README

   1 systemtap: a linux trace/probe tool
   2
   3 Visit the project web site at <http://sources.redhat.com/systemtap>,
   4 for documentation and mailing lists for developers and users.
   5
   6 This is free software.
   7 See the COPYING file for redistribution/modification terms.
   8 See the INSTALL file for generic build instructions.
   9
  10 Prerequisites:
  11
  12 - linux kernel with kprobes (mainline 2.6.11+ or backport)
  13 - kernel module build environment (kernel-devel rpm)
  14 - kernel debugging information (kernel-debuginfo rpm)
  15 - C compiler (same as what kernel was compiled with)
  16 - elfutils with libdwfl for debugging information parsing
  17 - root privileges
  18
  19 Installation steps:
  20
  21 - Install the kernel development and gcc packages.
  22 - Install any debuginfo packages you need, for kernel and/or userspace.
  23   (Beware of confusion between kernel vs. kernel-debug vs kernel-PAE etc.
  24   variants.  Each likely has a corresponding development and debuginfo
  25   package.)
  26 - Install the systemtap package, if one already exists.
  27
  28 Build steps:
  29
  30 - Install the kernel-debuginfo, kernel-devel, gcc and dependent
  31   packages (or see below if you are building your own kernels from source).
  32
  33 - If available, install your distribution's copy of elfutils and its
  34   development headers/libraries.
  35   Or if desired, download an elfutils source release to build in
  36   "bundled mode" (below), and untar it into some new directory.
  37   Or if desired, build elfutils separately one time, and install
  38   it to /usr/local.
  39   See http://fedorahosted.org/elfutils/
  40
  41 - On modern Fedora, install general optional build-requisites:
  42   # yum-builddep systemtap
  43   On modern Debian/Ubuntu, similarly:
  44   # apt-get build-dep systemtap
  45
  46 - Download systemtap sources:
  47   http://sources.redhat.com/systemtap/ftp/releases/
  48   http://sources.redhat.com/systemtap/ftp/snapshots/
  49   (or)
  50   git clone git://sources.redhat.com/git/systemtap.git
  51       (or) http://sources.redhat.com/git/systemtap.git
  52
  53 - Build systemtap normally:
  54   % .../configure [other autoconf options]
  55   Or, with build it with a bundled internal copy of elfutils:
  56   % .../configure --with-elfutils=ELFUTILS-SOURCE-DIR [other autoconf options]
  57
  58   Consider configuring with "--enable-dejazilla" to automatically
  59   contribute to our public test result database.
  60
  61   Consider configuring with "--prefix=DIRECTORY" to specify an
  62   installation directory other than /usr/local.  It can be an ordinary
  63   personal directory.
  64
  65   % make all
  66   % sudo make install
  67
  68   To uninstall systemtap:
  69   % sudo make uninstall
  70
  71 - Run systemtap:
  72
  73   To run systemtap after installation, add $prefix/bin to your $PATH, or
  74   refer to $prefix/bin/stap directly.  If you keep your build tree
  75   around, you can also use the "stap" binary there.
  76
  77   Some samples should be available under $prefix/share/doc/systemtap/examples.
  78
  79   Normally, run "stap" as root.  If desired, create "stapdev" and
  80   "stapusr" entries in /etc/groups.  Any users in "stapdev" will be
  81   able to run systemtap as if with root privileges.  Users in "stapusr"
  82   can only launch (with "staprun") pre-compiled probe modules (created
  83   by "stap -p4 ...") that a system administrator copied under
  84   /lib/modules/`uname -r`/systemtap.
  85
  86   To run the full test suite from the build tree.
  87   % sudo make installcheck
  88
  89
  90 Tips:
  91
  92 - By default, systemtap looks for the debug info in these locations:
  93   /boot/vmlinux-`uname -r`
  94   /usr/lib/debug/lib/modules/`uname -r`/vmlinux
  95   /lib/modules/`uname -r`/vmlinux
  96   /lib/modules/`uname -r`/build/vmlinux
  97
  98
  99 Building a kernel.org kernel:
 100
 101 - Build the kernel using your normal procedures.  Enable
 102   CONFIG_DEBUG_INFO, CONFIG_KPROBES, CONFIG_RELAY, CONFIG_DEBUG_FS,
 103   CONFIG_MODULES, CONFIG_MODULES_UNLOAD
 104 - % make modules_install install headers_install
 105 - Boot into the kernel.
 106
 107 - If you wish to leave the kernel build tree in place, simply run
 108   % stap -r /path/to/kernel/build/tree [...]
 109   You're done.
 110
 111 - Or else, if you wish to install the kernel build/debuginfo data into
 112   a place where systemtap will find it without the "-r" option:
 113   % ln -s /path/to/kernel/build/tree /lib/modules/RELEASE/build
 114
 115 - Instead of using the "-r" option, you can also use the environment
 116   variable SYSTEMTAP_RELEASE to direct systemtap to the kernel data.
 117