ftrace: document updates
The following updates were recommended by Elias Oltmanns and Randy Dunlap. [ updates based on Andrew Morton's comments are still to come. ] Signed-off-by: Steven Rostedt <srostedt@redhat.com> Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>
This commit is contained in:
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@ -2,8 +2,11 @@
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========================
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Copyright 2008 Red Hat Inc.
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Author: Steven Rostedt <srostedt@redhat.com>
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Author: Steven Rostedt <srostedt@redhat.com>
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License: The GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2
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Reviewers: Elias Oltmanns and Randy Dunlap
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Writen for: 2.6.26-rc8 linux-2.6-tip.git tip/tracing/ftrace branch
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Introduction
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------------
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@ -46,7 +49,7 @@ of ftrace. Here is a list of some of the key files:
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that is configured.
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available_tracers : This holds the different types of tracers that
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has been compiled into the kernel. The tracers
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have been compiled into the kernel. The tracers
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listed here can be configured by echoing in their
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name into current_tracer.
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@ -90,11 +93,13 @@ of ftrace. Here is a list of some of the key files:
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trace_entries : This sets or displays the number of trace
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entries each CPU buffer can hold. The tracer buffers
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are the same size for each CPU, so care must be
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taken when modifying the trace_entries. The number
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of actually entries will be the number given
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times the number of possible CPUS. The buffers
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are saved as individual pages, and the actual entries
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will always be rounded up to entries per page.
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taken when modifying the trace_entries. The trace
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buffers are allocated in pages (blocks of memory that
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the kernel uses for allocation, usually 4 KB in size).
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Since each entry is smaller than a page, if the last
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allocated page has room for more entries than were
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requested, the rest of the page is used to allocate
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entries.
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This can only be updated when the current_tracer
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is set to "none".
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@ -114,13 +119,13 @@ of ftrace. Here is a list of some of the key files:
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in performance. This also has a side effect of
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enabling or disabling specific functions to be
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traced. Echoing in names of functions into this
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file will limit the trace to only those files.
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file will limit the trace to only these functions.
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set_ftrace_notrace: This has the opposite effect that
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set_ftrace_filter has. Any function that is added
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here will not be traced. If a function exists
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in both set_ftrace_filter and set_ftrace_notrace
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the function will _not_ bet traced.
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in both set_ftrace_filter and set_ftrace_notrace,
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the function will _not_ be traced.
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available_filter_functions : When a function is encountered the first
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time by the dynamic tracer, it is recorded and
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@ -138,7 +143,7 @@ Here are the list of current tracers that can be configured.
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ftrace - function tracer that uses mcount to trace all functions.
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It is possible to filter out which functions that are
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traced when dynamic ftrace is configured in.
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to be traced when dynamic ftrace is configured in.
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sched_switch - traces the context switches between tasks.
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@ -297,13 +302,13 @@ explains which is which.
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The above is mostly meaningful for kernel developers.
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time: This differs from the trace output where as the trace output
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contained a absolute timestamp. This timestamp is relative
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to the start of the first entry in the the trace.
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time: This differs from the trace file output. The trace file output
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included an absolute timestamp. The timestamp used by the
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latency_trace file is relative to the start of the trace.
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delay: This is just to help catch your eye a bit better. And
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needs to be fixed to be only relative to the same CPU.
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The marks is determined by the difference between this
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The marks are determined by the difference between this
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current trace and the next trace.
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'!' - greater than preempt_mark_thresh (default 100)
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'+' - greater than 1 microsecond
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@ -322,13 +327,13 @@ output. To see what is available, simply cat the file:
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print-parent nosym-offset nosym-addr noverbose noraw nohex nobin \
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noblock nostacktrace nosched-tree
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To disable one of the options, echo in the option appended with "no".
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To disable one of the options, echo in the option prepended with "no".
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echo noprint-parent > /debug/tracing/iter_ctrl
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To enable an option, leave off the "no".
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echo sym-offest > /debug/tracing/iter_ctrl
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echo sym-offset > /debug/tracing/iter_ctrl
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Here are the available options:
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@ -344,7 +349,7 @@ Here are the available options:
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sym-offset - Display not only the function name, but also the offset
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in the function. For example, instead of seeing just
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"ktime_get" you will see "ktime_get+0xb/0x20"
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"ktime_get", you will see "ktime_get+0xb/0x20".
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sym-offset:
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bash-4000 [01] 1477.606694: simple_strtoul+0x6/0xa0
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@ -364,7 +369,7 @@ Here are the available options:
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user applications that can translate the raw numbers better than
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having it done in the kernel.
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hex - similar to raw, but the numbers will be in a hexadecimal format.
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hex - Similar to raw, but the numbers will be in a hexadecimal format.
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bin - This will print out the formats in raw binary.
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@ -381,7 +386,7 @@ sched_switch
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------------
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This tracer simply records schedule switches. Here's an example
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on how to implement it.
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of how to use it.
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# echo sched_switch > /debug/tracing/current_tracer
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# echo 1 > /debug/tracing/tracing_enabled
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@ -470,7 +475,7 @@ interrupt from triggering or the mouse interrupt from letting the
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kernel know of a new mouse event. The result is a latency with the
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reaction time.
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The irqsoff tracer tracks the time interrupts are disabled and when
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The irqsoff tracer tracks the time interrupts are disabled to the time
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they are re-enabled. When a new maximum latency is hit, it saves off
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the trace so that it may be retrieved at a later time. Every time a
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new maximum in reached, the old saved trace is discarded and the new
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@ -519,7 +524,7 @@ The difference between the 6 and the displayed timestamp 7us is
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because the clock must have incremented between the time of recording
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the max latency and recording the function that had that latency.
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Note the above had ftrace_enabled not set. If we set the ftrace_enabled
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Note the above had ftrace_enabled not set. If we set the ftrace_enabled,
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we get a much larger output:
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# tracer: irqsoff
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@ -570,21 +575,21 @@ vim:ft=help
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Here we traced a 50 microsecond latency. But we also see all the
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functions that were called during that time. Note that enabling
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function tracing we endure an added overhead. This overhead may
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extend the latency times. But never the less, this trace has provided
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some very helpful debugging.
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functions that were called during that time. Note that by enabling
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function tracing, we endure an added overhead. This overhead may
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extend the latency times. But nevertheless, this trace has provided
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some very helpful debugging information.
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preemptoff
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----------
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When preemption is disabled we may be able to receive interrupts but
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the task can not be preempted and a higher priority task must wait
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When preemption is disabled, we may be able to receive interrupts but
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the task cannot be preempted and a higher priority task must wait
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for preemption to be enabled again before it can preempt a lower
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priority task.
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The preemptoff tracer traces the places that disables preemption.
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The preemptoff tracer traces the places that disable preemption.
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Like the irqsoff, it records the maximum latency that preemption
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was disabled. The control of preemptoff is much like the irqsoff.
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It may seem that we missed a preempt enabled. What really happened
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is that the preempt count is held on the threads stack and we
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switched to the softirq stack (4K stacks in effect). The code
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does not copy the preempt count, but because interrupts are disabled
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does not copy the preempt count, but because interrupts are disabled,
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we don't need to worry about it. Having a tracer like this is good
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to let people know what really happens inside the kernel.
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Again, using this trace is much like the irqsoff and preemptoff tracers.
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# echo preemptoff > /debug/tracing/current_tracer
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# echo preemptirqsoff > /debug/tracing/current_tracer
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# echo 0 > /debug/tracing/tracing_max_latency
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# echo 1 > /debug/tracing/tracing_enabled
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# ls -ltr
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the ls task. We see that the task had the "need_resched" bit set
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with the 'N' in the trace. Interrupts are disabled in the spin_lock
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and the trace started. We see that a schedule took place to run
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sshd. When the interrupts were enabled we took an interrupt.
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On return of the interrupt the softirq ran. We took another interrupt
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while running the softirq as we see with the capital 'H'.
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sshd. When the interrupts were enabled, we took an interrupt.
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On return from the interrupt handler, the softirq ran. We took another
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interrupt while running the softirq as we see with the capital 'H'.
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wakeup
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I stress the point that this is about RT tasks. It is also important
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to know the scheduling latency of non-RT tasks, but the average
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schedule latency is better for non-RT tasks. Tools like
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LatencyTop is more appropriate for such measurements.
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LatencyTop are more appropriate for such measurements.
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Real-Time environments is interested in the worst case latency.
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Real-Time environments are interested in the worst case latency.
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That is the longest latency it takes for something to happen, and
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not the average. We can have a very fast scheduler that may only
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have a large latency once in a while, but that would not work well
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of RT tasks.
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Since this tracer only deals with RT tasks, we will run this slightly
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different than we did with the previous tracers. Instead of performing
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an 'ls' we will run 'sleep 1' under 'chrt' which changes the
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differently than we did with the previous tracers. Instead of performing
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an 'ls', we will run 'sleep 1' under 'chrt' which changes the
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priority of the task.
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# echo wakeup > /debug/tracing/current_tracer
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vim:ft=help
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Running this on an idle system we see that it only took 4 microseconds
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Running this on an idle system, we see that it only took 4 microseconds
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to perform the task switch. Note, since the trace marker in the
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schedule is before the actual "switch" we stop the tracing when
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schedule is before the actual "switch", we stop the tracing when
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the recorded task is about to schedule in. This may change if
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we add a new marker at the end of the scheduler.
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The interrupt went off while running ksoftirqd. This task runs at
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SCHED_OTHER. Why didn't we see the 'N' set early? This may be
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a harmless bug with x86_32 and 4K stacks. The need_reched() function
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that tests if we need to reschedule looks on the actual stack.
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Where as the setting of the NEED_RESCHED bit happens on the
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task's stack. But because we are in a hard interrupt, the test
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is with the interrupts stack which has that to be false. We don't
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see the 'N' until we switch back to the task's stack.
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a harmless bug with x86_32 and 4K stacks. On x86_32 with 4K stacks
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configured, the interrupt and softirq runs with their own stack.
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Some information is held on the top of the task's stack (need_resched
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and preempt_count are both stored there). The setting of the NEED_RESCHED
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bit is done directly to the task's stack, but the reading of the
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NEED_RESCHED is done by looking at the current stack, which in this case
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is the stack for the hard interrupt. This hides the fact that NEED_RESCHED
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has been set. We don't see the 'N' until we switch back to the task's
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assigned stack.
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ftrace
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------
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every kernel function, produced by the -pg switch in gcc), starts
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of pointing to a simple return.
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When dynamic ftrace is initialized, it calls kstop_machine to make it
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act like a uniprocessor so that it can freely modify code without
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worrying about other processors executing that same code. At
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initialization, the mcount calls are change to call a "record_ip"
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When dynamic ftrace is initialized, it calls kstop_machine to make
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the machine act like a uniprocessor so that it can freely modify code
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without worrying about other processors executing that same code. At
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initialization, the mcount calls are changed to call a "record_ip"
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function. After this, the first time a kernel function is called,
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it has the calling address saved in a hash table.
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want to trace and which ones we want the mcount calls to remain as
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nops.
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Two files that contain to the enabling and disabling of recorded
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functions are:
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Two files are used, one for enabling and one for disabling the tracing
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of recorded functions. They are:
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set_ftrace_filter
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set_ftrace_notrace
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A list of available functions that you can add to this files is listed
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A list of available functions that you can add to these files is listed
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in:
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available_filter_functions
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Perhaps this isn't enough. The filters also allow simple wild cards.
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Only the following is currently available
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Only the following are currently available
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<match>* - will match functions that begins with <match>
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<match>* - will match functions that begin with <match>
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*<match> - will match functions that end with <match>
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*<match>* - will match functions that have <match> in it
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To rewrite the filters, use '>'
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To append to the filters, use '>>'
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To clear out a filter so that all functions will be recorded again.
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To clear out a filter so that all functions will be recorded again:
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# echo > /debug/tracing/set_ftrace_filter
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# cat /debug/tracing/set_ftrace_filter
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As mentioned above, when dynamic ftrace is configured in, a kernel
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thread wakes up once a second and checks to see if there are mcount
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calls that need to be converted into nops. If there is not, then
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it simply goes back to sleep. But if there is, it will call
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calls that need to be converted into nops. If there are not any, then
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it simply goes back to sleep. But if there are some, it will call
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kstop_machine to convert the calls to nops.
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There may be a case that you do not want this added latency.
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to calling mcount. Without this kernel thread, that overhead will
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exist.
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Any write to the ftraced_enabled file will cause the kstop_machine
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to run if there are recorded calls to mcount. This means that a
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If there are recorded calls to mcount, any write to the ftraced_enabled
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file will cause the kstop_machine to run. This means that a
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user can manually perform the updates when they want to by simply
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echoing a '0' into the ftraced_enabled file.
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Having too much or not enough data can be troublesome in diagnosing
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some issue in the kernel. The file trace_entries is used to modify
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the size of the internal trace buffers. The numbers listed
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the size of the internal trace buffers. The number listed
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is the number of entries that can be recorded per CPU. To know
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the full size, multiply the number of possible CPUS with the
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number of entries.
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# cat /debug/tracing/trace_entries
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65620
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Note, to modify this you must have tracing fulling disabled. To do that,
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Note, to modify this, you must have tracing completely disabled. To do that,
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echo "none" into the current_tracer.
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# echo none > /debug/tracing/current_tracer
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This shows us that 85 entries can fit on a single page.
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The number of pages that will be allocated is a percentage of available
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memory. Allocating too much will produces an error.
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memory. Allocating too much will produce an error.
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# echo 1000000000000 > /debug/tracing/trace_entries
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-bash: echo: write error: Cannot allocate memory
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