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bpftrace¶
bpftrace is an open-source high-level tracing language for Linux eBPF, modelled on DTrace and SystemTap. Source: github.com/bpftrace/bpftrace. A single bpftrace script compiles to an eBPF program + user-space consumer, giving engineers "a simple language/tool that allows you to easily write eBPF programs" without learning the raw BPF instruction set or the kernel verifier's quirks end-to-end.
Role on this wiki¶
- The ad-hoc-profiler DSL under Meta's Strobelight orchestrator: an engineer who needs a custom profiler (e.g. "latency of a particular C++ function") can write a small bpftrace script, commit it, and have Strobelight run it on any number of hosts "within a matter of hours" — vs the weeks needed for a new first-class in-tree Strobelight profiler. Canonical wiki instance of patterns/ad-hoc-bpftrace-profiler.
- Reduces the new-profiler-development-cost dramatically, which is the load-bearing reason profiler orchestrators with a DSL escape hatch feel uncentralised from the user side.
Seen in¶
- sources/2025-03-07-meta-strobelight-a-profiling-service-built-on-open-source-technology — Meta names bpftrace as the scripting substrate for Strobelight's ad-hoc-profiler mode.
Related¶
- systems/ebpf — the kernel primitive bpftrace compiles to.
- systems/strobelight — the orchestrator that runs bpftrace scripts fleet-wide at Meta.
- patterns/ad-hoc-bpftrace-profiler
- concepts/ad-hoc-profiler