116 lines
4.0 KiB
Plaintext
116 lines
4.0 KiB
Plaintext
Using the Linux Kernel Tracepoints
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Mathieu Desnoyers
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This document introduces Linux Kernel Tracepoints and their use. It
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provides examples of how to insert tracepoints in the kernel and
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connect probe functions to them and provides some examples of probe
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functions.
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* Purpose of tracepoints
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A tracepoint placed in code provides a hook to call a function (probe)
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that you can provide at runtime. A tracepoint can be "on" (a probe is
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connected to it) or "off" (no probe is attached). When a tracepoint is
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"off" it has no effect, except for adding a tiny time penalty
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(checking a condition for a branch) and space penalty (adding a few
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bytes for the function call at the end of the instrumented function
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and adds a data structure in a separate section). When a tracepoint
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is "on", the function you provide is called each time the tracepoint
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is executed, in the execution context of the caller. When the function
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provided ends its execution, it returns to the caller (continuing from
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the tracepoint site).
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You can put tracepoints at important locations in the code. They are
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lightweight hooks that can pass an arbitrary number of parameters,
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which prototypes are described in a tracepoint declaration placed in a
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header file.
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They can be used for tracing and performance accounting.
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* Usage
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Two elements are required for tracepoints :
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- A tracepoint definition, placed in a header file.
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- The tracepoint statement, in C code.
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In order to use tracepoints, you should include linux/tracepoint.h.
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In include/trace/subsys.h :
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#include <linux/tracepoint.h>
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DECLARE_TRACE(subsys_eventname,
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TPPROTO(int firstarg, struct task_struct *p),
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TPARGS(firstarg, p));
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In subsys/file.c (where the tracing statement must be added) :
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#include <trace/subsys.h>
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DEFINE_TRACE(subsys_eventname);
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void somefct(void)
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{
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...
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trace_subsys_eventname(arg, task);
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...
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}
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Where :
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- subsys_eventname is an identifier unique to your event
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- subsys is the name of your subsystem.
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- eventname is the name of the event to trace.
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- TPPROTO(int firstarg, struct task_struct *p) is the prototype of the
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function called by this tracepoint.
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- TPARGS(firstarg, p) are the parameters names, same as found in the
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prototype.
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Connecting a function (probe) to a tracepoint is done by providing a
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probe (function to call) for the specific tracepoint through
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register_trace_subsys_eventname(). Removing a probe is done through
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unregister_trace_subsys_eventname(); it will remove the probe.
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tracepoint_synchronize_unregister() must be called before the end of
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the module exit function to make sure there is no caller left using
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the probe. This, and the fact that preemption is disabled around the
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probe call, make sure that probe removal and module unload are safe.
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See the "Probe example" section below for a sample probe module.
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The tracepoint mechanism supports inserting multiple instances of the
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same tracepoint, but a single definition must be made of a given
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tracepoint name over all the kernel to make sure no type conflict will
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occur. Name mangling of the tracepoints is done using the prototypes
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to make sure typing is correct. Verification of probe type correctness
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is done at the registration site by the compiler. Tracepoints can be
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put in inline functions, inlined static functions, and unrolled loops
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as well as regular functions.
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The naming scheme "subsys_event" is suggested here as a convention
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intended to limit collisions. Tracepoint names are global to the
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kernel: they are considered as being the same whether they are in the
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core kernel image or in modules.
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If the tracepoint has to be used in kernel modules, an
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EXPORT_TRACEPOINT_SYMBOL_GPL() or EXPORT_TRACEPOINT_SYMBOL() can be
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used to export the defined tracepoints.
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* Probe / tracepoint example
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See the example provided in samples/tracepoints/src
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Compile them with your kernel.
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Run, as root :
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modprobe tracepoint-example (insmod order is not important)
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modprobe tracepoint-probe-example
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cat /proc/tracepoint-example (returns an expected error)
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rmmod tracepoint-example tracepoint-probe-example
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dmesg
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