---
name: "bashreadline-bpfcc"
section: "8"
platform: "linux"
package: "bpfcc-tools"
version: "0.31.0+ds-7"
release: "Debian 13 (Trixie)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/bashreadline-bpfcc"
---

# bashreadline-bpfcc(8)

Print entered bash commands system wide. Uses Linux eBPF/bcc.

## NAME

bashreadline - Print entered bash commands system wide. Uses Linux eBPF/bcc.

## SYNOPSIS

**bashreadline \[-h\] \[-s SHARED\]**

## DESCRIPTION

bashreadline traces the return of the readline() function using uprobes, to show the bash commands that were entered interactively, system wide. The entered command may fail: this is just showing what was entered.

This program is also a basic example of eBPF/bcc and uprobes.

This makes use of a Linux 4.4 feature (bpf\_perf\_event\_output()); for kernels older than 4.4, see the version under tools/old, which uses an older mechanism

Since this uses BPF, only the root user can use this tool.

## REQUIREMENTS

CONFIG\_BPF and bcc.

## OPTIONS

- \-h

  Print usage message.

- \-s

  Specify the location of libreadline.so shared library when you failed to run the script directly with error: "Exception: could not determine address of symbol  ´readline´". Default value is /lib/libreadline.so.

## EXAMPLES

- Trace bash commands system wide:

  \# **bashreadline**

## FIELDS

- TIME

  Time of the command (HH:MM:SS).

- PID

  Process ID of the bash shell.

- COMMAND

  Entered command.

## OVERHEAD

As the rate of interactive bash commands is expected to be very low (\<\<100/s), the overhead of this program is expected to be negligible.

## SOURCE

This is from bcc.

-

  https://github.com/iovisor/bcc

Also look in the bcc distribution for a companion \_examples.txt file containing example usage, output, and commentary for this tool.

## OS

Linux

## STABILITY

Unstable - in development.

## AUTHOR

Brendan Gregg

## SEE ALSO

[opensnoop(8)](/opensnoop/8.md)