BCC

Spec sheet

Purpose

BCC is a toolkit for creating efficient kernel tracing and manipulation programs using eBPF.Read 4 Oct 2026 · github.com

Support

The project points users to its GitHub issue tracker, the IOVisor mailing list, and the #iovisor IRC channel for project discussion and help.Read 4 Oct 2026 · github.com

License

The repository identifies Apache-2.0 as its license.Read 4 Oct 2026 · github.com

Distribution packages

The installation guide lists packages or installation instructions for Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora, Arch, Gentoo, openSUSE, RHEL, Amazon Linux, Alpine, and WSL.Read 4 Oct 2026 · github.com

Included tools

The project includes self-contained tools for tracing a running system, including examples for disk I/O, processes, networking, and filesystems.Read 4 Oct 2026 · github.com

Kernel hooks

BCC supports socket filters, tc classifiers, tc actions, and kprobes.Read 4 Oct 2026 · github.com

Languages

BCC provides kernel instrumentation in C, with front ends in Python and Lua.Read 4 Oct 2026 · github.com

Linux requirement

The installation guide says Linux kernel 4.1 or newer is generally required, along with specified kernel configuration options.Read 4 Oct 2026 · github.com

Package limitation

The guide says Ubuntu Universe and iovisor BCC packages are outdated and that building from source is the way to get an up-to-date packaged version.Read 4 Oct 2026 · github.com

Permissions

The FAQ says a BPF program load failure with “Operation not permitted” may require running with sudo.Read 4 Oct 2026 · github.com

Security model

The README describes eBPF programs as sandboxed bytecode executed by the kernel and says BPF programs loaded into the kernel cannot crash or run forever.Read 4 Oct 2026 · github.com

Use cases

BCC is suited to performance analysis and network traffic control.Read 4 Oct 2026 · github.com

Workflow

Its features include a shared library workflow, an LLVM BPF backend for JIT, and dynamic loading and unloading of JITed programs.Read 4 Oct 2026 · github.com

Plans and prices

Every BCC plan and price →

Where Specifiction places it

• eBPF Observability Tools#12 of 297.9