Special Linux Considerations

This booklet discusses special considerations when running TotalView® on Linux platforms.

Other booklets containing information you may need to know before running TotalView are:

• TotalView Release Notes: Lists major changes in TotalView and problems that have been fixed or still exist.
• TotalView Platforms: Lists the platforms and environments in which TotalView runs.
• Special IBM Considerations: Describes special considerations when running TotalView on IBM platforms.
• Patching: Outlines the procedures for installing patches to software provided by other vendors that must be done before you can TotalView.

Considerations

Since Linux is an open source operating system, you can install the sources for the C runtime library. (Use the Red Hat package manager--rpm--to install them.) This lets you debug crashes within C library functions.

On Red Hat, the default compilation path used to build the C library appears to be /usr/src/bs/BUILD/... . The default location for installing sources is /usr/src/redhat/BUILD. If you want TotalView to locate these sources, you need to set up a symbolic link. For example:

cd /usr/src
mkdir bs
chmod 0755 bs
cd bs
ln -s /usr/src/redhat/BUILD .

You can determine which version of glibc you are using by telling rpm to display a list of installed packages, and then use grep on the information it displays. For example:

% rpm -q -a | grep glibc
glibc-debug-2.0.7-29
glibc-devel-2.0.7-29
glibc-profile-2.0.8-29
glibc-2.0.7-29

Because glibc-2.07-29 is being used, the source rpm will be glibc-2.0.7.29.src.rpm. The commands that you would now use to install this package are:

rpm -iv glibc-2.07-29.src.rmp
cd /usr/src/redhat/SPECS
rpm -bp glibc-2.07-29.spec

These commands install the sources for glibc and apply patches packaged with it.