roadmap.md

GhostScope Roadmap (Milestones)

GhostScope is still evolving quickly. The milestones below are ordered from “strengthen core capabilities” to “polish experience” and finally “expand language and deployment coverage”.

Chained array access & dynamic indices

• First unlock constant-index access such as a.b[idx].c.
• Once verifier limits are well understood, roll out expression-based/dynamic indices in staged fashion.

Container tracing enhancements

• Most PID-based container tracing scenarios for -p are now in place.
• Current validated coverage includes:
  • host -> private PID-namespace container
  • private PID-namespace container -> same private PID namespace
  • private PID-namespace container -> nested child container
  • --pid=host container -> same host-PID view (smoke)
• The remaining milestone work is narrower:
  • improve -t lifecycle maintenance across PID-namespace boundaries, especially host -> private container cases
  • keep tightening edge cases where helper availability and PID mapping are still soft constraints
  • WSL remains outside the supported runtime scope today
• See Container support and limits and Limitations.

Uprobe enhancements

• Add support for sleepable uprobes (uprobe.s / uretprobe.s) so GhostScope can use sleepable helpers where appropriate, especially for more reliable user-memory reads.
• Add support for multi-attach uprobes (uprobe.multi / uretprobe.multi) to scale better when a script expands into many probe points.
• Keep compatibility fallbacks for kernels or libbpf/Aya paths that still require regular uprobe attachments.

Stack Unwinding

• Capture full call stacks at each trace point by parsing .eh_frame/.eh_frame_hdr.
• Surface the stack in the TUI with symbol/source awareness.
  Reference: https://lesenechal.fr/en/linux/unwinding-the-stack-the-hard-way#h5.1-parsing-eh_frame-and-eh_frame_hdr-with-gimli

Stability & accuracy

• Keep fixing defects, hardening error handling, and ensuring data consistency.
• Grow automated and regression coverage so the core workflows stay dependable.

Performance via bpftime

• Evaluate switching from kernel uprobes to userspace eBPF with bpftime to cut context-switch overhead.

Advanced language features

• Compiled languages: prioritize modern Rust features (async functions, trait objects, etc.).
• Interpreted languages: explore cooperation with runtimes such as Lua to surface variables/stack state.

Client-server execution model

• Typical scenario: sources and debug info live in the cloud, while binaries run on test rigs or local hosts.
• Goal: keep GhostScope’s TUI on the control side and run the eBPF agent on the target machine, similar to gdb/gdbserver.
• This will come after the core functionality stabilizes to avoid diluting near-term focus.