stapbpf(8)

1STAPBPF(8)                  System Manager's Manual                 STAPBPF(8)
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NAME

6       stapbpf - systemtap bpf runtime
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SYNOPSIS

12       stapbpf [ OPTIONS ] MODULE
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DESCRIPTION

16       The  stapbpf  program  is  the  BPF back-end of the Systemtap tool.  It
17       expects a bpf-elf file produced by the front-end stap  tool,  when  run
18       with --runtime=bpf.
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21       Splitting  the  systemtap tool into a front-end and a back-end allows a
22       user to compile a systemtap script on a development  machine  that  has
23       the  debugging information needed to compile the script and then trans‐
24       fer the resulting shared object to a production  machine  that  doesn't
25       have any development tools or debugging information installed.
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27       Please refer to stappaths(7) for the version number, or run
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29        $ rpm -q systemtap # (for Fedora/RHEL)
30        $ apt-get -v systemtap # (for Ubuntu)
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OPTIONS

34       The  stapbpf  program supports the following options.  Any other option
35       prints a list of supported options.
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37       -v     Verbose mode.
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39       -V     Print version number and exit.
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41       -w     Suppress warnings from the script.
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43       -h     Print help message.
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45       -o FILE
46              Send output to FILE.
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ARGUMENTS

50       MODULE is the path of a bpf-elf file produced  by  the  front-end  stap
51       tool, when run with --runtime=bpf.
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EXAMPLES

55       Here  is  a  very  basic  example  of how to generate a stapbpf module.
56       First, use stap to compile a script.  The stap program will report  the
57       name of the resulting module in the current working directory.
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59         $  stap --runtime=bpf -p4 -e 'probe begin { printf("Hello World!\n");
60       exit() }'
61        stap_28784.bo
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63       Run stapbpf with the pathname to the module as an argument.
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65        $ stapbpf ./stap_28784.bo
66        Hello World!
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68       If the -p4 option is omitted, stap will invoke stapbpf automatically.
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LIMITATIONS

72       This runtime is in an early stage of development and it currently lacks
73       support  for  a number of features available in the default runtime.  A
74       subset of the following probe points is supported:
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77              begin
78              end
79              kernel.*
80              process.*
81              timer.*
82              perf.*
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85       In general, probes based on the kprobes, uprobes, tracepoint  and  perf
86       infrastructures  are supported. See stapprobes(3stap) for more informa‐
87       tion on the probe points and which  tracing  infrastructures  they  are
88       based on.
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90       for  loops,  foreach loops and while loops are usable only in begin and
91       end probes.  try statements are not supported. There is limited support
92       for  string operations. String variables and literals are limited to 64
93       characters, except for printf format strings, which are limited to  256
94       characters.  Additionally,  printf  is limited to no more than 3 format
95       specifiers and the name of the bpf-elf file produced by  the  front-end
96       stap tool should not be changed.
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SAFETY AND SECURITY

100       See  the  stap(1)  manual page for additional information on safety and
101       security.
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BUGS

109       Use the Bugzilla link of the project web  page  or  our  mailing  list.
110       http://sourceware.org/systemtap/, <systemtap@sourceware.org>.
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