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error::sdt(7stap) [centos man page]

ERROR::SDT(7stap)														 ERROR::SDT(7stap)

NAME
error::sdt - <sys/sdt.h> marker failures DESCRIPTION
Systemtap's <sys/sdt.h> probes are modeled after the dtrace USDT API, but are implemented differently. They leave a only a NOP instruction in the userspace program's text segment, and add an ELF note to the binary with metadata. This metadata describes the marker's name and parameters. This encoding is designed to be parseable by multiple tools (not just systemtap: GDB, the GNU Debugger, also contains sup- port). These allow the tools to find parameters and their types, wherever they happen to reside, even without DWARF debuginfo. The reason finding parameters is tricky is because the STAP_PROBE / DTRACE_PROBE markers store an assembly language expression for each op- erand, as a result of use of gcc inline-assembly directives. The compiler is given a broad gcc operand constraint string ("nor") for the operands, which usually works well. Usually, it does not force the compiler to load the parameters into or out of registers, which would slow down an instrumented program. However, some instrumentation sites with some parameters do not work well with the default "nor" con- straint. unresolveable at run-time GCC may emit strings that an assembler could resolve (from the context of compiling the original program), but a run-time tool can- not. For example, the operand string might refer to a label of a local symbol that is not emitted into the ELF object file at all, which leaves no trace for the run-time. Reference to such parameters from within systemtap can result in "SDT asm not understood" errors. too complicated expression GCC might synthesize very complicated assembly addressing modes from complex C data types / pointer expressions. systemtap or gdb may not be able to parse some valid but complicated expressions. Reference to such parameters from within systemtap can result in "SDT asm not understood" errors. overly restrictive constraint GCC might not be able to even compile the original program with the default "nor" constraint due to shortage of registers or other reasons. A compile-time gcc error such as "asm operand has impossible constraints" may result. There are two general workarounds to this family of problems. change the constraints While compiling the original instrumented program, set the STAP_SDT_ARG_CONSTRAINT macro to different constraint strings. See the GCC manual about various options. For example, on many machine architectures, "r" forces operands into registers, and "g" leaves operands essentially unconstrained. revert to debuginfo As long as the instrumented program compiles, it may be fine simply to keep using <sys/sdt.h> but eschew extraction of a few indi- vidual parameters. In the worst case, disable <sys/sdt.h> macros entirely to eschew the compiled-in instrumentation. If DWARF debuginfo was generated and preserved, a systemtap script could refer to the underlying source context variables instead of the positional STAP_PROBE parameters. SEE ALSO
stap(1), stapprobes(3stap), error::dwarf(7stap), http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Constraints.html, http://sourceware.org/systemtap/wiki/UserSpaceProbeImplementation, error::reporting(7stap) ERROR::SDT(7stap)

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ERROR::PASS2(7stap)													       ERROR::PASS2(7stap)

NAME
error::pass2 - systemtap pass-2 errors DESCRIPTION
Errors that occur during pass 2 (elaboration) can have a variety of causes. Common types include: unavailable probe point classes Some types of probe points are only available on certain system versions, architectures, and configurations. For example, user- space process.* probes may require utrace or uprobes capability in the kernel for this architecture. unavailable probe points Some probe points may be individually unavailable even when their class is fine. For example, kprobe.function("foobar") may fail if function foobar does not exist in the kernel any more. Debugging or symbol data may be absent for some types of .function or .statement probes; check for availability of debuginfo. Try the stap-prep program to download possibly-required debuginfo. Use a wildcard parameter such as stap -l 'kprobe.function("*foo*")' to locate still-existing variants. Use ! or ? probe point suffixes to denote optional / preferred-alternatives, to let the working parts of a script continue. typos There might be a spelling error in the probe point name ("sycsall" vs. "syscall"). Wildcard probes may not find a match at all in the tapsets. Recheck the names using stap -l PROBEPOINT. Another common mistake is to use the . operator instead of the correct -> when dereferencing context variable subfields or pointers: $foo->bar->baz even if in C one would say foo->bar.baz. unavailable context variables Systemtap scripts often wish to refer to variables from the context of the probed programs using $variable notation. These vari- ables may not always be available, depending on versions of the compiler, debugging/optimization flags used, architecture, etc. Use stap -L PROBEPOINT to list available context variables for given probes. Use the @defined() expression to test for the resolvabil- ity of a context variable expression. Consider using the stap --skip-badvars option to silently replace misbehaving context vari- able expressions with zero. GATHERING MORE INFORMATION
Increasing the verbosity of pass-2 with an option such as --vp 02 can help pinpoint the problem. SEE ALSO
stap(1), stap-prep(1), stapprobes(3stap), probe::*(3stap), error::dwarf(7stap), error::inode-uprobes(7stap), warning::debuginfo(7stap), error::reporting(7stap) ERROR::PASS2(7stap)
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