4.4. Marker probes

This family of probe points connects to static probe markers inserted into the kernel or a module. These markers are special macro calls in the kernel that make probing faster and more reliable than with DWARF-based probes. DWARF debugging information is not required to use probe markers.

Marker probe points begin with a kernel or module("name") prefix, the same as DWARF probes. This prefix identifies the source of the symbol table used for finding markers. The suffix names the marker itself: mark("name"). The marker name string, which may contain wildcard characters, is matched against the names given to the marker macros when the kernel or module was compiled.

The handler associated with a marker probe reads any optional parameters specified at the macro call site named $arg1 through $argNN, where NN is the number of parameters supplied by the macro. Number and string parameters are passed in a type-safe manner.