[dtrace-discuss] AIX: dtrace?

[Bryan Cantrill]

> > BC> I think it's safe to say that IBM is ignoring my suggestion:
> > 
> > BC>   http://blogs.sun.com/bmc/entry/dtrace_on_aix
> > 
> > BC> As for "probevue", we know very little about it (googling for "probevue"
> > BC> current yields three hits:  one is the link you quoted, one is some
> > BC> blog entry saying that this "sure as hell sounds like DTrace" and the
> > BC> last is in Russian).  From the little that we do know, it seems unlikely
> > BC> to be a holistic DTrace-like solution, but we'll see...
> > 
> > Perhaps it would be interesting if someone would install and check AIX 6 Open
> > Beta - I don't have a free POWER server nearby.
> 
> Yes, that would be great.  I don't think the Open Beta is available yet,
> but if anyone is both a DTrace user and an AIX customer, it would be great
> to see a comparison of probevue and DTrace once the former is in Beta...

IBM's ProbeVue documentation is now public:

  http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/pseries/v6r1/index.jsp?topic=/com.ibm.aix.genprogc/doc/genprogc/dynamic_tracing.htm&tocNode=int_9140

While it's flattering to see that they are, um, "inspired" by DTrace, I
stick to my original recommendation that they simply port DTrace to AIX --
it would be a lot less heartache, and instead of some crazy alien knockoff
("@@BEGIN"?  "__k:"?!) they would have something that has a large, growing
and (increasingly) cross-platform community.  But I'm sure that ProbeVue
and its accompanying VUE language(*) will be an improvement for AIX users
regardless, so I guess they should just be relieved that IBM didn't port
TNF to AIX...

	- Bryan

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bryan Cantrill, Solaris Kernel Development.       http://blogs.sun.com/bmc

(*)  It's unclear if "VUE" is an acronym for something or if someone's
caps-lock key was stuck and their spell checker was busted...