RHEA-2011:0229 - Product Enhancement Advisory

Topic

Updated systemtap packages that add various enhancements are now available for
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.

Description

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

These packages update SystemTap to upstream version 1.3. Many improvements are
included in this rebase. Some key changes during the 12 upstream releases
between versions 0.6.2 and 1.3 include:

• Several example scripts are now installed under the

/usr/share/doc/systemtap-1.3/examples/ directory.

• Various new tapset functions have been added to the

/usr/share/systemtap/tapset/ directory.

• SystemTap can newly be run in flight recorder mode by using the "stap -F" and

"staprun -A" commands.

• SystemTap now supports a remote script compile server by using the "stap
• -use-server" and "stap-server" commands.
• SystemTap can newly be run in listing mode by using the "stap -L PROBEPOINT"

command.

• The following script language extensions have been implemented: @cast,

@defined, $$params

For more information, refer to the official SystemTap documentation as linked to
in the References section of this advisory.

Note: Due to missing kernel support, features related to probing user-space
programs remain unavailable on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4. SystemTap is still
considered a technical preview on this system.

Interested users of SystemTap are advised to upgrade to these updated packages,
which add these and other enhancements.

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
https://access.redhat.com/kb/docs/DOC-11259

Affected Products

• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 4 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 4 ia64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 4 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation 4 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation 4 ia64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation 4 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop 4 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop 4 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, big endian 4 ppc

Fixes

• BZ - 490234 - systemtap panics kernel when killing concurrent staprun processes
• BZ - 652220 - Missing dependency on prelink on ia64
• BZ - 669082 - [Errata testing] stap stopped working on ppc after rebase
• BZ - 669085 - [Errata testing] Probing all syscalls fails on i386 after rebase
• BZ - 669740 - [Errata testing] buildok/fortyfive.stp fails to compile in pass 4
• BZ - 669751 - [Errata testing] buildok/syscall.stp fails to compile in pass 4 on ia64

CVEs

(none)

References

• http://sourceware.org/systemtap/documentation.html