At 12:04 -0800 11/19/07, Roman Shaposhnik wrote: > On Thu, 2007-11-15 at 21:11 -0800, Rich Morin wrote: >> A couple of providers have been proposed here, and I know that >> Apple has added providers for Python and Ruby. So, I wonder >> what kind(s) of plugin APIs may exist for DTrace. Is there, >> for example, something like a REST-based interface that some >> arbitrary script could feed? > > I'm not sure I understand what kind of "plug-ins" you are > talking about. Care to elaborate?
The fact that both Sun and Apple have added providers tells us that there are ways to do so. The question is whether these ways are open to (say) a Perl scripter or the fellow who wants to instrument Erlang programs. At this point, I suspect that the answer is no, but it doesn't hurt to speculate. So, here's a bit of Science Fiction: Sitting in a Perl script, I make calls to dtrace_event(), handing it some data structures and flags. If a probe has been set for this event (i.e., for the flags I've enclosed), the information is passed on to dtrace to trigger the probe. In the probe's associated D code, I reach into the data structures, pull out the information I want to log, store to control other logging activities, etc. The idea here is to allow arbitrary programs to voluntarily submit information to dtrace. I realize that there would be performance limitations to any such scheme, but the ability to mix in volunteered information could still be useful. -r -- http://www.cfcl.com/rdm Rich Morin http://www.cfcl.com/rdm/resume [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.cfcl.com/rdm/weblog +1 650-873-7841 Technical editing and writing, programming, and web development _______________________________________________ dtrace-discuss mailing list [email protected]
