Tracing Output Formats

In order to check latest output options you may execute:

$ sudo ./dist/tracee-ebpf --output help
$ sudo ./dist/tracee-ebpf --output format:xxx

Tracee supports different output formats for detected events:

1. Table

   $ sudo ./dist/tracee-ebpf --output table --filter comm=bash --filter follow --filter event=openat
   TIME             UID    COMM             PID     TID     RET              EVENT                ARGS
   11:21:51:254199  1000   exa              1639459 1639459 3                openat               dirfd: -100, pathname: /etc/ld.so.cache, flags: O_RDONLY|O_CLOEXEC, mode: 0
   11:21:51:254285  1000   exa              1639459 1639459 3                openat               dirfd: -100, pathname: /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libgcc_s.so.1, flags: O_RDONLY|O_CLOEXEC, mode: 0
   11:21:51:254418  1000   exa              1639459 1639459 3                openat               dirfd: -100, pathname: /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libm.so.6, flags: O_RDONLY|O_CLOEXEC, mode: 0
   
   End of events stream
   Stats: {EventCount:3 EventsFiltered:0 NetCapCount:0 BPFLogsCount:0 ErrorCount:0 LostEvCount:0 LostWrCount:0 LostNtCapCount:0 LostBPFLogsCount:0}
   

2. Table (Verbose)

   $ sudo ./dist/tracee-ebpf --output table-verbose --filter comm=bash --filter follow --filter event=openat
   TIME             UTS_NAME         CONTAINER_ID  MNT_NS       PID_NS       UID    COMM             PID     TID     PPID    RET              EVENT                ARGS
   11:22:16:970700  fujitsu                        4026531840   4026531836   1000   exa              1643836 1643836 3795408 3                openat               dirfd: -100, pathname: /etc/ld.so.cache, flags: 524288, mode: 0
   11:22:16:970783  fujitsu                        4026531840   4026531836   1000   exa              1643836 1643836 3795408 3                openat               dirfd: -100, pathname: /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libgcc_s.so.1, flags: 524288, mode: 0
   11:22:16:970913  fujitsu                        4026531840   4026531836   1000   exa              1643836 1643836 3795408 3                openat               dirfd: -100, pathname: /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libm.so.6, flags: 524288, mode: 0
   
   End of events stream
   Stats: {EventCount:3 EventsFiltered:0 NetCapCount:0 BPFLogsCount:0 ErrorCount:0 LostEvCount:0 LostWrCount:0 LostNtCapCount:0 LostBPFLogsCount:0}
   

3. JSON

   $ sudo ./dist/tracee-ebpf --output json --filter comm=bash --filter follow --filter event=openat
   

   {"timestamp":1657290245020855990,"threadStartTime":615325807626168,"processorId":22,"processId":1664936,"cgroupId":1,"threadId":1664936,"parentProcessId":3795408,"hostProcessId":1664936,"hostThreadId":1664936,"hostParentProcessId":3795408,"userId":1000,"mountNamespace":4026531840,"pidNamespace":4026531836,"processName":"exa","hostName":"fujitsu","containerId":"","containerImage":"","containerName":"","podName":"","podNamespace":"","podUID":"","eventId":"257","eventName":"openat","argsNum":4,"returnValue":3,"stackAddresses":null,"syscall":"openat","contextFlags":{"containerStarted":false,"isCompat":false},"args":[{"name":"dirfd","type":"int","value":-100},{"name":"pathname","type":"const char*","value":"/etc/ld.so.cache"},{"name":"flags","type":"int","value":524288},{"name":"mode","type":"mode_t","value":0}]}
   {"timestamp":1657290245020940791,"threadStartTime":615325807626168,"processorId":22,"processId":1664936,"cgroupId":1,"threadId":1664936,"parentProcessId":3795408,"hostProcessId":1664936,"hostThreadId":1664936,"hostParentProcessId":3795408,"userId":1000,"mountNamespace":4026531840,"pidNamespace":4026531836,"processName":"exa","hostName":"fujitsu","containerId":"","containerImage":"","containerName":"","podName":"","podNamespace":"","podUID":"","eventId":"257","eventName":"openat","argsNum":4,"returnValue":3,"stackAddresses":null,"syscall":"openat","contextFlags":{"containerStarted":false,"isCompat":false},"args":[{"name":"dirfd","type":"int","value":-100},{"name":"pathname","type":"const char*","value":"/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libgcc_s.so.1"},{"name":"flags","type":"int","value":524288},{"name":"mode","type":"mode_t","value":0}]}
   

   Tip

   A good tip is to pipe tracee-ebpf json output to jq tool, this way you can select fields, rename them, filter values, and many other things:

   sudo ./dist/tracee-ebpf -o format:json -o option:parse-arguments
   -trace comm=ping | jq -c '. | {eventId, hostName, processName,
   hostProcessId,UserId}'
   

4. GOB

   $ sudo ./dist/tracee-ebpf --output json --filter comm=bash --filter follow --filter event=openat
   

   The output is binary (optimizes performance when piping tracee-ebpf events to tracee-rules, for signature patterns detections).

5. GOTEMPLATE

   Check integrations page for more info.

Output Files

Tracee gives user the option to select which files they want to use as standard output and standard error:

1. Output file

   Tip

   User might use different output formats combined with output file option

   $ sudo ./dist/tracee-ebpf --output json --filter comm=bash --filter follow --filter event=openat --output out-file:/tmp/tracee.log
   
   $ cat /tmp/tracee.log | jq -c
   

   {"timestamp":1657291487418386000,"threadStartTime":616568205378363,"processorId":11,"processId":1893369,"cgroupId":1,"threadId":1893369,"parentProcessId":3795408,"hostProcessId":1893369,"hostThreadId":1893369,"hostParentProcessId":3795408,"userId":1000,"mountNamespace":4026531840,"pidNamespace":4026531836,"processName":"exa","hostName":"fujitsu","containerId":"","containerImage":"","containerName":"","podName":"","podNamespace":"","podUID":"","eventId":"257","eventName":"openat","argsNum":4,"returnValue":3,"stackAddresses":null,"syscall":"openat","contextFlags":{"containerStarted":false,"isCompat":false},"args":[{"name":"dirfd","type":"int","value":-100},{"name":"pathname","type":"const char*","value":"/etc/ld.so.cache"},{"name":"flags","type":"int","value":524288},{"name":"mode","type":"mode_t","value":0}]}
   {"timestamp":1657291487418510000,"threadStartTime":616568205378363,"processorId":11,"processId":1893369,"cgroupId":1,"threadId":1893369,"parentProcessId":3795408,"hostProcessId":1893369,"hostThreadId":1893369,"hostParentProcessId":3795408,"userId":1000,"mountNamespace":4026531840,"pidNamespace":4026531836,"processName":"exa","hostName":"fujitsu","containerId":"","containerImage":"","containerName":"","podName":"","podNamespace":"","podUID":"","eventId":"257","eventName":"openat","argsNum":4,"returnValue":3,"stackAddresses":null,"syscall":"openat","contextFlags":{"containerStarted":false,"isCompat":false},"args":[{"name":"dirfd","type":"int","value":-100},{"name":"pathname","type":"const char*","value":"/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libgcc_s.so.1"},{"name":"flags","type":"int","value":524288},{"name":"mode","type":"mode_t","value":0}]}
   

2. Error file

   Redirect logs to a file if needed:

   $ sudo TRACEE_BPF_FILE=do-not-exist ./dist/tracee-ebpf --output json --filter comm=bash --filter follow --filter event=openat --output out-file:/tmp/tracee.events --output log-file:/tmp/tracee.log