GILK: A dynamic instrumentation tool for the Linux Kernel

Abstract. This paper describes a dynamic instrumentation tool for the Linux Kernel which allows a stock Linux kernel to be modied while in ex-ecution, with instruments implemented as kernel modules. The Intel x86 architecture poses a particular problem, due to variable length instruc-tions, which this paper addresses for the rst time. Finally we present a short case study illustrating its use in understanding i/o behaviour in the kernel. The source code is freely available for download.