[PATCH] perf trace: Format instruction pointer fields as hexadecimal

From: Aaron Tomlin

Date: Sun Jul 19 2026 - 15:10:19 EST


Provide a helper function trace__field_is_ip() in
trace__fprintf_tp_fields() to ensure that tracepoint fields representing
instruction pointers such as "__probe_ip", "caller_ip", and
"call_site" are always formatted as hexadecimal memory addresses rather
than signed integers.

For example, when running a kmem:kfree tracepoint:

# perf trace --show-cpu --event kmem:kfree --max-event 1

Before this change, "call_site" was represented as a signed integer:
0.000 [003] xfce4-terminal/2201 kmem:kfree(call_site: -1714572588, ptr: 0xffff8afee0303000)

After this change, "call_site" is correctly represented in hexadecimal:
0.000 [003] xfce4-terminal/2201 kmem:kfree(call_site: 0xffffffff99cf1194, ptr: 0xffff8afee0303000)

This improves the readability of perf trace output by making code
addresses straightforward to parse and map to kernel symbols.

Signed-off-by: Aaron Tomlin <atomlin@xxxxxxxxxxx>
---
tools/perf/builtin-trace.c | 17 +++++++++++++++--
1 file changed, 15 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

diff --git a/tools/perf/builtin-trace.c b/tools/perf/builtin-trace.c
index 0142a16830de..207d46d073c1 100644
--- a/tools/perf/builtin-trace.c
+++ b/tools/perf/builtin-trace.c
@@ -3223,6 +3223,13 @@ static unsigned char bitmap_byte(const unsigned long *mask, int byte_idx)
return b_val;
}

+static bool trace__field_is_ip(const char *name)
+{
+ return !strcmp(name, "__probe_ip") ||
+ !strcmp(name, "caller_ip") ||
+ !strcmp(name, "call_site");
+}
+
static size_t trace__fprintf_tp_fields(struct trace *trace, struct perf_sample *sample,
struct thread *thread, void *augmented_args, int augmented_args_size)
{
@@ -3235,6 +3242,7 @@ static size_t trace__fprintf_tp_fields(struct trace *trace, struct perf_sample *
size_t printed = 0, btf_printed;
unsigned long val;
u8 bit = 1;
+ bool is_probe_ip;
struct syscall_arg syscall_arg = {
.augmented = {
.size = augmented_args_size,
@@ -3322,9 +3330,14 @@ static size_t trace__fprintf_tp_fields(struct trace *trace, struct perf_sample *
* Suppress it by default to avoid cluttering the output.
* If verbose mode is enabled, ensure it is formatted as a
* hexadecimal memory address rather than a signed integer.
+ *
+ * caller_ip and call_site are also expected to be instruction
+ * pointers and should always be represented in hexadecimal.
*/
- if (evsel__is_probe(evsel) && !strcmp(field->name, "__probe_ip")) {
- if (!verbose)
+ is_probe_ip = evsel__is_probe(evsel) && !strcmp(field->name, "__probe_ip");
+
+ if (is_probe_ip || trace__field_is_ip(field->name)) {
+ if (is_probe_ip && !verbose)
continue;

printed += scnprintf(bf + printed, size - printed,

base-commit: ef06fd2704cafbcf04e220f2103ca5488508f13e
--
2.54.0