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

# [NAME](#NAME)

stapbpf - systemtap bpf runtime

# [SYNOPSIS](#SYNOPSIS)

**stapbpf** \[ *OPTIONS* ] *MODULE*

# [DESCRIPTION](#DESCRIPTION)

The *stapbpf* program is the BPF back-end of the Systemtap tool. It expects a bpf-elf file produced by the front-end *stap* tool, when run with *--runtime=bpf*.

Splitting the systemtap tool into a front-end and a back-end allows a user to compile a systemtap script on a development machine that has the debugging information needed to compile the script and then transfer the resulting shared object to a production machine that doesn't have any development tools or debugging information installed.

Please refer to [*stappaths*(7)](/man/enterprise-packages/systemtap/stappaths.7) for the version number, or run

$ rpm -q systemtap # (for Fedora/RHEL)  
$ apt-get -v systemtap # (for Ubuntu)

# [OPTIONS](#OPTIONS)

The *stapbpf* program supports the following options. Any other option prints a list of supported options.

[**-v**](#v)

Verbose mode.

[**-V**](#V)

Print version number and exit.

[**-w**](#w)

Suppress warnings from the script.

[**-h**](#h)

Print help message.

[**-x PID**](#x)

The '\_stp\_target' variable will be set to PID.

[**-o FILE**](#o)

Send output to FILE.

# [ARGUMENTS](#ARGUMENTS)

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

# [EXAMPLES](#EXAMPLES)

Here is a very basic example of how to generate a *stapbpf* module. First, use *stap* to compile a script. The *stap* program will report the name of the resulting module in the current working directory.

$ stap --runtime=bpf -p4 -e 'probe begin { printf("Hello World!\\n"); exit() }'  
stap\_28784.bo

Run *stapbpf* with the pathname to the module as an argument.

$ stapbpf ./stap\_28784.bo  
Hello World!

If the *-p4* option is omitted, *stap* will invoke *stapbpf* automatically.

# [LIMITATIONS](#LIMITATIONS)

This runtime is in an early stage of development and it currently lacks support for a number of features available in the default runtime. A subset of the following probe points is supported:

```
begin
end
kernel.*
process.*
timer.*
perf.*
procfs.*
```

In general, probes based on the kprobes, uprobes, tracepoint and perf infrastructures are supported. See [*stapprobes*(3stap)](/man/enterprise-packages/systemtap/stapprobes.3stap) for more information on the probe points and which tracing infrastructures they are based on.

**for** loops, **foreach** loops and **while** loops are usable only in **begin** and **end** probes. **try** statements are not supported.

There is limited support for string operations. String variables and literals are limited to 64 characters, except for **printf** format strings, which are limited to 256 characters.

A subset of the statistical aggregate functionality is available, with support only for the *@count()*, *@sum()*, *@avg()* extractor functions.

The name of the bpf-elf file produced by the front-end *stap* tool should not be changed.

# [SAFETY AND SECURITY](#SAFETY_AND_SECURITY)

See the [*stap*(1)](/man/enterprise-packages/systemtap/stap.1) manual page for additional information on safety and security.

# [SEE ALSO](#SEE_ALSO)

[*stap*(1)](/man/enterprise-packages/systemtap/stap.1), [*stapprobes*(3stap)](/man/enterprise-packages/systemtap/stapprobes.3stap), [*staprun*(8)](/man/enterprise-packages/systemtap/staprun.8), [*stapex*(3stap)](/man/enterprise-packages/systemtap/stapex.3stap)

# [BUGS](#BUGS)

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

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Document: stapbpf(8) from systemtap 5.6-r1 (Chainguard OS)
Source: https://sourceware.org/git/systemtap.git