Chapter 23. Creating uprobes with perf

Procedure

1. Create the uprobe in the process or application you are interested in monitoring at a location of interest within the process or application:

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   # perf probe -x /path/to/executable -a function
   Added new event:
     probe_executable:function   (on function in /path/to/executable)
   
   You can now use it in all perf tools, such as:
   
           perf record -e probe_executable:function -aR sleep 1

Procedure

1. View the function lines where you can place a uprobe:

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   $ perf probe -x ./your_executable -L main

   Output of this command looks similar to:

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   <main@/home/user/my_executable:0>
                 0  int main(int argc, const char **argv)
                 1  {
                           int err;
                           const char *cmd;
                           char sbuf[STRERR_BUFSIZE];
   
                           /* libsubcmd init */
                 7         exec_cmd_init("perf", PREFIX, PERF_EXEC_PATH, EXEC_PATH_ENVIRONMENT);
                 8         pager_init(PERF_PAGER_ENVIRONMENT);

2. Create the uprobe for the desired function line:

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   # perf probe -x ./my_executable main:8
   Added new event:
             probe_my_executable:main_L8   (on main:8 in /home/user/my_executable)
   
           You can now use it in all perf tools, such as:
   
                   perf record -e probe_my_executable:main_L8 -aR sleep 1