# bpftrace Install

- [Linux Kernel Requirements](#linux-kernel-requirements)
- [Package install](#package-install)
  - [Ubuntu](#ubuntu-packages)
  - [Fedora](#fedora-package)
  - [Gentoo](#gentoo-package)
  - [Debian](#debian-package)
- [Building bpftrace](#building-bpftrace)
  - [Ubuntu](#ubuntu)
  - [Fedora](#fedora)
  - [Amazon Linux](#amazon-linux)
  - (*please add sections for other OSes)*
  - [Using Docker](#using-docker)
  - [Generic build](#generic-build)

# Linux Kernel Requirements

It is recommended that you are running a Linux 4.9 kernel or higher. Some tools may work on older kernels, but these old kernels are no longer tested. To explain this requirement, these are the kernel versions where major features were added:

- 4.1 - kprobes
- 4.3 - uprobes
- 4.6 - stack traces, count and hist builtins (use PERCPU maps for accuracy and efficiency)
- 4.7 - tracepoints
- 4.9 - timers/profiling

Minor improvements have been added in later kernels, so newer than 4.9 is preferred.

Your kernel also needs to be built with the following options:

```
CONFIG_BPF=y
CONFIG_BPF_SYSCALL=y
CONFIG_BPF_JIT=y
CONFIG_HAVE_EBPF_JIT=y
CONFIG_BPF_EVENTS=y
```

This can be verified by running the `check_kernel_features` script from the
`scripts` directory.

# Package install

## Ubuntu packages

```
sudo apt-get install bpftrace
```

Should work.

On Ubuntu 16.04 and later, bpftrace is also available as a snap package (https://snapcraft.io/bpftrace), however, the snap provides extremely limited file permissions so the --devmode option should be specified on installation in order avoid file access issues.

```
sudo snap install --devmode bpftrace
sudo snap connect bpftrace:system-trace
```

The snap package also currently has issues with uprobes ([#829](https://github.com/iovisor/bpftrace/issues/829)).

## Fedora package

For Fedora 28 (and later), bpftrace is already included in the official repo. Just install the package with dnf.

```
sudo dnf install bpftrace
```

## Gentoo package

On Gentoo, bpftrace is included in the official repo. The package can be installed with emerge.
```
sudo emerge -av bpftrace
```

## Debian package

Is available and tracked [here](https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/bpftrace).

# Building bpftrace

bpftrace's build system will download `gtest` at build time. If you don't want that or don't want tests, you can use the `make bpftrace` target.

## Ubuntu

Due to the kernel requirements Ubuntu 18.04 or newer is highly recommended.

### 18.04 and 18.10

The versions of `bcc` currently available in Ubuntu 18.04 (Bionic) and 18.10
(Cosmic) do not have all the requirements for building `bpftrace` so building
`bcc` first is required. The instructions for building `bcc` can be found
[here](https://github.com/iovisor/bcc/blob/master/INSTALL.md#install-and-compile-bcc).
The build dependencies listed below are also required for `bcc` so install those first.

Make sure `bcc` works by testing some of the shipped tools before proceeding. It
might be required to `ldconfig` to update the linker.

### 19.04 and newer

The version of `bcc` available in Ubuntu 19.04 (Disco) is new enough so
compilation is not required, install with:

```
sudo apt-get install libbpfcc-dev
```

### Building `bpftrace`

```
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y bison cmake flex g++ git libelf-dev zlib1g-dev libfl-dev systemtap-sdt-dev
sudo apt-get install llvm-7-dev llvm-7-runtime libclang-7-dev clang-7
git clone https://github.com/iovisor/bpftrace
mkdir bpftrace/build; cd bpftrace/build;
cmake -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release ..
make -j8
make install
```

The bpftrace binary will be in installed in /usr/local/bin/bpftrace, and tools
in /usr/local/share/bpftrace/tools. You can change the install location using an
argument to cmake, where the default is `-DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/usr/local`.

## Fedora

You'll want the newest kernel possible (see kernel requirements), eg, by using Fedora 28 or newer.

```
sudo dnf install -y bison flex cmake make git gcc-c++ elfutils-libelf-devel zlib-devel llvm-devel clang-devel bcc-devel systemtap-sdt-devel
git clone https://github.com/iovisor/bpftrace
cd bpftrace
mkdir build; cd build; cmake -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release ..
make -j8
make install
```

The bpftrace binary will be in installed in /usr/local/bin/bpftrace, and tools in /usr/local/share/bpftrace/tools. You can change the install location using an argument to cmake, where the default is `-DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/usr/local`.

## Amazon Linux

In the future the install should be `yum install bpftrace`. Right now (16-Oct-2018), however, three dependencies need updating in the Amazon Linux repositories (llvm, libtinfo, bison), and bpftrace itself needs to be packaged. The current workaround is to build the three dependencies manually, as well as bpftrace. It's not fun, but it is doable, and will only get better as Amazon updates things.

```
sudo bash
builddir=/media/ephemeral0	# change to suit your system: needs about 2 Gbytes free

# dependencies
yum install git cmake3 gcc64-c++.x86_64 bison flex

# llvm
cd $builddir
wget http://releases.llvm.org/6.0.0/clang+llvm-6.0.0-x86_64-linux-gnu-Fedora27.tar.xz
tar xf clang*
(cd clang* && sudo cp -R * /usr/local/)
cp -p /usr/lib64/llvm6.0/lib/libLLVM-6.0.so /usr/lib64/libLLVM.so

# libtinfo.so.6 (comes from ncurses)
cd $builddir
wget ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/ncurses/ncurses-6.0.tar.gz
tar xvf ncurses-6.0.tar.gz
cd ncurses-6.0
./configure --with-shared --with-termlib
make -j8
make install

# bison
cd $builddir
wget http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/bison/bison-3.1.tar.gz
tar xf bison*
cd bison*
./configure
make -j4
make install

# bpftrace
cd $builddir
git clone https://github.com/iovisor/bpftrace
cd bpftrace
mkdir build; cd build
cmake3 ..
make -j8
make install
echo /usr/local/lib >> /etc/ld.so.conf
ldconfig -v
```

The bpftrace binary will be in installed in /usr/local/bin/bpftrace, and tools in /usr/local/share/bpftrace/tools. You may need to add /usr/local/bin to your $PATH. You can also change the install location using an argument to cmake, where the default is `-DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/usr/local`.

## Using Docker

There are currently problems with bpftrace string comparisons when using the Docker build. The regular build is recommended for now.

Building inside a Docker container will produce a statically linked bpftrace executable.

`./build.sh`

There are some more fine-grained options if you find yourself building bpftrace a lot:
- `./build-docker-image.sh` - builds just the `bpftrace-builder` Docker image
- `./build-debug.sh` - builds bpftrace with debugging information (requires `./build-docker-image.sh` to have already been run)
- `./build-release.sh` - builds bpftrace in a release configuration (requires `./build-docker-image.sh` to have already been run)

`./build.sh` is equivalent to `./build-docker-image.sh && ./build-release.sh`

## Generic build process

Use specific OS build sections listed earlier if available (Ubuntu, Docker).

### Requirements

- A C++ compiler
- CMake
- Flex
- Bison
- LLVM & Clang 5.0+ development packages
- BCC development package
- LibElf
- Kernel requirements described earlier

### Compilation

```
git clone https://github.com/iovisor/bpftrace
mkdir -p bpftrace/build
cd bpftrace/build
cmake -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release ../
make
```

By default bpftrace will be built as a dynamically linked executable. If a statically linked executable would be preferred and your system has the required libraries installed, the CMake option `-DSTATIC_LINKING:BOOL=ON` can be used. Building bpftrace using the Docker method below will always result in a statically linked executable. A debug build of bpftrace can be set up with `cmake -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Debug ../`.

The latest version of Google Test will be downloaded on each build. To speed up builds and only download its source on the first run, use the CMake option `-DOFFLINE_BUILDS:BOOL=ON`.

To test that the build works, you can try running the test suite, and a one-liner:

```
./tests/bpftrace_test
./src/bpftrace -e 'kprobe:do_nanosleep { printf("sleep by %s\n", comm); }'
```
