* systemtap 5.5 release (updated notes)
@ 2026-05-03 18:12 Frank Ch. Eigler
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From: Frank Ch. Eigler @ 2026-05-03 18:12 UTC (permalink / raw)
To: systemtap
The SystemTap team announces release 5.5
New @enum() construct, optimized "." string concatenation.
Support for new kernel syscalls and memory management primitives.
Numerous low-severity stap-serverd security fixes and compatibility
updates for GCC 14+ and Linux 7.0.
= Where to get it
https://sourceware.org/systemtap/ - our project page
https://sourceware.org/systemtap/ftp/releases/
https://koji.fedoraproject.org/koji/packageinfo?packageID=615
git tag release-5.5 (commit 90b164cf106e)
There have been around 110 commits since the last release.
There have been around 31 bugs fixed / features added since the last
release.
= SystemTap frontend (stap) changes
- Support for `@enum("name")` has been added, mapping an enum name
to an integer literal.
- The string concatenation operator (`.`) has been generalized to handle
many operands efficiently.
- BPF and language-server NULL pointer dereference bugfixes.
- SystemTap now prefers to advertise `dnf debuginfo-install` when
missing debuginfo is detected.
- The `-p1`, `-p2`, `-p3` frontend passes no longer force server/mok
mode unnecessarily.
= SystemTap backend changes
- Multiple security and robustness fixes for `stap-serverd`, including
fixes for TOCTOU races in mountfs and certificate database permission
checks, CWE-476 NULL pointer dereferences, restricting SSL/TLS cipher
suites to strong algorithms only, and upgrading module signing to
SHA256.
- The prototype httpd server code has been removed.
- Compatibility updates for newer compilers including GCC 14+.
- Initial support for kernels >= 7.0 (including silencing pahole version
warnings and testsuite preprocessor tolerance).
- Fixed potential buffer overflows in `sscanf` and module name
replacements.
= SystemTap tapset changes
- Support for new kernel syscalls: `lsm_get_self_attr`,
`lsm_set_self_attr`, `sys_file_setattr`, and `sys_file_getattr`.
- Support for memory management primitives `MADV_GUARD_INSTALL` and
`MADV_GUARD_REMOVE`.
- Adapted to kernel 6.16 `DECLARE_TRACE_EVENT` refactoring.
= Developer changes =
- Numerous testsuite improvements, fixes, and data enrichment,
to enable smarter AI troubleshooting, such as with Bunsen.
- AI-assisted contribution friendly contribution policy announced.
= SystemTap sample scripts
- Added a hypothetical emergency experimental band-aid for
CVE-2026-31431.
- All ~200 examples can be found at
https://sourceware.org/systemtap/examples/
= Examples of tested kernel versions
4.18.0 (RHEL8 + CentOS Stream 8 x86_64, aarch64, ppc64le, s390x)
5.14.0 (RHEL9 + CentOS Stream 9 x86_64, aarch64, ppc64le, s390x)
6.11.0 (RHEL10 + CentOS Stream 10 x86_64, aarch64, ppc64le, s390x)
6.15.9 (Fedora, x86_64)
7.0.0 (Fedora rawhide x86_64)
Some test results are stored in bunsen, see
https://sourceware.org/systemtap/links.html
Coarse Bunsen comparison (5.5 vs 5.4 release at upstream commit
911a1354aac264651fda932061e7f20d2ecc2471): on matching platforms
(f42, f39, RHEL9/10, etc.) 5.5 shows ~1000-1600 more PASSes and
hundreds fewer FAILs (e.g. f42: 11923/1527 vs 10282/2820). Gains
from testsuite work since Oct 2025.
= Contributors for this release
Frank Ch. Eigler, lijunlong, Mark Wielaard, Martin Cermak,
Sergei Trofimovich, T K Sourab*
Special thanks to new contributors, marked with '*' above.
= Bugs fixed for this release <https://sourceware.org/PR#####>
<issues.redhat.com/browse/RHEL-####>
PR15052 PR15052 related test suite fixes
PR33428 imply kernel<vmlinux.h>, check by file name
PR33782 Fix uprobe RIP check for newer kernels and add backtrace test
case
PR33925 session.cxx: don't force server/mok mode for stap -p{1,2,3}
PR33932 Handle kernel 6.16 DECLARE_TRACE_EVENT refactor
PR33975 GCC-16 build time issues
PR33976 Support MADV_GUARD_INSTALL and MADV_GUARD_REMOVE
PR33978 fallback to kallsyms for lock_task_sighand
PR34022 Include a central bgerror definition in systemtap.exp
PR34023 correct ubsan on map initialization
PR34027 fix type inference for multiple operands
PR34046 support @enum("name")
PR34055 Fix utf_kernel_trunc.exp and utf_user_trunc.exp
PR34063 remove httpd server prototype code
PR34065 lib/systemtap.exp: get environment_sanity_test to dump
autoconf-* run internals
PR34089 list.exp fails on rawhide in case glibc-debuginfo is installed
PR34103 PR15052 related test suite fixes
PR34108 Replace 'uname -i' with 'uname -m' elsewhere
PR34109 Fix the caller.exp testcase
PR34110 Fix buildid.exp and make it compatible with modern GCC-16
PR34111 Fix listing_mode_sanity.exp testcase
PR34113 Fix global_var_kernel.exp
PR34115 testsuite: intercept dejagnu record_test to emit TIMESTAMP_MS
PR34119 correct conflict between syscalls/test.tcl bgerror and dmesg-
consumer
PR34120 Fix buildok/{nested_vars.stp,twentyseven.stp}
BZ2460461 tapset/linux/signal: support posixtimer_send_sigqueue
fallback
BZ2461617 systemtap.spec: Recommend yama-ptrace-enable for runtime
package
CVE-2026-31431 hypothetical emergency experimental band-aid for
CVE-2026-31431
RHEL-134992 prefer to advertise "dnf debuginfo-install"
RHEL-143253 Test cover RHEL-143253
RHEL-149811 tapsets.cxx: tolerate bad address/symbol pairings without
SEGV
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