LIBTRACEEVENT(3)

💖 LIBTRACEEVENT(3) 💖

okay bestie, so this is a page from the libtraceevent Manual and honestly? it's a good one. buckle up, we're talking event lists 💅

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✨ NAME ✨

tep_list_events, tep_list_events_copy — get a list of events, sorted by whatever criteria u picked 💫

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🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

#include <event-parse.h>

enum tep_event_sort_type {
        TEP_EVENT_SORT_ID,
        TEP_EVENT_SORT_NAME,
        TEP_EVENT_SORT_SYSTEM,
};

struct tep_event **tep_list_events(struct tep_handle *tep, enum tep_event_sort_type sort_type);
struct tep_event **tep_list_events_copy(struct tep_handle *tep, enum tep_event_sort_type sort_type);

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🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

so tep_list_events() hands u back an array of pointers to the events, all sorted by the sort_type criteria u asked for. the last element of that array is NULL — that's ur little "the list ends here bestie" marker 🛑

🚨 IMPORTANT: the memory u get back must not be freed. it's managed by the library, not by u. hands off. also, this function is not thread safe — do not come for it from multiple threads at once, she will simply not cope 🙈

the tep argument is ur trace event parser context. and sort_type is the sort criteria u want, and there are literally three options:

• TEP_EVENT_SORT_ID — sorts by the event ID 🆔
• TEP_EVENT_SORT_NAME — sorts by the event (name, system, id) triplet ✨
• TEP_EVENT_SORT_SYSTEM — sorts by the event (system, name, id) triplet 🌈

now, tep_list_events_copy() is the thread safe version of tep_list_events(). same behavior, same vibe, BUT the returned array is allocated internally and it's on u to free it — that's the deal. note that the content of the array still must not be freed (peep the EXAMPLE down below, it's giving instructions 👀).

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👑 RETURN VALUE 👑

tep_list_events() returns an array of pointers to events. if something goes wrong? NULL. and again, for the people in the back: the returned array must not be freed, it is managed by the library. 🫶

tep_list_events_copy() returns an array of pointers to events. on error, NULL. and this returned array must be freed by the caller. yes queen, u own this one 💅

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🎀 EXAMPLE 🎀

#include <event-parse.h>
...
struct tep_handle *tep = tep_alloc();
...
int i;
struct tep_event_format **events;

i=0;
events = tep_list_events(tep, TEP_EVENT_SORT_ID);
if (events == NULL) {
        /* Failed to get the events, sorted by ID */
} else {
        while(events[i]) {
                /* walk through the list of the events, sorted by ID */
                i++;
        }
}

i=0;
events = tep_list_events_copy(tep, TEP_EVENT_SORT_NAME);
if (events == NULL) {
        /* Failed to get the events, sorted by name */
} else {
        while(events[i]) {
                /* walk through the list of the events, sorted by name */
                i++;
        }
        free(events);
}

...

see how the copy one gets a lil free(events) at the end and the other one doesn't?? that's the whole tea ☕ the way that detail matters fr fr.

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🧚 FILES 🧚

• event-parse.h — the header file u include so u can actually access the library APIs 📄
• -ltraceevent — the linker switch u add when building a program that uses the library 🔗

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🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

libtraceevent(3), trace-cmd(1)

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💜 AUTHOR 💜

• Steven Rostedt <rostedt@goodmis.org[1]>, author of libtraceevent 👑
• Tzvetomir Stoyanov <tz.stoyanov@gmail.com[2]>, author of this man page ✍️

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🍓 REPORTING BUGS 🍓

found a bug? report it to <linux-trace-devel@vger.kernel.org[3]> — they wanna hear about it, no cap 🐛

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⭐ LICENSE ⭐

libtraceevent is Free Software licensed under the GNU LGPL 2.1 📜

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🔥 RESOURCES 🔥

https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/libs/libtrace/libtraceevent.git/

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💀 NOTES 💀

1. rostedt@goodmis.org mailto:rostedt@goodmis.org
2. tz.stoyanov@gmail.com mailto:tz.stoyanov@gmail.com
3. linux-trace-devel@vger.kernel.org mailto:linux-trace-devel@vger.kernel.org

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and that's the whole page bestie!! 🫶 this was libtraceevent 1.9.0, dated 06/15/2026, and it's genuinely iconic of u to read the whole thing. go sort some events, u absolute main character 💖✨🎀