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+[[meta copyright="Copyright © 2008, 2009 Free Software Foundation, Inc."]]
+
+[[meta license="""[[toggle id="license" text="GFDL 1.2+"]][[toggleable
+id="license" text="Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this
+document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or
+any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant
+Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts.  A copy of the license
+is included in the section entitled
+[[GNU_Free_Documentation_License|/fdl]]."]]"""]]
+
+[[meta title="dtrace Support"]]
+
+One of the main problems of the current Hurd implementation is very poor
+performance. While we have a bunch of ideas what could cause the performance
+problems, these are mostly just guesses. Better understanding what really
+causes bad performance is necessary to improve the situation.
+
+For that, we need tools for performance measurements. While all kinds of more
+or less specific profiling tools could be convieved, the most promising and
+generic approach seems to be a framework for logging certain events in the
+running system (both in the microkernel and in the Hurd servers). This would
+allow checking how much time is spent in certain modules, how often certain
+situations occur, how things interact, etc. It could also prove helpful in
+debugging some issues that are otherwise hard to find because of complex
+interactions.
+
+The most popular framework for that is Sun's dtrace; but there might be others.
+The student has to evaluate the existing options, deciding which makes most
+sense for the Hurd; and implement that one. (Apple's implementation of dtrace
+in their Mach-based kernel might be helpful here...)
+
+This project requires ability to evaluate possible solutions, and experience
+with integrating existing components as well as low-level programming.
+
+Possible mentors: Samuel Thibault (youpi)
+
+Exercise: In lack of a good exercise directly related to this taks, just pick
+one of the kernel-related or generally low-level tasks from the bug/task
+trackers on savannah, and make a go at it. You might not be able to finish the
+task in a limited amount of time, but you should at least be able to make a
+detailed analysis of the issue.
+
+*Status*: Andei Barbu was working on
+[SystemTap](http://csclub.uwaterloo.ca/~abarbu/hurd/) for GSoC 2008, but it
+turned out too Linux-specific. He implemented kernel probes, but there is no
+nice frontend yet.