.. SPDX-License-Identifier: CC-BY-2.0-UK

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Overall Architecture of the Linux Tracing and Profiling Tools
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Architecture of the Tracing and Profiling Tools
===============================================

It may seem surprising to see a section covering an 'overall
architecture' for what seems to be a random collection of tracing tools
that together make up the Linux tracing and profiling space. The fact
is, however, that in recent years this seemingly disparate set of tools
has started to converge on a 'core' set of underlying mechanisms:

-  static tracepoints
-  dynamic tracepoints

   -  kprobes
   -  uprobes

-  the perf_events subsystem
-  debugfs

.. admonition:: Tying it Together

   Rather than enumerating here how each tool makes use of these common
   mechanisms, textboxes like this will make note of the specific usages
   in each tool as they come up in the course of the text.