error::sdt(7stap) — Linux manual page

ERROR::SDT(7stap)                                       ERROR::SDT(7stap)

NAME         top

       error::sdt - <sys/sdt.h> marker failures

DESCRIPTION         top

       Systemtap's <sys/sdt.h> probes are modeled after the dtrace USDT
       API, but are implemented differently.  They leave a only a NOP
       instruction in the userspace program's text segment, and add an
       ELF note to the binary with metadata.  This metadata describes the
       marker's name and parameters.  This encoding is designed to be
       parseable by multiple tools (not just systemtap: GDB, the GNU
       Debugger, also contains support).  These allow the tools to find
       parameters and their types, wherever they happen to reside, even
       without DWARF debuginfo.

       The reason finding parameters is tricky is because the STAP_PROBE
       / DTRACE_PROBE markers store an assembly language expression for
       each operand, as a result of use of gcc inline-assembly
       directives.  The compiler is given a broad gcc operand constraint
       string ("nor") for the operands, which usually works well.
       Usually, it does not force the compiler to load the parameters
       into or out of registers, which would slow down an instrumented
       program.  However, some instrumentation sites with some parameters
       do not work well with the default "nor" constraint.

       unresolveable at run-time
              GCC may emit strings that an assembler could resolve (from
              the context of compiling the original program), but a run-
              time tool cannot.  For example, the operand string might
              refer to a label of a local symbol that is not emitted into
              the ELF object file at all, which leaves no trace for the
              run-time.  Reference to such parameters from within
              systemtap can result in "SDT asm not understood" errors.

       too complicated expression
              GCC might synthesize very complicated assembly addressing
              modes from complex C data types / pointer expressions.
              systemtap or gdb may not be able to parse some valid but
              complicated expressions.  Reference to such parameters from
              within systemtap can result in "SDT asm not understood"
              errors.

       overly restrictive constraint
              GCC might not be able to even compile the original program
              with the default "nor" constraint due to shortage of
              registers or other reasons.  A compile-time gcc error such
              as "asm operand has impossible constraints" may result.

       There are two general workarounds to this family of problems.

       change the constraints
              While compiling the original instrumented program, set the
              STAP_SDT_ARG_CONSTRAINT macro to different constraint
              strings.  See the GCC manual about various options.  For
              example, on many machine architectures, "r" forces operands
              into registers, and "g" leaves operands essentially
              unconstrained.

       revert to debuginfo
              As long as the instrumented program compiles, it may be
              fine simply to keep using <sys/sdt.h> but eschew extraction
              of a few individual parameters.  In the worst case, disable
              <sys/sdt.h> macros entirely to eschew the compiled-in
              instrumentation.  If DWARF debuginfo was generated and
              preserved, a systemtap script could refer to the underlying
              source context variables instead of the positional
              STAP_PROBE parameters.

SEE ALSO         top

       stap(1),
       stapprobes(3stap),
       error::dwarf(7stap),
       http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Constraints.html ,
       http://sourceware.org/systemtap/wiki/UserSpaceProbeImplementation ,
       error::reporting(7stap)

COLOPHON         top

       This page is part of the systemtap (a tracing and live-system
       analysis tool) project.  Information about the project can be
       found at ⟨https://sourceware.org/systemtap/⟩.  If you have a bug
       report for this manual page, send it to [email protected].
       This page was obtained from the project's upstream Git repository
       ⟨git://sourceware.org/git/systemtap.git⟩ on 2025-08-11.  (At that
       time, the date of the most recent commit that was found in the
       repository was 2025-07-24.)  If you discover any rendering
       problems in this HTML version of the page, or you believe there is
       a better or more up-to-date source for the page, or you have
       corrections or improvements to the information in this COLOPHON
       (which is not part of the original manual page), send a mail to
       [email protected]

                                                        ERROR::SDT(7stap)

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