org>,
	Fr??d??ric Weisbecker <fweisbec@...il.com>,
	LKML <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>,
	Steven Rostedt <rostedt@...dmis.org>,
	Arnaldo Carvalho de Melo <acme@...hat.com>,
	linux-next@...r.kernel.org, "H. Peter Anvin" <hpa@...or.com>,
	utrace-devel@...hat.com, Thomas Gleixner <tglx@...utronix.de>
Subject: Re: linux-next: add utrace tree

Hi -

On Sun, Jan 24, 2010 at 05:25:13AM -0500, tytso@....edu wrote:
> [...]
> > > The killer app for this will be the ability to delete thousands of
> > > lines of code from GDB, strace, and all the various other tools that
> > > have to painfully work around the major interface gotchas of ptrace(),
> > > while at the same time making their handling of complex processes much
> > > more robust.
> > 
> > No. There is absolutely _no_ reason to believe that gdb et al would ever 
> > delete the ptrace interfaces anyway. 
> 
> More to the point, gdb *couldn't* use utrace, because utrace only
> exports a kernel API; not a syscall interface.

Yes, this might explain why Kyle wrote:

> > > [...] I believe that "utrace" is the kernel side of that
> > > API. [...]

> And if the Red Hat Toolchain folks are thinking about encouraging
> gdb to start creating out-of-tree kernel modules [...]  the Red Hat
> Toolchain group needs to be smacked upside the head...

Those keeping up will note that an ordinary in-tree, non-modular,
non-root-only, already-works-with-standard-gdb,
potentially-better-than-ptrace debugger interface has already been
prototyped & posted on lkml as an RFC.


- FChE
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