Bug 6565 - Feasibility of using the network-compiler server with the SystemtapGUI.

[Dave Brolley]

Hi Anithra,

It's clear that a small extension to the systemtap server would allow it 
run run the generated module rather than returning it. The questions and 
issues would would revolve around security. Perhaps this would be a good 
topic for this Thursday's conference call.

Dave

anithra wrote:
> Hi Dave,
>
> (Background: we're prototyping a compile server split of stap, to
> allow a central network server to perform arbitrary script translation
> and compilation for a machine without local debuginfo nor compiler.
> It'll be useful later for unprivileged user-space probing too.  Some
> prototype code is in bug #6565.)
>
> This is Anithra from IBM, I'm currently looking to renew the Systemtap 
> GUI project. (In case you are not familiar with the Systemtap GUI: It 
> is an IDE and visualization tool for Systemtap. - 
> http://sourceforge.net/projects/stapgui/  )
>
> One of the new features that we wished to provide is 'remote 
> execution', wherein a user could monitor a remote system located 
> physically anywhere using the Systemtap GUI client. A typical scenario 
> would be - The script is designed using the development environment 
> provided by the Systemtap GUI, it is then pushed to a server which 
> executes the script and returns the results to the client, allowing 
> the user to therefore visualize the output with graphs.
>
> Your patch (bug #6565) seems very interesting in this regard. We were 
> wondering if it would be possible to use the compiler server for this 
> purpose, i.e, as the server for the Systemtap GUI. Please let me know 
> your thoughts on this. The purpose of the SystemtapGUI server is 
> slightly different from the compiler server, it would be to execute 
> the script and return the results to the client, as opposed to 
> returning the compiled module.
>
> Regards,
> Anithra.