sprint_backtrace(9)

💅 sprint_backtrace(9) 💅

okay so bestie, welcome to the Kernel API Manual — this is the tea on sprint_backtrace, and honestly? it's giving "small function, huge save" energy ✨

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🌸 NAME 🌸

sprint_backtrace — looks up a backtrace symbol and hands it back to you in a text buffer 🎀

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✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

int sprint_backtrace (char *buffer , unsigned long address );

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🦋 ARGUMENTS 🦋

• buffer — the buffer where the stuff gets stored, bestie 💖
• address — the address you want to look up 🔍

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👑 DESCRIPTION 👑

so this one is for stack backtrace, and it literally does the same thing as sprint_symbol… except with a modified/decreased address. no cap. 🙈

here's the vibe: if there's a tail-call to a function marked "noreturn", gcc goes full optimized gremlin mode and optimizes out the code after the call, so the stack-saved return address could end up pointing outside of the caller 😭. not iconic of it, honestly.

that's exactly why this function exists — it decreases the address so that kallsyms can still find the original caller 💅 periodt.

and what does it give you back? the number of bytes stored in buffer. that's the return value, babes ✨

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🫶 SEE ALSO 🫶

• Kernel file ./kernel/kallsyms.c
• sprint_symbol(9)
• sprint_symbol_build_id(9)
• sprint_symbol_no_offset(9)
• sprint_backtrace_build_id(9)

go read them, they're all part of the same friend group 💜

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and that's the whole page, bestie!! 🧚 this little icon lives in ./kernel and the version stamp says October 2026 — mwah, slay, see you in the source 🌈💖🎀