From owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Sep 20 21:48:48 2007 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-current@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 5A38316A4A1 for ; Thu, 20 Sep 2007 21:48:48 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from jb@what-creek.com) Received: from what-creek.com (what-creek.com [66.111.37.70]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 2935713C46E for ; Thu, 20 Sep 2007 21:48:48 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from jb@what-creek.com) Received: by what-creek.com (Postfix, from userid 102) id 6AC3073098; Thu, 20 Sep 2007 20:34:13 +0000 (GMT) Date: Thu, 20 Sep 2007 20:34:13 +0000 From: John Birrell To: Olivier Warin Message-ID: <20070920203413.GA13737@what-creek.com> References: <6385B28C-01D1-459A-9543-E36C89C7F36E@xview.net> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <6385B28C-01D1-459A-9543-E36C89C7F36E@xview.net> User-Agent: Mutt/1.4.2.3i Cc: freebsd-current@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Dtrace port status X-BeenThere: freebsd-current@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Discussions about the use of FreeBSD-current List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 20 Sep 2007 21:48:48 -0000 On Wed, Sep 19, 2007 at 11:34:19PM +0200, Olivier Warin wrote: > I recently wanted to give dtrace on FreeBSD a try but found this > project to be stopped due to a licensing issue. > Will we see dtrace in the base just like zfs anytime (hopefully) soon ? I'm am currently trying to find a way around the licensing issues. Sun is no help at all. The patent clauses in their CDDL are a big deal. They claim that they don't want to sue anyone over patents, but when push comes to shove they actually will. Refer to the Netapp lawsuits. ZFS is completely contained within optional kernel modules which do not affect the BSD license status of the kernel. DTrace consists mainly of kernel modules, however in order for DTrace to inspect the kernel internals it has to have some code inside existing BSD licensed files. An example of the problem is the extra fields that are required in struct thread. DTrace has a bunch of it's own stuff in there. I can't just add to proc.h because the only documentation that I have that indicates that those fields are even needed is in the CDDL source that is smattered throughout OpenSolaris. So I have to extend struct thread in an opaque way like the scheduler appends it's structure. Long story short.... yes DTrace will be back at some time, but there isn't a set time line. -- John Birrell