[PATCH] perf trace: Format fields with hex specifiers in print_fmt as hexadecimal

From: Aaron Tomlin

Date: Fri Jul 31 2026 - 18:03:58 EST


Currently, when a probe event is added using perf probe --add with a
hexadecimal type cast (e.g., var:x64 and var:x32), the kernel traceprobe
subsystem sets the field type to "u64" in the event's format file, yet
generates a print format specifier of "var=0x%Lx" or "0x%x".

By default, perf trace uses its internal beautifiers which only inspect
field->type and field->flags. Because traceprobe events declare
primitive integer field types ("u64") without a C pointer asterisk
(i.e., "*"), perf trace defaults to printing the field's value as a
decimal unsigned long ("%ld"), ignoring the hexadecimal intent.

Introduce field_has_hex_fmt() to inspect the tracepoint's print_fmt
format string. If a field's print format assignment uses hexadecimal
specifiers (i.e., "=0x", "=%#", or "=%p"), assign SCA_PTR formatting so
perf trace displays the value in hexadecimal by default without
requiring --libtraceevent. For example:

❯ sudo ./perf probe --add 'enqueue_task_fair rq=rq:x64 p=p:x64 flags=flags:x32'
Added new event:
probe:enqueue_task_fair (on enqueue_task_fair with rq=rq:x64 p=p:x64 flags=flags:x32)

You can now use it in all perf tools, such as:

perf record -e probe:enqueue_task_fair -aR sleep 1

❯ sudo ./perf trace --show-cpu --event probe:enqueue_task_fair --max-event 3
0.000 [000] :0/0 probe:enqueue_task_fair(rq: 0xffff8ac632233180, p: 0xffff8ac2c1240000, flags: 0x100009)
0.006 [004] :0/0 probe:enqueue_task_fair(rq: 0xffff8ac632433180, p: 0xffff8ac624cf8000, flags: 0x9)
0.069 [001] :0/0 probe:enqueue_task_fair(rq: 0xffff8ac6322b3180, p: 0xffff8ac4c4212c40, flags: 0x9)

Signed-off-by: Aaron Tomlin <atomlin@xxxxxxxxxxx>
---
tools/perf/builtin-trace.c | 34 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++-
1 file changed, 33 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/tools/perf/builtin-trace.c b/tools/perf/builtin-trace.c
index ba0f8749fc7d..b0ce9c2a24e5 100644
--- a/tools/perf/builtin-trace.c
+++ b/tools/perf/builtin-trace.c
@@ -2098,6 +2098,37 @@ static bool is_internal_field(struct tep_format_field *field)
return !strcmp(field->type, "__data_loc char[]");
}

+static bool field_has_hex_fmt(struct tep_format_field *field, int len)
+{
+ const char *fmt, *pos, *end;
+
+ if (!field || !field->event || !field->event->print_fmt.format)
+ return false;
+
+ fmt = field->event->print_fmt.format;
+
+ /* Limit scanning strictly to the quoted printf format string */
+ if (*fmt == '"') {
+ fmt++;
+ end = strchr(fmt, '"');
+ } else {
+ end = strchr(fmt, ',');
+ }
+
+ for (pos = strstr(fmt, field->name); pos && (!end || pos < end); pos = strstr(pos + 1, field->name)) {
+ if (pos == fmt || !(isalnum(pos[-1]) || pos[-1] == '_')) {
+ const char *after = pos + len;
+
+ if (*after == '=' && (strstarts(after + 1, "0x") ||
+ strstarts(after + 1, "%#") ||
+ strstarts(after + 1, "%p")))
+ return true;
+ }
+ }
+
+ return false;
+}
+
static struct tep_format_field *
syscall_arg_fmt__init_array(struct syscall_arg_fmt *arg, struct tep_format_field *field,
bool *use_btf)
@@ -2125,7 +2156,8 @@ syscall_arg_fmt__init_array(struct syscall_arg_fmt *arg, struct tep_format_field
((len >= 4 && strcmp(field->name + len - 4, "name") == 0) ||
strstr(field->name, "path") != NULL)) {
arg->scnprintf = SCA_FILENAME;
- } else if ((field->flags & TEP_FIELD_IS_POINTER) || strstr(field->name, "addr"))
+ } else if ((field->flags & TEP_FIELD_IS_POINTER) || strstr(field->name, "addr") ||
+ field_has_hex_fmt(field, len))
arg->scnprintf = SCA_PTR;
else if (strcmp(field->type, "pid_t") == 0)
arg->scnprintf = SCA_PID;
--
2.55.0