pre-compiled modules

[Stone, Joshua I]

On Tuesday, June 27, 2006 11:52 AM, David Smith wrote:
>> Blatant modversions mismatches will be detected during the actual
>> insertion attempt - IMO there is no need to make a dry run first.  We
>> will need more self-protective code though for purposes of verifying
>> module addresses.  Specifically, we need to find a kernel API routine
>> that, given a module name, gives its loaded base address.
> 
> Hmm, I hadn't considered that.  Will this code go in the module itself
> or go in the runtime?

Is there a difference?  The runtime is still compiled into the module,
right?

> To help move this along a bit, I've attached a patch that modifies the
> systemtap front end to take 2 new options:
> 
>    -S         Save the compiled module in the current directory

I would prefer to see an option to specify the directory, instead of
assuming $PWD.  You could always use '-S .', but some people might want
to drop it somewhere else.  Another possibility instead of -S is to just
extend the -m option to allow a path.

>    -P PRE_COMPILED_MODULE
>               Run pre-compiled module

Looks fine.

Have you thought about concurrent access to a precompiled module?  If
you have a systemtap module foo.ko on a multi-user system, you might end
up with a situation where multiple people want to run it at the same
time.  Of course you can only insmod one at a time, if nothing else
because of the naming issue.  


Josh