- DTrace scripts to check for errors, performance, ...
they serve mostly as examples of what you can do with the static probe;s
with moderate load the scripts may be overwhelmed, excessive lock-tracing
may influence program behavior (see the last design decission)
Design decissions:
- use "linuxulator" as the provider for the native bitsize; add the
bitsize for the non-native emulation (e.g. "linuxuator32" on amd64)
- Add probes only for locks which are acquired in one function and released
in another function. Locks which are aquired and released in the same
function should be easy to pair in the code, inter-function
locking is more easy to verify in DTrace.
- Probes for locks should be fired after locking and before releasing to
prevent races (to provide data/function stability in DTrace, see the
man-page of "dtrace -v ..." and the corresponding DTrace docs).
A "process descriptor" file descriptor is used to manage processes
without using the PID namespace. This is required for Capsicum's
Capability Mode, where the PID namespace is unavailable.
New system calls pdfork(2) and pdkill(2) offer the functional equivalents
of fork(2) and kill(2). pdgetpid(2) allows querying the PID of the remote
process for debugging purposes. The currently-unimplemented pdwait(2) will,
in the future, allow querying rusage/exit status. In the interim, poll(2)
may be used to check (and wait for) process termination.
When a process is referenced by a process descriptor, it does not issue
SIGCHLD to the parent, making it suitable for use in libraries---a common
scenario when using library compartmentalisation from within large
applications (such as web browsers). Some observers may note a similarity
to Mach task ports; process descriptors provide a subset of this behaviour,
but in a UNIX style.
This feature is enabled by "options PROCDESC", but as with several other
Capsicum kernel features, is not enabled by default in GENERIC 9.0.
Reviewed by: jhb, kib
Approved by: re (kib), mentor (rwatson)
Sponsored by: Google Inc
