Python Support

note

Python profiling is currently in beta. There are some known CPU spikes in the agent that can occur when enabling Python profiling, once those are fixes Python support will no longer be in beta. The CPU spikes are not fatal, but we have a high bar for features we enable by default.

To enable profiling Python code enable the --enable-python-unwinding flag in the Polar Signals Agent.

info

In order to profile Python code you must have an interpreter with symbols.

You can check if your Python interpreter has symbols by running the following command:

$ nm /path/to/python | grep Py_BytesMain
❯  U Py_BytesMain

If you see Py_BytesMain then your Python interpreter has symbols and you can enable Python profiling.

tip

Sometimes the Python interpreter is dynamically linked as a shared library that has symbols, in that case you can check the shared library for symbols:

$ ldd /path/to/python
❯   linux-vdso.so.1 (0x00007fffccf70000)
    libpython3.11.so.1.0 => /path/to//libpython.so (0x00007f2bf8800000)
    libm.so.6 => /usr/lib/libm.so.6 (0x00007f2bf8713000)
    libc.so.6 => /usr/lib/libc.so.6 (0x00007f2bf8531000)
    /lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 => /usr/lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 (0x00007f2bf8e68000)

$ nm /path/to/libpython.so | grep PyRuntime
❯   0000000000557d20 D _PyRuntime
    0000000000297290 T _PyRuntime_Finalize
    0000000000297220 T _PyRuntime_Initialize
    000000000029a7a0 T _PyRuntimeState_Fini
    000000000029a600 T _PyRuntimeState_Init
    000000000029a840 t _PyRuntimeState_ReInitThreads

If you have _PyRuntime then your Python interpreter has symbols and you can enable Python profiling.

Lastly, the official Python Docker -slim images do not have symbols because of space constraints, but you can copy the symbols from the "full" image into the "slim" image:

FROM python:3.11 as debuginfo
FROM python:3.11-slim
COPY --from=debuginfo /usr/local/lib/libpython3.11.so.1.0 /usr/local/lib/libpython3.11.so.1.0