stackcount - Count function calls and their stack traces. Uses Linux eBPF/bcc.
Contents
Description
stackcount traces functions and frequency counts them with their entire stack trace, kernel stack and
user stack, summarized in-kernel for efficiency. This allows higher frequency events to be studied. The
output consists of unique stack traces, and their occurrence counts. In addition to kernel and user
functions, kernel tracepoints and USDT tracepoint are also supported.
The pattern is a string with optional '*' wildcards, similar to file globbing. If you'd prefer to use
regular expressions, use the -r option.
This tool only works on Linux 4.6+. Stack traces are obtained using the new `BPF_STACK_TRACE` APIs. For
kernels older than 4.6, see the version under tools/old.
Examples
Count kernel and user stack traces for submit_bio():
# stackcountsubmit_bio
Count stacks with a delimiter for submit_bio():
# stackcount-dsubmit_bio
Count kernel stack trace only for submit_bio():
# stackcount-Ksubmit_bio
Count user stack trace only for submit_bio():
# stackcount-Usubmit_bio
Count stack traces for ip_output():
# stackcountip_output
Show symbol offsets:
# stackcount-sip_output
Show offsets and raw addresses (verbose):
# stackcount-svip_output
Count stacks for kernel functions matching tcp_send*:
# stackcount'tcp_send*'
Same as previous, but using regular expressions:
# stackcount-r'^tcp_send.*'
Output every 5 seconds, with timestamps:
# stackcount-Ti5ip_output
Only count stacks when PID 185 is on-CPU:
# stackcount-p185ip_output
Only count stacks for CPU 1:
# stackcount-c1put_prev_entity
Count user stacks for dynamic heap allocations with malloc in PID 185:
# stackcount-p185c:malloc
Count user stacks for thread creation (USDT tracepoint) in PID 185:
# stackcount-p185u:pthread:pthread_create
Count stacks for context switch events using a kernel tracepoint:
# stackcountt:sched:sched_switchName
stackcount - Count function calls and their stack traces. Uses Linux eBPF/bcc.
Options
-h Print usage message.
-r Allow regular expressions for the search pattern. The default allows "*" wildcards only.
-s Show address offsets.
-P Display stacks separately for each process.
-K Show kernel stack only.
-U Show user stack only.
-T Include a timestamp with interval output.
-v Show raw addresses.
-d Print a delimiter ("--") in-between the kernel and user stacks.
--debug
Print the source of the BPF program when loading it (for debugging purposes).
-i interval
Summary interval, in seconds.
-D duration
Total duration of trace, in seconds. -f Folded output format.
-p PID Trace this process ID only (filtered in-kernel).
-c CPU Trace this CPU only (filtered in-kernel).
pattern
A function name, or a search pattern. Can include wildcards ("*"). If the -r option is used, can
include regular expressions.
Os
Linux
Overhead
This summarizes unique stack traces in-kernel for efficiency, allowing it to trace a higher rate of
function calls than methods that post-process in user space. The stack trace data is only copied to user
space when the output is printed, which usually only happens once. The stack walking also happens in an
optimized code path in the kernel thanks to the new BPF_STACK_TRACE table APIs, which should be more
efficient than the manual walker in the eBPF tracer which older versions of this script used. With this
in mind, call rates of < 10,000/sec would incur negligible overhead. Test before production use. You can
also use funccount to get a handle on function call rates first.
Requirements
CONFIG_BPF and bcc.
See Also
stacksnoop(8), funccount(8) USER COMMANDS 2016-01-14 stackcount(8)
Source
This is from bcc.
https://github.com/iovisor/bcc
Also look in the bcc distribution for a companion _examples.txt file containing example usage, output,
and commentary for this tool.
Stability
Unstable - in development.
Synopsis
stackcount[-h][-pPID][-cCPU][-iINTERVAL][-DDURATION][-T]
[-r] [-s] [-P] [-K] [-U] [-v] [-d] [-f] [--debug] pattern
