RHBA-2014:1449 - Bug Fix Advisory

Topic

Updated systemtap packages that fix several bugs and add various enhancements
are now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.

Description

SystemTap is a tracing and probing tool to analyze and monitor activities of the
operating system, including the kernel. It provides a wide range of filtering
and analysis options.

The systemtap packages have been upgraded to upstream version 2.5-5, which
provides a number of bug fixes and enhancements over the previous version.
(BZ#1038692, BZ#1074541)

This update also fixes the following bugs:

• Previously, the kernel added some trace points in a way which failed to expose

them to systemtap's search mechanisms. This update extends systemtap's search
mechanism to include these extra trace points, thus allowing them to be probed
from a systemtap script. (BZ#1020437)

• The SystemTap runtime could attempt to open a file named "trace1" in the

current directory rather than the one that was created in the
/sys/kernel/debug/systemtap/ directory. As a consequence, SystemTap terminated
unexpectedly if such a file existed in the current directory. This update
applies a patch to fix this bug and SystemTap now works as expected in the
described scenario. (BZ#1027459)

• Previously, it was not entirely clear that names of scripts configured with

the SystemTap init script service could contain only alphanumeric characters and
the underscore character ("_"). Also, the first character in a name cannot be a
number. This update adds this information to the systemtap(8) manual page to
prevent any confusion. (BZ#1109084)

Users of systemtap are advised to upgrade to these updated packages, which fix
these bugs and add these enhancements.

Solution

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

This update is available via the Red Hat Network. Details on how to
use the Red Hat Network to apply this update are available at
https://access.redhat.com/articles/11258

Affected Products

• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 6 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 6 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - Extended Life Cycle Support 6 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - Extended Life Cycle Support 6 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation 6 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation 6 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop 6 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop 6 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for IBM z Systems 6 s390x
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, big endian 6 ppc64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Scientific Computing 6 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server from RHUI 6 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server from RHUI 6 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - Extended Life Cycle Support (for IBM z Systems) 6 s390x

Fixes

• BZ - 1095137 - semantic error: while resolving probe point: identifier '__syscall' (i686 specific)
• BZ - 1099133 - testsuite's at_var_cu regressed
• BZ - 1099472 - cast-scope.exp regressed
• BZ - 1099555 - systemtap.base/gtod.exp regressed
• BZ - 1099757 - systemtap.base/vars.exp regressed
• BZ - 1099791 - systemtap.base/vma_vdso.stp
• BZ - 1099825 - systemtap.clone/probe_by_pid.exp regressed
• BZ - 1100813 - buildok/nfsd-detailed.stp (part of systemtap.pass1-4/buildok-dyninst.exp) regressed
• BZ - 1109084 - systemtap script name with "-" not compile while using systemtap-initscript

CVEs

(none)

References

(none)