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David Smith wrote:
David Wilder wrote:
Frank Ch. Eigler wrote:
"Ken Robson" <ken@odtv.com> writes:The cached debuginfo is a really cool concept.
[...] To me it is valid to install minus the debuginfo files on
almost all Production hosts. I am experimenting with developing my
scripts off box with my cache directory set to an exported read-only
NFS share which is then mounted as the module cache directory on my
Production boxes [...]
More than that - on such production boxes, you will need to install only the "staprun" (formerly "stapd") binary, now separated into a systemtap-runtime RPM. For the moment though please be careful with building probes for mismatching machines: the module address tables are not yet fully adaptive.
- FChE
You got a bit confused here. The debuginfo isn't cached, the systemtap compiled modules are cached.
Thanks for the clarification.
Yea but gdb has other uses then debugging coreutils. SystemTap is only used to instrument the kernel.
But it wont solve the problem of simplifying the use of systemtap for the customers. From a support standpoint if a customer system is missing a debug tool (or some dependent component) the tool may as well not exist! If it comes down to fix the debug tool or find another approach to solve the customers problem the later will generally win. To make stap successful we need to get people using it and providing feedback, let's make it as easy as possible to use. All dependencies must be installed when selecting a product for install.
In general, I certainly agree with you that all dependencies must be installed.
However, systemtap (and any other program that would like to use debuginfo) is a special case. From my understanding, there is a policy (perhaps unwritten) that no rpm can require a debuginfo rpm. Plus, even if we did require the debuginfo rpm, it still wouldn't get installed automatically. For FC[56], the debuginfo yum repositories are disabled by default. For RHEL[34], the debuginfo RPMs aren't available from a RHN channel, they have to be downloaded separately (from my vague understanding which could be wrong). In addition, debuginfo RPMs are not present on RHEL/FC install media. So, from a current logistical point of view, if the systemtap RPM required the kernel debuginfo RPM, systemtap itself could never be installed because of missing dependencies that could never be met.
Currently, using systemtap isn't much different than using gdb. Let's assume that /bin/ls keeps crashing on you for some strange reason that you'd like to debug. You are going to need to download/install the coreutils debuginfo RPM, then use gdb to debug your problem.
-- David Smith dsmith@redhat.com Red Hat http://www.redhat.com 256.217.0141 (direct) 256.837.0057 (fax)
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