RHBA-2008:0923 - Bug Fix Advisory

Topic

Updated systemtap packages that resolve an issue are now available.

Description

SystemTap is an instrumentation system for systems running the Linux 2.6
kernel. Developers can write scripts to collect data on the operation of
the system.

These updated systemtap packages fix a bug which occurred because a
limitation of the systemtap script translator caused some valid scripts to
be rejected. In particular, the following function failed to pass the
semantic analysis stage because the compiler still fails to produce
descriptive DWARF debugging data for some variables:

probe signal.handle { log ("hello") }

In general, systemtap works around this problem by making sure that if such
variables are not actually accessed by the script (such as "$info", etc.),
then their absence in the DWARF debugging output is ignored. This update
improves this elision logic to cover cases triggered by the above script.

All users of systemtap are advised to upgrade to these updated packages,
which resolve this issue.

Solution

Before applying this update, make sure that all previously-released
errata relevant to your system have been applied.

This update is available via Red Hat Network. Details on how to use
the Red Hat Network to apply this update are available at
http://kbase.redhat.com/faq/FAQ_58_10188

Affected Products

• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 5 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 5 ia64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 5 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for x86_64 - Extended Update Support 5.2 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for x86_64 - Extended Update Support 5.2 ia64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for x86_64 - Extended Update Support 5.2 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation 5 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation 5 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop 5 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop 5 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for IBM z Systems 5 s390x
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for IBM z Systems - Extended Update Support 5.2 s390x
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, big endian 5 ppc
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, big endian - Extended Update Support 5.2 ppc
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server from RHUI 5 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server from RHUI 5 i386

Fixes

• BZ - 463136 - [5.2] stap command of systemtap fails with semantic errors when 'handle_signal' is probed.

CVEs

(none)

References

(none)