Published at LXer:

There are quite a variety of tracing options for Linux, with SystemTap being the most prominent, but that particular solution has yet to become easily usable, at least partly due to its many dependencies on user-space configuration and tools. Another choice, which originally came from work on realtime Linux, is ftrace. Ftrace is a self-contained solution, requiring no user-space tools or support, that is useful for tracking down problems—not only in the kernel, but in its interactions with user space as well.

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