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author | Changbin Du <changbin.du@intel.com> | 2018-02-17 06:39:41 +0100 |
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committer | Jonathan Corbet <corbet@lwn.net> | 2018-03-07 18:23:23 +0100 |
commit | 837e716de2bc7cb06323183bfdf54362f64b6110 (patch) | |
tree | 9f3baeba34db3ac9ccb0c6c097ed73634a4ccd1d /Documentation/trace/tracepoints.txt | |
parent | trace doc: convert trace/uprobetracer.txt to rst format (diff) | |
download | linux-837e716de2bc7cb06323183bfdf54362f64b6110.tar.xz linux-837e716de2bc7cb06323183bfdf54362f64b6110.zip |
trace doc: convert trace/tracepoints.txt to rst format
This converts the plain text documentation to reStructuredText format and
add it into Sphinx TOC tree. No essential content change.
Cc: Steven Rostedt <rostedt@goodmis.org>
Signed-off-by: Changbin Du <changbin.du@intel.com>
Signed-off-by: Jonathan Corbet <corbet@lwn.net>
Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation/trace/tracepoints.txt')
-rw-r--r-- | Documentation/trace/tracepoints.txt | 145 |
1 files changed, 0 insertions, 145 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/trace/tracepoints.txt b/Documentation/trace/tracepoints.txt deleted file mode 100644 index a3efac621c5a..000000000000 --- a/Documentation/trace/tracepoints.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,145 +0,0 @@ - Using the Linux Kernel Tracepoints - - Mathieu Desnoyers - - -This document introduces Linux Kernel Tracepoints and their use. It -provides examples of how to insert tracepoints in the kernel and -connect probe functions to them and provides some examples of probe -functions. - - -* Purpose of tracepoints - -A tracepoint placed in code provides a hook to call a function (probe) -that you can provide at runtime. A tracepoint can be "on" (a probe is -connected to it) or "off" (no probe is attached). When a tracepoint is -"off" it has no effect, except for adding a tiny time penalty -(checking a condition for a branch) and space penalty (adding a few -bytes for the function call at the end of the instrumented function -and adds a data structure in a separate section). When a tracepoint -is "on", the function you provide is called each time the tracepoint -is executed, in the execution context of the caller. When the function -provided ends its execution, it returns to the caller (continuing from -the tracepoint site). - -You can put tracepoints at important locations in the code. They are -lightweight hooks that can pass an arbitrary number of parameters, -which prototypes are described in a tracepoint declaration placed in a -header file. - -They can be used for tracing and performance accounting. - - -* Usage - -Two elements are required for tracepoints : - -- A tracepoint definition, placed in a header file. -- The tracepoint statement, in C code. - -In order to use tracepoints, you should include linux/tracepoint.h. - -In include/trace/events/subsys.h : - -#undef TRACE_SYSTEM -#define TRACE_SYSTEM subsys - -#if !defined(_TRACE_SUBSYS_H) || defined(TRACE_HEADER_MULTI_READ) -#define _TRACE_SUBSYS_H - -#include <linux/tracepoint.h> - -DECLARE_TRACE(subsys_eventname, - TP_PROTO(int firstarg, struct task_struct *p), - TP_ARGS(firstarg, p)); - -#endif /* _TRACE_SUBSYS_H */ - -/* This part must be outside protection */ -#include <trace/define_trace.h> - -In subsys/file.c (where the tracing statement must be added) : - -#include <trace/events/subsys.h> - -#define CREATE_TRACE_POINTS -DEFINE_TRACE(subsys_eventname); - -void somefct(void) -{ - ... - trace_subsys_eventname(arg, task); - ... -} - -Where : -- subsys_eventname is an identifier unique to your event - - subsys is the name of your subsystem. - - eventname is the name of the event to trace. - -- TP_PROTO(int firstarg, struct task_struct *p) is the prototype of the - function called by this tracepoint. - -- TP_ARGS(firstarg, p) are the parameters names, same as found in the - prototype. - -- if you use the header in multiple source files, #define CREATE_TRACE_POINTS - should appear only in one source file. - -Connecting a function (probe) to a tracepoint is done by providing a -probe (function to call) for the specific tracepoint through -register_trace_subsys_eventname(). Removing a probe is done through -unregister_trace_subsys_eventname(); it will remove the probe. - -tracepoint_synchronize_unregister() must be called before the end of -the module exit function to make sure there is no caller left using -the probe. This, and the fact that preemption is disabled around the -probe call, make sure that probe removal and module unload are safe. - -The tracepoint mechanism supports inserting multiple instances of the -same tracepoint, but a single definition must be made of a given -tracepoint name over all the kernel to make sure no type conflict will -occur. Name mangling of the tracepoints is done using the prototypes -to make sure typing is correct. Verification of probe type correctness -is done at the registration site by the compiler. Tracepoints can be -put in inline functions, inlined static functions, and unrolled loops -as well as regular functions. - -The naming scheme "subsys_event" is suggested here as a convention -intended to limit collisions. Tracepoint names are global to the -kernel: they are considered as being the same whether they are in the -core kernel image or in modules. - -If the tracepoint has to be used in kernel modules, an -EXPORT_TRACEPOINT_SYMBOL_GPL() or EXPORT_TRACEPOINT_SYMBOL() can be -used to export the defined tracepoints. - -If you need to do a bit of work for a tracepoint parameter, and -that work is only used for the tracepoint, that work can be encapsulated -within an if statement with the following: - - if (trace_foo_bar_enabled()) { - int i; - int tot = 0; - - for (i = 0; i < count; i++) - tot += calculate_nuggets(); - - trace_foo_bar(tot); - } - -All trace_<tracepoint>() calls have a matching trace_<tracepoint>_enabled() -function defined that returns true if the tracepoint is enabled and -false otherwise. The trace_<tracepoint>() should always be within the -block of the if (trace_<tracepoint>_enabled()) to prevent races between -the tracepoint being enabled and the check being seen. - -The advantage of using the trace_<tracepoint>_enabled() is that it uses -the static_key of the tracepoint to allow the if statement to be implemented -with jump labels and avoid conditional branches. - -Note: The convenience macro TRACE_EVENT provides an alternative way to - define tracepoints. Check http://lwn.net/Articles/379903, - http://lwn.net/Articles/381064 and http://lwn.net/Articles/383362 - for a series of articles with more details. |