GILK: A Dynamic Instrumentation Tool for the Linux Kernel

On-the-fly kernel updates for high-performance computing clusters

“…POWER5) include such an instruction and don't require a springboard. GILK [7] is a dynamic instrumentation tool for Linux 2.2 on the i386 variable instruction-length architecture. It is not capable of instrumenting basic blocks that are one byte long, due to lack of a one-byte i386 jump instruction.…”

“…It requires significant changes in the way applications and the operating system itself are built. Software updating systems based on dynamic code instrumentation [12,7] are restricted to basic block code interposition. They do not facilitate complete procedure replacement, basic block bypass, and autonomous kernel adaptability which is needed in cluster systems.…”

A Trap-based Mechanism for Runtime Kernel Modification

“…It is difficult for complex systems such as operating systems to optimize the performance and verify the functionality in runtime. To overcome these challenges, extensible operating system structure [5], various profiling tools and debuggers [6], dynamic kernel instrumentation mechanisms [1], [2], [3] have been proposed. Our goal is also to give operating system kernel flexibility and adaptability; however, extensible operating system requires wide modification of conventional kernel code and profiling tools has limited functionality.…”

“…Previous studies [1], [3] have a common problem in that their work is dependent on a specific hardware platform. In this paper, we try to eliminate such a hardware dependency and analyze previous mechanism in terms of fully configurable kernel.…”

Unobtrusiveness and efficiency in idle cycle stealing for PC grids

“…First, we are using the Linux operating system as an initial implementation platform, and many software packages for Linux already require kernel patches to work. Second, the relatively modest kernel changes required could be implemented on stock kernels using the KernInst technology [15,16], which allows fairly complex customizations of a UNIX kernel at runtime via dynamic patch.…”