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Re: Overhead of kernel debuginfo packages


On 06/01/2010 09:46 PM, Josh Stone wrote:
> On 06/01/2010 06:40 PM, Ivan Novick wrote:
>> Hello,
>>
>> I was wondering if there is any system overhead to having the the kernel
>> debuginfo packages installed if systemtap is not running.  Should the system
>> performance be the same as without the packages assuming you do not use
>> systemtap?
> 
> The only overhead of debuginfo packages is the disk space they consume.
>  Nothing is loaded into running processes; it is just extra data for use
> by debugging tools.
> 
> Josh

The debuginfo doesn't change the executable code at all. The debuginfo provides information to map between the executable and the source code. This allows systemtap to determine where to put the instrumentation probes and where to find variable on the stack. The debuginfo also provides the typing information of variables so systemtap can handle fields of structures appropriately.

-Will


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