# Overview

Welcome to the SystemTap plug-in Help pages. This section is intended to provide users with information and links about the SystemTap scripting language itself, in addition to a brief introduction to SystemTap plug-in's structure for new users and a brief explanation of SystemTap.

## The SystemTap Plugin

The SystemTap Plugin is designed to help you create, edit, and run SystemTap scripts. It also provides the ability to graph the output of your scripts and run SystemTap scripts remotely.

It provides the SystemTap IDE perspective. When in this perspective you should be able to see the Probe view, the Function view, and the Project Explorer. You should also be able to create SystemTap scripts.

## SystemTap

SystemTap provides free software (GPL) infrastructure to simplify the gathering of information about the running Linux kernel. This assists diagnosis of a performance or functional problem. SystemTap eliminates the need for the developer to go through the tedious and disruptive instrument, recompile, install, and reboot sequence that may be otherwise required to collect data.

SystemTap provides a simple command line interface and scripting language for writing instrumentation for a live running kernel. The internal tapset library as well as the published samples can be used to aid reuse and abstraction.

Current project members include Red Hat, IBM, Intel, and Hitachi.

## Installing

### Requirements

Hardware Requirements:

- x86, x86_64, ppc64, s390

Software Requirements:

- Linux kernel v2.6.14 or newer
  - Linux kernel devel and debuginfo packages
- Eclipse v3.8/v4.2 or newer
- SystemTap v0.7 or newer

Once all dependencies are installed, the easiest way to install the SystemTap plug-in for Eclipse is through the Software Updates and Add-ons menu. For information on how to use this menu, refer to this link.

### Kernel Source Location

In order to use the kernel source browser, you will need to point it to the kernel source initially. SystemTap IDE will be set with a default kernel source path by default, but it may be necessary to set it manually. Do this by either selecting the Kernel Source Browser in the browser pane or by going to Window->Preferences, then going to the SystemTap->IDE->'Kernel Source Path' tab. It is possible to explore the kernel source in your local machine or in the same machine used to run SystemTap scripts. Enter your option and inform the kernel source location. If you selected the remote option, it is necessary to set up the remote machine information at SystemTap->'Remote Server' tab.

### Tutorials

If you haven't already, you will want to take the IDE and Graphing tutorials. You can find them in the Getting Started section of each perspective's help pages. These tutorial provides fundamental knowledge on graphing in SystemTap plug-in.

### Preferences (Optional)

Finally, you may want to set certain non-essential preferences before using SystemTap plug-in regularly. Use Window->Preferences to access the Preferences page.

## Links to SystemTap Resources

The following links contain information specific to the SystemTap scripting language.

- SystemTap website - http://sourceware.org/systemtap/
- SystemTap wiki - http://sourceware.org/systemtap/wiki
- SystemTap tutorial - http://sourceware.org/systemtap/tutorial/
- Full list of documentation - http://sourceware.org/systemtap/documentation.html