On Wed, Sep 07, 2016 at 12:10:49PM -0400, Rik van Riel wrote:

> From an enterprise distro (and user) point of view,
> it is important to be able to debug a kernel that
> is running on a production system (and developed
> some problem after a month of running), without
> having to reboot into a special "debug kernel".
> 
> Being able to just fire up a tracer debugging
> script that can identify intermittent problems
> is an invaluable tool in making the kernel better
> for our users.
> 
> Hamstringing our ability to make the kernel better,
> in order to keep the debugging ABI stable, is
> shooting ourselves (and our users) in the foot.

This also applies very much to embedded systems development.  The
flight recorder aspect and the ability to turn on trace without
requiring a custom build be distributed and flashed are massively
helpful, I've seen people get really excited when they see tracepoints
for the first time.