python-bcc works only if clang-libs Installed, fails with only clang16-libs Installed

[vzhereb9]

This issue has been reproduced on RHEL 9.x and RHEL-based distributions such as Alma and Rocky 9.x, but it may be a common error across other distributions as well.

Installed Clang packages:

[root@localhost ~]# rpm -qa | grep clang
clang-resource-filesystem-16.0.6-1.el9.x86_64
clang16-resource-filesystem-16.0.6-6.el9.x86_64
clang16-libs-16.0.6-6.el9.x86_64

To reproduce and address the issue, follow these steps:

Attempt to install BCC and related packages:

[root@localhost ~]# yum install bcc bcc-tools python3-bcc
Last metadata expiration check: 0:28:52 ago on Thu 25 Apr 2024 11:08:28 AM MSK.
Dependencies resolved.
==================================================================================================================================================
 Package                                Architecture                  Version                              Repository                        Size
==================================================================================================================================================
Installing:
 bcc                                    x86_64                        0.26.0-4.el9                         appstream                        617 k
 bcc-tools                              x86_64                        0.26.0-4.el9                         appstream                        465 k
 python3-bcc                            noarch                        0.26.0-4.el9                         appstream                         92 k
Installing dependencies:
 python3-netaddr                        noarch                        0.8.0-5.el9                          appstream                        1.5 M

Transaction Summary
==================================================================================================================================================
Install  4 Packages

Total download size: 2.7 M
Installed size: 14 M
Is this ok [y/N]: y
Downloading Packages:
(1/4): bcc-tools-0.26.0-4.el9.x86_64.rpm                                                                          1.2 MB/s | 465 kB     00:00
(2/4): bcc-0.26.0-4.el9.x86_64.rpm                                                                                1.5 MB/s | 617 kB     00:00
(3/4): python3-netaddr-0.8.0-5.el9.noarch.rpm                                                                     3.2 MB/s | 1.5 MB     00:00
(4/4): python3-bcc-0.26.0-4.el9.noarch.rpm                                                                        1.0 MB/s |  92 kB     00:00
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total                                                                                                             3.1 MB/s | 2.7 MB     00:00
Running transaction check
Transaction check succeeded.
Running transaction test
Transaction test succeeded.
Running transaction
  Preparing        :                                                                                                                          1/1
  Installing       : python3-netaddr-0.8.0-5.el9.noarch                                                                                       1/4
  Installing       : python3-bcc-0.26.0-4.el9.noarch                                                                                          2/4
  Installing       : bcc-0.26.0-4.el9.x86_64                                                                                                  3/4
  Installing       : bcc-tools-0.26.0-4.el9.x86_64                                                                                            4/4
  Running scriptlet: bcc-tools-0.26.0-4.el9.x86_64                                                                                            4/4
  Verifying        : python3-netaddr-0.8.0-5.el9.noarch                                                                                       1/4
  Verifying        : bcc-tools-0.26.0-4.el9.x86_64                                                                                            2/4
  Verifying        : bcc-0.26.0-4.el9.x86_64                                                                                                  3/4
  Verifying        : python3-bcc-0.26.0-4.el9.noarch                                                                                          4/4

Installed:
  bcc-0.26.0-4.el9.x86_64       bcc-tools-0.26.0-4.el9.x86_64       python3-bcc-0.26.0-4.el9.noarch       python3-netaddr-0.8.0-5.el9.noarch

Complete!

Installation completed successfully

Try running Python and importing BCC:

[root@localhost ~]# python3
Python 3.9.16 (main, Dec  8 2022, 00:00:00)
[GCC 11.3.1 20221121 (Red Hat 11.3.1-4)] on linux
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import bcc
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
  File "/usr/lib/python3.9/site-packages/bcc/__init__.py", line 26, in <module>
    from .libbcc import lib, bcc_symbol, bcc_symbol_option, bcc_stacktrace_build_id, _SYM_CB_TYPE
  File "/usr/lib/python3.9/site-packages/bcc/libbcc.py", line 17, in <module>
    lib = ct.CDLL("libbcc.so.0", use_errno=True)
  File "/usr/lib64/python3.9/ctypes/__init__.py", line 374, in __init__
    self._handle = _dlopen(self._name, mode)
OSError: libclang-cpp.so.16: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
>>>

Install clang-libs:

[root@localhost ~]# yum install clang-libs
Last metadata expiration check: 0:32:17 ago on Thu 25 Apr 2024 11:08:28 AM MSK.
Dependencies resolved.
==================================================================================================================================================
 Package                            Architecture                   Version                                Repository                         Size
==================================================================================================================================================
Installing:
 clang-libs                         x86_64                         16.0.6-1.el9                           appstream                          22 M

Transaction Summary
==================================================================================================================================================
Install  1 Package

Total download size: 22 M
Installed size: 114 M
Is this ok [y/N]: y
Downloading Packages:
clang-libs-16.0.6-1.el9.x86_64.rpm                                                                                5.4 MB/s |  22 MB     00:04
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total                                                                                                             5.1 MB/s |  22 MB     00:04
Running transaction check
Transaction check succeeded.
Running transaction test
Transaction test succeeded.
Running transaction
  Preparing        :                                                                                                                          1/1
  Installing       : clang-libs-16.0.6-1.el9.x86_64                                                                                           1/1
  Running scriptlet: clang-libs-16.0.6-1.el9.x86_64                                                                                           1/1
  Verifying        : clang-libs-16.0.6-1.el9.x86_64                                                                                           1/1

Installed:
  clang-libs-16.0.6-1.el9.x86_64

Complete!

Installation completed successfully

After installing clang-libs, Python import BCC without any errors.

[root@localhost ~]# python3
Python 3.9.16 (main, Dec  8 2022, 00:00:00)
[GCC 11.3.1 20221121 (Red Hat 11.3.1-4)] on linux
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import bcc
>>>

It's important to note that the issue likely stems from incorrect paths to libclang-cpp.so. For clang-libs, the correct path is /usr/lib64/libclang-cpp.so.16, while for clang16-libs, it's /usr/lib64/llvm16/lib/libclang-cpp.so.16. Therefore, it's necessary to identify and correct the incorrect path being used by BCC.