B.8. Changes in SystemTap

Red Hat Developer Toolset 2.0 is distributed with SystemTap 2.1, which provides a number of bug fixes and feature enhancements over the Red Hat Enterprise Linux system version and the version included in Red Hat Developer Toolset 1.1. Below is a comprehensive list of new features in this release.

B.8.1. Changes Since Red Hat Developer Toolset 1.1

The following features have been added since the release of SystemTap included in Red Hat Developer Toolset 1.1:
  • SystemTap has been updated to provide experimental support for Dyninst-based probing in the user space. Users can now execute the stap utility with the --dyninst command line option to instrument their own programs without the need to acquire root privileges.
  • SystemTap is now distributed with a number of manual pages that provide a detailed explanation of common errors:
    • The error::buildid(7stap) manual page documents build-id verification failures.
    • The error::dwarf(7stap) manual page documents common DWARF debuginfo quality problems.
    • The error::fault(7stap) manual page documents memory access faults.
    • The error::inode-uprobes(7stap) manual page documents current limitations of inode-uprobes.
    • The error::pass1(7stap) manual page documents pass 1 (parsing) errors.
    • The error::pass2(7stap) manual page documents pass 2 (elaboration) errors.
    • The error::pass3(7stap) manual page documents pass 3 (translation) errors.
    • The error::pass4(7stap) manual page documents pass 4 (compilation) errors.
    • The error::pass5(7stap) manual page documents pass 5 (execution) errors.
    • The error::process-tracking(7stap) manual page documents user-space process tracking errors.
    • The error::reporting(7stap) manual page documents how to report SystemTap bugs.
  • The scripting language used by SystemTap now supports the =~ operator. Users can use this operator to match regular expressions.
  • The preprocessor used by the stap utility now supports an experimental macro facility. Users can use the following construct to define new macros: 
    @define name(parameter...) %( body %)
    Refer to the PREPROCESSOR MACROS section of the stap(1) manual page for more information on how to use this feature.
  • The backtrace-related tapset functions have been improved and standardized.