From: Kaelin Colclasure
Subject: Call for Reviewers: OpenTNF "Trace Normal Form" file format
Date:
Message-ID: <wun1ehvhnx.fsf@soyuz.arslogica.com>
OpenTNF Project Home Page:
<http://opentnf.sourceforge.net/opentnf.html>
OpenTNF is a new Free Software project that I've been working on. It's
immediate goal is to produce a GPL'd clone of the Solaris TNF tracing
system that runs on Intel Linux systems. See tracing(3X) on a nearby
Solaris box in the likely event you've never heard of TNF.
A longer term goal is to produce what Sun never did -- an open
specification of "Trace Normal Form" (TNF -- a file format for trace
data) and a bunch of tools to support it across multiple platforms.
This first call for reviewers is for the initial draft of the TNF
(semi-formal) specification. I've tried to write a specification
that's both plain-spoken enough for casual readers to comprehend and
precise enough to keep implementors out of the tall weeds.
There is one known issue with the specification as it stands -- the
example.tnf file is slightly out of sync with the EBNF. In particular
I've now nailed down how probe argument type declarations are
represented, and the hand-written example.tnf has not been updated.
I anticipate releasing a working version of the core OpenTNF facility
for Intel Linux before the end of the year. At present, the kernel
support (!) is basically done and lightly tested, and I'm working on
the command line tools that allow you to control trace executions and
to dump the data from the kernel into a TNF file (hence the
specification, and the desire to firm it up before much code is
written around it).
-- Kaelin