Bpftrace for Linux 2018 • Hacker News Board

Re: Bpftrace for Linux 2018

#11

Post by mslate » Mon, Oct 08, 2018, 8:14 PM UTC

Why are you a hater brendangregg? ;) https://twitter.com/accdtlengineer/status/104933762950895206...

Re: Bpftrace for Linux 2018

#12

Post by moetech » Mon, Oct 08, 2018, 8:48 PM UTC

keeler wrote: post #10

This is huge. The Linux community should be glad that Netflix hired Brendan Gregg to work on Linux performance.

Is this because they are also using Linux or do they plan to use it on FreeBSD?

Re: Bpftrace for Linux 2018

#13

Post by mburns » Mon, Oct 08, 2018, 9:02 PM UTC

moetech wrote: post #12

keeler wrote: post #10

This is huge. The Linux community should be glad that Netflix hired Brendan Gregg to work on Linux performance.

Is this because they are also using Linux or do they plan to use it on FreeBSD?

Those aren’t mutually exclusive options.

Re: Bpftrace for Linux 2018

#14

Post by loeg » Mon, Oct 08, 2018, 9:11 PM UTC

moetech wrote: post #12

keeler wrote: post #10

This is huge. The Linux community should be glad that Netflix hired Brendan Gregg to work on Linux performance.

Is this because they are also using Linux or do they plan to use it on FreeBSD?

They use both. Control plane runs on Linux, CDN on FreeBSD.

Re: Bpftrace for Linux 2018

#15

Post by pmoriarty » Mon, Oct 08, 2018, 10:01 PM UTC

Is there any chance this tool or maybe a wrapper for it could get a higher level, less C-like syntax?

Re: Bpftrace for Linux 2018

#16

Post by tecleandor » Mon, Oct 08, 2018, 10:05 PM UTC

mslate wrote: post #11

Why are you a hater brendangregg? ;) https://twitter.com/accdtlengineer/status/104933762950895206...

Don't do that. It's awful.

If you want to ask for an interview, collaboration or whatever, please do it privately, don't do this public shaming.

Re: Bpftrace for Linux 2018

#17

Post by Birch-san » Mon, Oct 08, 2018, 10:17 PM UTC

This is a great update. I'd wondered how ply differed from bpftrace. And structs support is a huge step in achieving parity with DTrace.

DTrace has really helped me out* on macOS. To be without it is to lose a superpower, so I'm really rooting for bpftrace to bring the same tracing experience to Linux. I've been excitedly following bcc, too. It's just the right tool for HTTP metrics. But my most basic experiments so far have failed, and I don't know how to get support.

* DTrace is a real swiss army-knife. It seems intended for observing production systems, but I've found it indispensible for local development. The mysqld provider is great for tracing queries and perf. Opensnoop answers all sorts of questions. And DTrace saved a C++ project of mine: explaining a deadlock that would've otherwise spelled the end of the software. The most fun I've had is using the pid provider to hook text out of visual novels (in WiNE!).

Re: Bpftrace for Linux 2018

#18

Post by lelf » Mon, Oct 08, 2018, 10:25 PM UTC

1. Obviously Linux-only. How is it DTrace 2.0?

2. That’s a staggering amount of NIH, from CTF to syntax. Why?

Re: Bpftrace for Linux 2018

#19

Post by gregdunn » Mon, Oct 08, 2018, 10:25 PM UTC

Hey Brendan! Super exciting - I'm already updating some internal documentation to point people towards this :)

When are we getting a Linux performance engineering book with all the bpf/bcc/bpftrace stuff in it?

Re: Bpftrace for Linux 2018

#20

Post by gregdunn » Mon, Oct 08, 2018, 10:30 PM UTC

Birch-san wrote: post #17

This is a great update. I'd wondered how ply differed from bpftrace. And structs support is a huge step in achieving parity with DTrace. DTrace has really helped me out* on macOS. To be without it is to lose a superpower, so I'm really rooting for bpftrace to bring the same tracing experience to Linux. I've been excitedly following bcc, too. It's just the right tool for HTTP metrics. But my most basic experiments so…

>But my most basic experiments so far have failed, and I don't know how to get support.

I'd recommend the #iovisor irc channel on oftc. I haven't stopped by in a bit, but the times I did, I usually was able to get assistance from nice people!