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IBM Binary Prober
A tool for instrumenting binary executable files with user-supplied instrumentation code.
Date Posted: November 15, 2007
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What is IBM Binary Prober?
IBM® Binary Prober is a tool that instruments binary executable files running on the AIX® and Linux® on POWER™ platforms. The tool enables instrumentation of a given executable file with user-supplied code. In addition, it has built-in code coverage and profiling capabilities. Function-level code coverage information can be imported to FoCuS, and profile information can be loaded into Code Analyzer (both here at alphaWorks).
IBM Binary Prober is built on top of Post-Link Optimization for Linux on POWER (FDPR-Pro) (another alphaWorks technology). IBM Binary Prober uses FDPR-Pro's code analysis capabilities to generate an internal representation of the binary executable file.
IBM Binary Prober supports large programs that can exceed 32 MB of code. It handles both 32-bit and 64-bit program files and shared libraries, compiled with aggressive optimization options, including profile-based and linker optimizations. The instrumentation is done without the necessity of recompiling the instrumented application.
IBM Binary Prober is mainly useful for enabling the following:
- program monitoring
- program verification and coverage
- profiling
- program patching.
How does it work? The tool accepts an executable binary; analyzes it in order to create an internal, high-level representation of the binary; and then inserts the calls to built-in or user-supplied functions at specific locations in the code.
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| | About the technology author(s):
Moshe Klausner is a research scientist at the IBM Research Lab in Haifa. He holds an M.Sc. in information management engineering from the Technion, Israel Institute of Technology, and a B.Sc. in mathematics and computer science from the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel. Since joining IBM in 1998, Mr. Klausner has been working in the area of post-link analysis, instrumentation, and optimization. He published several papers in the field and holds several patents.
Yakov Filiarsky holds an B.Tech. in electrical and electronic engineering from Ort Braude College, Israel. He participates in the development of post-link instrumentation capabilities.
Vadim Eisenberg is a former participant in the development of IBM Binary Prober. He holds a B.Sc. in computer science from the Technion, Israel Institute of Technology.
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IBM, AIX, and POWER are trademarks of IBM Corporation in the United States, other countries, or both.
Other company, product, or service names may be trademarks or service marks of others.
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