Instruction punning: Lightweight instrumentation for x86-64

• Existing techniques for injecting probes into running code are limited: they either fail to support probing arbitrary locations, or to support scalable, rapid toggling of probes. We introduce a new technique on x86-64, called instruction punning, which allows scalable probes at any instruction. The key idea is that when we inject a jump instruction, the relative address of the jump serves simultaneously as data and as an instruction sequence. We show that this approach achieves probe invocation overheads of only a few dozen cycles, as well as low probe activation/deactivation costs, even when all threads in the system are both invoking probes and toggling them. Unlike competing systems, the latent overhead when probes are deactivated is exactly zero.

Ämnesord

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Data- och informationsvetenskap -- Programvaruteknik (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Computer and Information Sciences -- Software Engineering (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Application profiling

Dynamic instrumentation

Publikations- och innehållstyp

kon (ämneskategori)

ref (ämneskategori)