DTrace uses reasonable default values and flexible default policies for runtime configuration. Tuning mechanisms in the form of DTrace compiler or runtime option can change the default behavior of the dtrace utility. You can find more information about the dtrace utility and various command line options in the dtrace(8) manual page.

Options that can be specified when running the dtrace utility can be categorized into three types:

• Compile-time Options: affect the compilation process but might also affect runtime behavior.

• Runtime Options: affect the runtime behavior of DTrace but which are often set at compile time.

• Dynamic Runtime Options: affect the runtime behavior of DTrace but which can be changed while tracing, by using the setopt function.