WARNING::PROCESS-TRACKING(7stap)

💖 WARNING::PROCESS-TRACKING 💖

okay bestie so real talk — this page lives in the 7stap manual fam, and it's all about that moment when warning::process-tracking pops up and tells you the process-tracking facilities are just… not available. 😭

✨ NAME ✨

warning::process-tracking — process-tracking facilities are not available 🫶

🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

so here's the tea: these errors and warnings show up when the kernel that systemtap is running on lacks support for user-space process tracking facilities. like the kernel just doesn't have the goods, and stap is standing there like 🧍

💅 COMPILE-TIME ERROR

the error that hits you is:

ERROR: user-space process-tracking facilities not available

and it shows up when your script contains a uprobes probe point that the current kernel does not support. 💀

⭐ RUNTIME WARNINGS

then there's this warning:

WARNING: process-tracking facilities are not available in this kernel

and its lil sibling message:

WARNING: cannot track target in process '...'

both of these go down at runtime, when you're running on a kernel (generally an older version, no shade) that has neither utrace functionality nor an acceptable substitute. 🙈

now here's the part that's lowkey important: the script should still load and run, bestie. but — and this is the catch — probes that rely on availability of process-tracking facilities will silently fail to trigger. no error, no warning, just vibes and nothing happening. 💀

🔥 RESOLVING THE ISSUE 🔥

if process-tracking functionality is absolutely necessary (like, non-negotiable, main character energy), then you've got two options, periodt:

• you need a kernel version newer than 3.5, or
• an older version must be compiled with appropriate utrace patches

pick your fighter. 💅

👑 SEE ALSO 👑

• stap(1)
• error::reporting(7stap)

k bye ily, go forth and track those processes 🦋✨ — this was WARNING::PROCESS-TRACKING from the 7stap manual set, and that's the whole page fr fr 💖