# libtracefs(3) Manual Page

## NAME

tracefs_kprobe_alloc, tracefs_kretprobe_alloc, tracefs_kprobe_raw, tracefs_kretprobe_raw, tracefs_kprobe_destroy - Allocate, get, create, and remove kprobes

## SYNOPSIS

    #include <tracefs.h>

    struct tracefs_dynevent *
    tracefs_kprobe_alloc(const char *system, const char *event,
                           const char *addr, const char *format);
    struct tracefs_dynevent *
    tracefs_kretprobe_alloc(const char *system, const char *event,
                              const char *addr, const char *format, unsigned int max);
    int tracefs_kprobe_raw(const char *system, const char *event,
                             const char *addr, const char *format);
    int tracefs_kretprobe_raw(const char *system, const char *event,
                                const char *addr, const char *format);
    int tracefs_kprobe_destroy(const char *system, const char *event,
                               const char *addr, const char *format, bool force);

## DESCRIPTION

tracefs_kprobe_alloc() allocates a new kprobe context. The kbrobe is not configured in the system. The kprobe can be added to the system by passing in the returned descriptor into tracefs_dynevent_create(3). The new kprobe will be in the system group (or kprobes if system is NULL) and have the name of event (or addr if event is NULL). The kprobe will be inserted to addr (function name, with or without offset, or a address), and the format will define the format of the kprobe. See the Linux documentation file under: Documentation/trace/kprobetrace.rst

tracefs_kretprobe_alloc() is the same as tracefs_kprobe_alloc, but allocates context for kretprobe. It has one additional parameter, which is optional, max - maxactive count. See description of kretprobes in the Documentation/trace/kprobetrace.rst file.

tracefs_kprobe_raw() will create a kprobe event. If system is NULL, then the default "kprobes" is used for the group (event system). Otherwise if system is specified then the kprobe will be created under the group by that name. The event is the name of the kprobe event to create. The addr can be a function, a function and offset, or a kernel address. This is where the location of the kprobe will be inserted in the kernel. The format is the kprobe format as specified as FETCHARGS in the Linux kernel source in the Documentation/trace/kprobetrace.rst document.

tracefs_kretprobe_raw() is the same as tracefs_kprobe_raw(), except that it creates a kretprobe instead of a kprobe. The difference is also described in the Linux kernel source in the Documentation/trace/kprobetrace.rst file.

tracefs_kprobe_destroy() will destroy a specific kprobe or kretprobe created by tracefs_kprobe_raw() or tracefs_kretprobe_raw() with the same parameters.

## RETURN VALUE

tracefs_kprobe_raw() and tracefs_kretprobe_raw() return 0 on success, or -1 on error. If a parsing error occurs on tracefs_kprobe_raw() or tracefs_kretprobe_raw() then tracefs_error_last(3) may be used to retrieve the error message explaining the parsing issue.

The tracefs_kprobe_alloc() and tracefs_kretprobe_alloc() APIs return a pointer to an allocated tracefs_dynevent structure, describing the probe. This pointer must be freed by tracefs_dynevent_free(3). Note, this only allocates a descriptor representing the kprobe. It does not modify the running system.

The tracefs_kprobe_destroy() returns 0 on success or -1 on error if it was not able to successful destory (or find) the kprobe or kretprobe.

## ERRORS

The following errors are for all the above calls:

EPERM Not run as root user

ENODEV Kprobe events are not configured for the running kernel.

ENOMEM Memory allocation error.

tracefs_kprobe_raw(), tracefs_kretprobe_raw(), tracefs_kprobe_alloc(), and tracefs_kretprobe_alloc() can fail with the following errors:

EBADMSG if addr is NULL.

EINVAL Most likely a parsing error occurred (use tracefs_error_last(3) to possibly see what that error was).

Other errors may also happen caused by internal system calls.

## EXAMPLE

## FILES

    tracefs.h
            Header file to include in order to have access to the library APIs.
    -ltracefs
            Linker switch to add when building a program that uses the library.

## SEE ALSO

libtracefs(3), libtraceevent(3), trace-cmd(1)

## AUTHOR

    Steven Rostedt <rostedt@goodmis.org>
    Tzvetomir Stoyanov <tz.stoyanov@gmail.com>
    sameeruddin shaik <sameeruddin.shaik8@gmail.com>

## REPORTING BUGS

Report bugs to <linux-trace-devel@vger.kernel.org>

## LICENSE

libtracefs is Free Software licensed under the GNU LGPL 2.1

## RESOURCES

https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/libs/libtrace/libtracefs.git/

## COPYING

Copyright (C) 2021 VMware, Inc. Free use of this software is granted under the terms of the GNU Public License (GPL).