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NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | COMMANDS | OPTIONS | GLOBAL PARAMETERS | SCRIPT PARAMETERS | EXAMPLES | SEE ALSO | BUGS | COLOPHON |
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SYSTEMTAP(8) System Manager's Manual SYSTEMTAP(8)
systemtap-service - SystemTap initscript and systemd service
systemtap-service COMMAND [OPTIONS] [SCRIPT...]
service systemtap COMMAND [OPTIONS] [SCRIPT...]
The SystemTap initscript aims to provide a way to run scripts as a
service and easily control them individually. Scripts can be
configured to start upon manual request, or during system startup.
On dracut-based systems, it is also possible to integrate scripts
in the initramfs and have them start during early-boot.
The SystemTap initscript can be invoked manually using the
systemtap-service command. On systemd-based systems, the
initscript is controlled by systemctl with the service file
systemtap.service.
There are various parameters and options available to modify
global behaviour, as well as script behaviour. Dependencies
between scripts can be established so that starting one starts
others.
The configuration file of the initscript is located at
${prefix}/etc/systemtap/config. Acceptable parameters are detailed
in the GLOBAL PARAMETERS section.
Scripts must be placed in the ${prefix}/etc/systemtap/script.d
directory and must have a .stp extension. When referring to them
on the command-line however, there in no need to include the .stp
extension. Script names can only contain alphanumeric characters
(and '_') and must not start with a number. The scripts directory
may be changed by setting the SCRIPT_PATH parameter in the
configuration file.
One of the commands below must be specified:
start Start SCRIPTs. If no scripts are specified, start the
scripts specified by the DEFAULT_START configuration. If
DEFAULT_START is not set, start all scripts in the script
directory. For scripts already started, the command is
ignored. The command will fail if the scripts fail to
start (see also the PASSALL configuration).
If the AUTOCOMPILE configuration is on, the command will
try to compile or update the specified scripts when one of
the below conditions is true:
- The compiled cache file does not exist.
- The mtime (modified timestamp) of the original script
file is newer than the time of the compiled script cache.
- The specified stap options used to compile the script has
been changed (see also the SCRIPT PARAMETERS section).
- The result of `uname -a` has been changed.
stop Stop SCRIPTs. If no scripts are specified, stop all running
scripts. For scripts already stopped, the command is
ignored. The command will fail if the scripts fail to stop
(see also the PASSALL configuration).
restart
Stop and start SCRIPTs.
status Show the state of SCRIPTs and their dependencies.
compile
Compile SCRIPTs but do not start them. If the scripts have
already been compiled, prompt for confirmation before
overwriting cache. Compile for the current kernel, or the
kernel release specified by the -r option.
onboot Make SCRIPTs part of the initramfs so that they are started
earlier during the boot process. This command is only
available on dracut-based systems. If no scripts are
specified, create a normal initramfs devoid of any
SystemTap files.
The initramfs is created for the current kernel, or the
kernel release specified by the -r option. The path of the
created initramfs defaults to /boot/initramfs-KVER.img,
where KVER is the output of `uname -r`. The bootloader is
also updated (using new-kernel-pkg(8)) to make the kernel
entry use the new initramfs file. Use the -o option to
specify a different path (the bootloader will not be
updated).
If the output file already exists, it is overwritten,
unless the -b switch is given, in which case the file is
appended .bak rather than overwritten. However, if there
is already a .bak version of the file, the backup will not
be overwritten.
WARNING: do not use the -o option of stap(1) with onboot
scripts because the script is started before the root
filesystem is even mounted. Increase the buffer size if
more space is needed.
cleanup
Delete the compiled SCRIPTs from cache. If no scripts are
specified, then all compiled scripts are deleted. Only the
cache for the current kernel is deleted, or the kernel
release specified by the -r option. Prompt for confirmation
before deleting.
Many of the commands can also take options. However, since users
can't pass these options on boot, they are only meant for managing
scripts after boot and for testing. Available options are:
-c CONFIG_FILE
Specify a different configuration file in place of the
default one.
-R When using the start and stop commands, also include the
scripts' dependencies (recursively).
-r KERNEL_RELEASE
When using the compile, onboot, and cleanup commands,
specify the target kernel version rather than using the
current one. Must be in the same format as `uname -r`.
-y Answer yes for all prompts.
-o PATH.IMG
When using the onboot command, specify the output path of
the created initramfs. When specified, the bootloader
configuration is not updated.
-b When using the onboot command, backup an existing initramfs
image by adding a .bak extension rather than overwriting
it. Without this option, the initramfs is overwritten.
These parameters affect the general behaviour of the SystemTap
initscript service. They can be specified in the configuration
file.
SCRIPT_PATH
Specify the absolute path of the script directory. These
are the scripts on which the initscript can operate.
Scripts must have the .stp extension. The default path is
${prefix}/etc/systemtap/script.d.
CONFIG_PATH
Specify the absolute path of the script configuration
directory. These configuration files contain options for
specific scripts. They must have the .conf extension. The
default path is ${prefix}/etc/systemtap/conf.d.
CACHE_PATH
Specify the absolute path of the cache directory. The
default path is ${prefix}/var/cache/systemtap.
TEMP_PATH
Specify the absolute path of the temporary directory in
which SystemTap makes temporary directories to compile
scripts. The default path is /tmp.
STAT_PATH
Specify the absolute path of the directory containing PID
files used to track the status of SystemTap scripts. The
default path is ${prefix}/var/run/systemtap.
LOG_FILE
Specify the absolute path of the log file. All messages are
sent to this file, including compilation and runtime
errors. The default path is
${prefix}/var/log/systemtap.log.
PASSALL
If this is set yes, initscript commands that operate on
multiple scripts will report as failed when the action
could not be performed on at least one script. If set to
no, only a warning is emitted. The default is yes.
RECURSIVE
If this is set yes, the initscript will always follow
script dependencies recursively. This means that there is
no need to specify the -R option. This flag is effective
only if you specify script(s) from the command-line. The
default is no.
AUTOCOMPILE
If this is set yes, the initscript automatically tries to
compile specified scripts when needed if there is no valid
cache. Otherwise, the related command simply fails. The
default is yes.
DEFAULT_START
Specify scripts which will be started by default. If
omitted (or empty), all scripts in the script directory
will be started. The default is "".
ALLOW_CACHEONLY
If this is set yes, the initscript will also allow
operating on scripts that are located in the cache
directory, but not in the script directory. The default is
no.
WARNING: the initscript may load unexpected obsolete caches
with this option. The cache directory should be checked
before enabling this option.
LOG_BOOT_ERR
Because boot-time scripts are run before the root
filesystem is mounted, staprun's stderr cannot be logged to
the LOG_FILE as usual. However, the log can instead be
output to /run/systemtap/$script.log by setting
LOG_BOOT_ERR to yes. If STAT_PATH is different from the
default, the log files will be moved there upon executing
any of the initscript commands. The default is no.
Here is a global configuration file example:
SCRIPT_PATH=/var/systemtap/script.d/
PASSALL=yes
RECURSIVE=no
These parameters affect the compilation or runtime behaviour of
specific SystemTap scripts. They must be placed in config files
located in the CONFIG_PATH directory.
<SCRIPT>_OPT
Specify options passed to the stap(1) command for the
SCRIPT. Here, SCRIPT is the name of the script file without
the .stp extension. Note that the -F option is always
added.
The following options are ignored when compiling scripts:
-p, -m, -r, -c, -x, -e, -s, -o, -h, -V, -k.
The following options are ignored when running starting
scripts: -h, -V, -v, -t, -p, -I, -e, -R, -r, -m, -k, -g,
-P, -D, -b, -u, -q, -w, -l, -d, -L, -F, and all long op‐
tions.
<SCRIPT>_REQ
Specify script dependencies (i.e. which script this script
requires). For example, if foo.stp requires (or needs to
run after) bar.stp, set
foo_REQ="bar"
Specify multiple scripts by separating their names by
spaces.
Here is a script configuration file example:
script1_OPT="-o /var/log/script1.out"
script2_OPT="-o /var/log/script2.out"
script2_REQ="script1"
INSTALLING SCRIPTS
We first copy a SystemTap script (e.g. "script1.stp") into
the script directory:
# cp script1.stp /etc/systemtap/script.d/
We can then set any script options, for example:
# vi /etc/systemtap/conf.d/group1.conf
script1_OPT="-o /var/log/group1.out"
We then install a script (e.g. "script2.stp") which needs
to run after script1. In this case, we can do the follow‐
ing:
# cp script2.stp /etc/systemtap/script.d/
# vi /etc/systemtap/conf.d/group1.conf
script2_OPT="-o /var/log/group2.out"
script2_REQ="script1"
This way, if stap(1) fails to run script1, the initscript
will not even try to run script2.
TESTING
After installing scripts, we can test that they work by
simply doing:
# systemtap-service start
# systemtap-service stop
We could be more specific as well, for example:
# systemtap-service start script1
# systemtap-service stop script1
If there were no errors, we are ready to use it.
ENABLING SERVICE
After we're satisfied with the scripts and their tests, we
can enable the SystemTap initscript service:
# chkconfig systemtap on
DELETING SCRIPTS
Scripts are deleted by simply removing them from the script
directory and removing any configuration lines specific to
them:
# rm /etc/systemtap/script.d/script2.stp
# vi /etc/systemtap/conf.d/group1.conf
If the script is still running, we also need to stop it:
# systemtap-service stop script2
We can then also remove the cache associated with the
script:
# systemtap-service cleanup script2
PREPARING FOR KERNEL UPDATES
Usually, there is nothing to do when booting into a new
kernel. The initscript will see that the kernel version is
different and will compile the scripts. The compilation can
be done beforehand as well to avoid having to compile dur‐
ing boot by using the -r option:
# systemtap-service compile myscript -r <NEW_KERNEL_VERSION>
IMPORTING COMPILED SCRIPTS
For environments which lack compilation infrastructure
(e.g. no compilers or debuginfo), such as a production sys‐
tem, the scripts can be compiled on another (development)
machine and then transferred over to the production system:
# systemtap-service compile myscript -r \
> <KERNEL_VERSION_OF_TARGET_MACHINE>
# tar czf stap-scripts-<kernel-version>.tar.gz \
> /var/cache/systemtap/<kernel-version> \
> /etc/systemtap/conf.d/<configfile>
And then copy this package to the target machine and ex‐
tract it.
STARTING SCRIPTS DURING EARLY-BOOT
The initscript also allows us to start scripts earlier dur‐
ing the boot process by creating an initramfs containing
the script's module. The system must be dracut-based for
this to work. Starting a script at this stage gives access
to information otherwise very hard to obtain.
We first install the script by copying it into the script
directory as usual and setting whatever options we'd like:
# cp myscript.stp /etc/systemtap/script.d
# vi /etc/systemtap/conf.d/myscript.conf
To add the script to the initramfs, we use the onboot com‐
mand:
# systemtap-service onboot myscript
If the script is not already compiled and cached, it will
be done at this point. A new initramfs will then be creat‐
ed at the default location. We can use the -b option to en‐
sure that the existing initramfs is backed up. We can then
restart the system.
USING A DIFFERENT INITRAMFS
If we would prefer to only start the script for one boot
and not others, it might be easier to instead use the -o
option to specify a different initramfs output file:
# systemtap-service onboot myscript \
> -o /boot/special_initramfs.img
Once the initramfs is created, it's simply a matter of
changing the command-line options at boot-time so that the
new image is used rather than the usual one.
CREATING AN INITRAMFS FOR A DIFFERENT KERNEL
Just like the compile command, we can use the -r option to
specify the kernel for which we want to create the
initramfs. This is useful when we are about to upgrade and
would like to prepare in advance. For example:
# systemtap-service onboot myscript \
> -r 3.12.6-200.fc19.x86_64
REMOVING SCRIPTS FROM THE INITRAMFS
Finally, to remove all script from the initramfs, we simple
run the onboot command without specifying any scripts:
# systemtap-service onboot
This will simply create a standard initramfs without any
SystemTap modules inserted.
TROUBLESHOOTING EARLY-BOOT ISSUES
There can be many reasons for which the module didn't in‐
sert or did not work as expected. It may be useful to turn
on dracut debugging by adding 'rdinitdebug' to the kernel
command-line and checking dmesg/journalctl -ae. Also, the
stderr output of staprun can be captured by setting the
LOG_BOOT_ERR option to yes.
stap(1) dracut(8) new-kernel-pkg(8)
Use the Bugzilla link of the project web page or our mailing list.
http://sourceware.org/systemtap/ , <[email protected]>.
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]
SYSTEMTAP(8)
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HTML rendering created 2025-09-06 by Michael Kerrisk, author of The Linux Programming Interface. For details of in-depth Linux/UNIX system programming training courses that I teach, look here. Hosting by jambit GmbH. |
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