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.

Moshe Klausner is a research scientist in the IBM Research Lab in Haifa. Mr. klausner 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 in IBM in 1998, Mr. Klausner has worked in the area of post-link analysis, instrumentation, and optimization. Mr. klausner published several papers in the area and holds several patents as well.

Yakov Filiarsky holds an B.Tech. degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from Ort Braude College, Israel. Mr. Filiarsky participats in the development of post-link instrumentation capabilities.

Vadim Eisenberg is a former participant in the development. Mr. Eisenberg holds a B.Sc. in Computer Science from the Technion, Israel Institute of Technology.