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0 pointsbcantrill2y ago0 comments

That's an absurd comment: eBPF and DTrace exist on orthogonal systems, and most using eBPF have never even used DTrace, let alone "moved on" from it. The systems are really quite different, and have different design centers; for the use case of instrumenting the system for purposes of understanding it, there are many regards in which eBPF remains behind DTrace -- one of which I elaborated on in the rant to which the parent is referring.[0]

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqvVmYhclAg#t=12m25s

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Always_Anon2y ago

Just because it stings doesn't make it absurd

>eBPF and DTrace exist on orthogonal systems

That was true 15 years ago. eBPF and DTrace exist on some of the same systems now, Linux and Windows.

>and most using eBPF have never even used DTrace, let alone "moved on" from it

The performance and tracing groups at Microsoft certainty have. Same with Oracle, Netflix, among others.

>The systems are really quite different, and have different design centers; for the use case of instrumenting the system for purposes of understanding it

True, but unfortunately for DTrace, it is too late. Oracle should have done this years ago. Now Linux has a more powerful tracer builtin, eBPF, and it would be a backwards step to switch the kernel code to DTrace. [0]

[0] From the man that wrote the books: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16377141

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