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3 <head>
4 <title>Linux Trace Toolkit Next Generation Manual</title>
5 </head>
6 <body>
7
8 <h1>Linux Trace Toolkit Next Generation Manual</h1>
9
10 Author : Mathieu Desnoyers, September 2005<br>
11 Last update : January 21st, 2009<br>
12 (originally known as the LTTng QUICKSTART guide)
13
14 <h2>Table of Contents</h2>
15
16 <ul>
17 <li><a href="#intro" name="TOCintro">Introduction</a></li>
18 <ul>
19 <li><a href="#arch" name="TOCarch">Supported architectures</a></li>
20 </ul>
21
22 <li><a href="#section1" name="TOCsection1">Installing LTTng and LTTV from
23 sources</a></li>
24 <ul>
25 <li><a href="#prerequisites" name="TOCprerequisites">Prerequisistes</li>
26 <li><a href="#getlttng" name="TOCgetlttng">Getting the LTTng packages</li>
27 <li><a href="#getlttngsrc" name="TOCgetlttngsrc">Getting the LTTng kernel sources</li>
28 <li><a href="#installlttng" name="TOCinstalllttng">Installing a LTTng kernel</li>
29 <li><a href="#editconfig" name="TOCeditconfig">Editing the system wide
30 configuration</a>
31 <li><a href="#getlttctl" name="TOCgetlttctl">Getting and installing the
32 ltt-control package</li>
33 <li><a href="#userspacetracing" name="TOCuserspacetracing">Userspace Tracing</li>
34 <li><a href="#getlttv" name="TOCgetlttv">Getting and installing the LTTV package</ul>
35
36 <li><a href="#section2" name="TOCsection2">Using LTTng and LTTV</a></li>
37 <ul>
38 <li><a href="#uselttvgui" name="TOCuselttvgui">Use graphical LTTV to control
39 tracing and analyse traces</a></li>
40 <li><a href="#uselttngtext" name="TOCuselttngtext">Use text mode LTTng to
41 control tracing</a></li>
42 <li><a href="#uselttvtext" name="TOCuselttvtext">Use text mode LTTV</a></li>
43 <li><a href="#hybrid" name="TOChybrid">Tracing in "Hybrid" mode</a></li>
44 <li><a href="#flight" name="TOCflight">Tracing in flight recorder mode</a></li>
45 </ul>
46
47 <li><a href="#section3" name="TOCsection3">Adding kernel and user-space
48 instrumentation</a>
49 <ul>
50 <li><a href="#kerneltp" name="TOCkerneltp">Adding kernel instrumentation</a></li>
51 <li><a href="#usertp" name="TOCusertp">Adding userspace instrumentation</a></li>
52 </ul>
53
54 <li><a href="#section4" name="TOCsection4">Creating Debian and RPM packages
55 from LTTV</a></li>
56 <ul>
57 <li><a href="#pkgdebian" name="TOCpkgdebian">Create custom LTTV Debian
58 <li><a href="#pkglttng" name="TOCpkglttng">Create custom LTTng packages</a></li>
59 </ul>
60
61 </ul>
62
63 <hr />
64
65 <h2><a href="#TOCintro" name="intro">Introduction</a></h2>
66 <p>
67 This document is made of five parts : the first one explains how
68 to install LTTng and LTTV from sources, the second one describes the steps
69 to follow to trace a system and view it. The third part explains
70 briefly how to add a new trace point to the kernel and to user space
71 applications. The fourth and last part explains how to create Debian or RPM
72 packages from the LTTng and LTTV sources.
73 <p>
74 These operations are made for installing the LTTng 0.86 tracer on a linux 2.6.X
75 kernel. You will also find instructions for installation of LTTV 0.12.x : the
76 Linux Trace Toolkit Viewer.
77 To see the list of compatibilities between LTTng, ltt-control, LTTV, please
78 refer to :
79 <a
80 href="http://ltt.polymtl.ca/svn/trunk/lttv/doc/developer/lttng-lttv-compatibility.html">LTTng+LTTV versions compatibility</a>
81
82 The ongoing work had the Linux Kernel Markers integrated in the mainline Linux
83 kernel since Linux 2.6.24 and the Tracepoints since 2.6.28. In its current
84 state, the lttng patchset is necessary to have the trace clocksource, the
85 instrumentation and the LTTng high-speed data extraction mechanism added to the
86 kernel.
87
88 <br>
89 <br>
90 <h3><a href="#TOCarch" name="arch">Supported architectures</a></h3>
91 <br>
92 LTTng :<br>
93 <br>
94 <li> x86 32/64 bits
95 <li> PowerPC 32 and 64 bits
96 <li> ARMv7 OMAP3
97 <li> Other ARM (with limited timestamping precision, e.g. 1HZ. Need
98 architecture-specific support for better precision)
99 <li> MIPS
100 <li> sh (partial architecture-specific instrumentation)
101 <li> sparc64 (partial architecture-specific instrumentation)
102 <li> s390 (partial architecture-specific instrumentation)
103 <li> Other architectures supported without architecture-specific instrumentation
104 and with low-resolution timestamps.<br>
105 <br>
106 <br>
107 LTTV :<br>
108 <br>
109 <li> Intel 32/64 bits
110 <li> PowerPC 32 and 64 bits
111 <li> Possibly others. Takes care of endianness and type size difference between
112 the LTTng traces and the LTTV analysis tool.
113
114 <hr />
115
116
117 <h2><a href="#TOCsection1" name="section1">Installation from sources</a></h2>
118 <p>
119
120 <h3><a href="#TOCprerequisites" name="prerequisites">Prerequisites</a></h3>
121 <ul>
122 <p>
123 Tools needed to follow the package download steps :
124
125 <li>wget
126 <li>bzip2
127 <li>gzip
128 <li>tar
129
130 <p>
131 You have to install the standard development libraries and programs necessary
132 to compile a kernel :
133
134 <PRE>
135 (from Documentation/Changes in the Linux kernel tree)
136 Gnu C 2.95.3 # gcc --version
137 Gnu make 3.79.1 # make --version
138 binutils 2.12 # ld -v
139 util-linux 2.10o # fdformat --version
140 module-init-tools 0.9.10 # depmod -V
141 </PRE>
142
143 <p>
144 You might also want to have libncurses5 to have the text mode kernel
145 configuration menu, but there are alternatives.
146
147 <p>
148 Prerequisites for LTTV 0.x.x installation are :
149
150 <PRE>
151 gcc 3.2 or better
152 gtk 2.4 or better development libraries
153 (Debian : libgtk2.0, libgtk2.0-dev)
154 (Fedora : gtk2, gtk2-devel)
155 note : For Fedora users : this might require at least core 3 from Fedora,
156 or you might have to compile your own GTK2 library.
157 glib 2.4 or better development libraries
158 (Debian : libglib2.0-0, libglib2.0-dev)
159 (Fedora : glib2, glib2-devel)
160 libpopt development libraries
161 (Debian : libpopt0, libpopt-dev)
162 (Fedora : popt)
163 libpango development libraries
164 (Debian : libpango1.0, libpango1.0-dev)
165 (Fedora : pango, pango-devel)
166 libc6 development librairies
167 (Debian : libc6, libc6-dev)
168 (Fedora : glibc, glibc)
169 </PRE>
170 </ul>
171
172 <li>Reminder</li>
173
174 <p>
175 See the list of compatibilities between LTTng, ltt-control and LTTV at :
176 <a
177 href="http://ltt.polymtl.ca/svn/trunk/lttv/doc/developer/lttng-lttv-compatibility.html">LTTng+LTTV
178 versions compatibility</a>.
179
180
181 <h3><a href="#TOCgetlttng" name="getlttng">Getting the LTTng packages</a></h3>
182
183 <PRE>
184 su -
185 mkdir /usr/src/lttng
186 cd /usr/src/lttng
187 (see http://ltt.polymtl.ca/lttng for package listing)
188 wget http://ltt.polymtl.ca/lttng/patch-2.6.X-lttng-0.x.xx.tar.bz2
189 bzip2 -cd patch-2.6.X-lttng-0.x.xx.tar.bz2 | tar xvof -
190 </PRE>
191
192
193 <h3><a href="#TOCgetlttngsrc" name="getlttngsrc">Getting LTTng kernel sources</a></h3>
194
195 <PRE>
196 su -
197 cd /usr/src
198 wget http://kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.6/linux-2.6.X.tar.bz2
199 bzip2 -cd linux-2.6.X.tar.bz2 | tar xvof -
200 cd linux-2.6.X
201 - For LTTng 0.9.4- cat /usr/src/lttng/patch*-2.6.X-lttng-0.x.xx* | patch -p1
202 - For LTTng 0.9.5+ apply the patches in the order specified in the series file,
203 or use quilt
204 cd ..
205 mv linux-2.6.X linux-2.6.X-lttng-0.x.xx
206 </PRE>
207
208
209 <h3><a href="#TOCinstalllttng" name="installlttng">Installing a LTTng kernel</a></h3>
210
211 <PRE>
212 su -
213 cd /usr/src/linux-2.6.X-lttng-0.x.xx
214 make menuconfig (or make xconfig or make config)
215 Select the < Help > button if you are not familiar with kernel
216 configuration.
217 Items preceded by [*] means they has to be built into the kernel.
218 Items preceded by [M] means they has to be built as modules.
219 Items preceded by [ ] means they should be removed.
220 go to the "General setup" section
221 Select the following options :
222 [*] Prompt for development and/or incomplete code/drivers
223 [*] Activate markers
224 [*] Activate userspace markers ABI (experimental, optional)
225 [*] Immediate value optimization (optional)
226 [*] Linux Trace Toolkit Next Generation (LTTng) --->
227 <M> or <*> Compile lttng tracing probes
228 <M> or <*> Linux Trace Toolkit High-speed Lockless Data Relay
229 <M> or <*> Linux Trace Toolkit Lock-Protected Data Relay
230 <M> or <*> Linux Trace Toolkit Serializer
231 <M> or <*> Linux Trace Toolkit Marker Control
232 <M> or <*> Linux Trace Toolkit Tracer
233 [*] Align Linux Trace Toolkit Traces
234 <M> or <*> Support logging events from userspace
235 [*] Support trace extraction from crash dump
236 <M> or <*> Linux Trace Toolkit Trace Controller
237 <M> or <*> Linux Trace Toolkit State Dump
238 Select <Exit>
239 Select <Exit>
240 Select <Yes>
241 make
242 make modules_install
243 (if necessary, create a initrd with mkinitrd or your preferate alternative)
244 (mkinitrd -o /boot/initrd.img-2.6.X-lttng-0.x.xx 2.6.X-lttng-0.x.xx)
245
246 -- on X86, X86_64
247 make install
248 reboot
249 Select the Linux 2.6.X-lttng-0.x.xx kernel in your boot loader.
250
251 -- on PowerPC
252 cp vmlinux.strip /boot/vmlinux-2.6.X-lttng-0.x.xx
253 cp System.map /boot/System.map-2.6.X-lttng-0.x.xx
254 cp .config /boot/config-2.6.X-lttng-0.x.xx
255 depmod -ae -F /boot/System.map-2.6.X-lttng-0.x.xx 2.6.X-lttng-0.x.xx
256 mkinitrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.X-lttng-0.x.xx 2.6.X-lttng-0.x.xx
257 (edit /etc/yaboot.conf to add a new entry pointing to your kernel : the entry
258 that comes first is the default kernel)
259 ybin
260 select the right entry at the yaboot prompt (see choices : tab, select : type
261 the kernel name followed by enter)
262 Select the Linux 2.6.X-lttng-0.x.xx kernel in your boot loader.
263 --
264 </PRE>
265
266 <h3><a href="#TOCeditconfig" name="editconfig">Editing the system wide
267 configuration</a></h3>
268
269 <p>
270 You must activate debugfs and specify a mount point. This is typically done in
271 fstab such that it happens at boot time. If you have never used DebugFS before,
272 these operation would do this for you :
273
274 <PRE>
275 mkdir /mnt/debugfs
276 cp /etc/fstab /etc/fstab.lttng.bkp
277 echo "debugfs /mnt/debugfs debugfs rw 0 0" >> /etc/fstab
278 </PRE>
279
280 <p>
281 then, rebooting or issuing the following command will activate debugfs :
282 <PRE>
283 mount /mnt/debugfs
284 </PRE>
285
286 <p>
287 You need to load the LTT modules to be able to control tracing from user
288 space. This is done by issuing the following commands. Note however
289 these commands load all LTT modules. Depending on what options you chose to
290 compile statically, you may not need to issue all these commands.
291
292 <PRE>
293 modprobe ltt-trace-control
294 modprobe ltt-marker-control
295 modprobe ltt-tracer
296 modprobe ltt-serialize
297 modprobe ltt-relay
298 modprobe ipc-trace
299 modprobe kernel-trace
300 modprobe mm-trace
301 modprobe net-trace
302 modprobe fs-trace
303 modprobe jbd2-trace
304 modprobe ext4-trace
305 modprobe syscall-trace
306 modprobe trap-trace
307 #if locking tracing is wanted, uncomment the following
308 #modprobe lockdep-trace
309 </PRE>
310
311 <p>
312 If you want to have complete information about the kernel state (including all
313 the process names), you need to load the ltt-statedump module. This is done by
314 issuing the command :
315
316 <PRE>
317 modprobe ltt-statedump
318 </PRE>
319 <p>
320 You can automate at boot time loading the ltt-control module by :
321
322 <PRE>
323 cp /etc/modules /etc/modules.bkp
324 echo ltt-trace-control >> /etc/modules
325 echo ltt-marker-control >> /etc/modules
326 echo ltt-tracer >> /etc/modules
327 echo ltt-serialize >> /etc/modules
328 echo ltt-relay >> /etc/modules
329 echo ipc-trace >> /etc/modules
330 echo kernel-trace >> /etc/modules
331 echo mm-trace >> /etc/modules
332 echo net-trace >> /etc/modules
333 echo fs-trace >> /etc/modules
334 echo jbd2-trace >> /etc/modules
335 echo ext4-trace >> /etc/modules
336 echo syscall-trace >> /etc/modules
337 echo trap-trace >> /etc/modules
338 #if locking tracing is wanted, uncomment the following
339 #echo lockdep-trace >> /etc/modules
340 </PRE>
341
342
343 <h3><a href="#TOCgetlttctl" name="getlttctl">Getting and installing the
344 ltt-control package (on the traced machine)</a></h3>
345 <p>
346 (note : the ltt-control package contains lttd and lttctl. Although it has the
347 same name as the ltt-control kernel module, they are *not* the same thing.)
348
349 <PRE>
350 su -
351 cd /usr/src
352 wget http://ltt.polymtl.ca/lttng/ltt-control-0.x-xxxx2006.tar.gz
353 gzip -cd ltt-control-0.x-xxxx2008.tar.gz | tar xvof -
354 cd ltt-control-0.x-xxxx2006
355 (refer to README to see the development libraries that must be installed on you
356 system)
357 ./configure
358 make
359 make install
360 # (run ldconfig to ensure new shared objects are taken into account)
361 ldconfig
362 </PRE>
363
364 <h3><a href="#TOCuserspacetracing" name="userspacetracing">Userspace tracing</a></h3>
365
366 <PRE>
367 Make sure you selected the kernel menuconfig option :
368 <M> or <*> Support logging events from userspace
369 And that the ltt-userspace-event kernel module is loaded if selected as a
370 module.
371
372 Simple userspace tracing is available through
373 echo "some text to record" > /mnt/debugfs/ltt/write_event
374
375 It will appear in the trace under event :
376 channel : userspace
377 event name : event
378 </PRE>
379
380 <h3><a href="#TOCgetlttv" name="getlttv">Getting and installing the LTTV package
381 (on the visualisation machine, same
382 or different from the visualisation machine)</a></h3>
383
384 <PRE>
385 su -
386 cd /usr/src
387 wget http://ltt.polymtl.ca/packages/lttv-0.x.xx-xxxx2008.tar.gz
388 gzip -cd lttv-0.x.xx-xxxx2008.tar.gz | tar xvof -
389 cd lttv-0.x.xx-xxxx2008
390 (refer to README to see the development libraries that must be installed on your
391 system)
392 ./configure
393 make
394 make install
395 # (run ldconfig to ensure new shared objects are taken into account)
396 ldconfig
397 </PRE>
398
399 <hr />
400
401
402 <h2><a href="#TOCsection2" name="section2">Using LTTng and LTTV</a></h2>
403
404 <li><b>IMPORTANT : Arm Linux Kernel Markers after each boot before tracing</b></li>
405 <PRE>
406 ltt-armall
407 </PRE>
408
409 <h3><a href="#TOCuselttvgui" name="uselttvgui">Use graphical LTTV to control
410 tracing and analyse traces</a></h3>
411 <PRE>
412 lttv-gui (or /usr/local/bin/lttv-gui)
413 - Spot the "Tracing Control" icon : click on it
414 (it's a traffic light icon)
415 - enter the root password
416 - click "start"
417 - click "stop"
418 - Yes
419 * You should now see a trace
420 </PRE>
421
422 <h3><a href="#TOCuselttngtext" name="uselttngtext">Use text mode LTTng to control tracing</a></h3>
423 <PRE>
424 The tracing can be controlled from a terminal by using the lttctl command (as
425 root).
426
427 Start tracing :
428
429 lttctl -C -w /tmp/trace1 trace1
430
431 Stop tracing and destroy trace channels :
432
433 lttctl -D trace1
434
435 see lttctl --help for details.
436 </PRE>
437 <p>
438 (note : to see if the buffers has been filled, look at the dmesg output after
439 lttctl -D or after stopping tracing from the GUI, it will show an event lost
440 count. If it is the case, try using larger buffers. See lttctl --help to learn
441 how. lttv now also shows event lost messages in the console when loading a trace
442 with missing events or lost subbuffers.)
443
444 <h3><a href="#TOCuselttvtext" name="uselttvtext">Use text mode LTTV</a></h3>
445 <p>
446 Feel free to look in /usr/local/lib/lttv/plugins to see all the text and
447 graphical plugins available.
448 <p>
449 For example, a simple trace dump in text format is available with :
450 <PRE>
451 lttv -m textDump -t /tmp/trace
452 </PRE>
453 <p>
454 See lttv -m textDump --help for detailed command line options of textDump.
455 <p>
456 It is, in the current state of the project, very useful to use "grep" on the
457 text output to filter by specific event fields. You can later copy the timestamp
458 of the events to the clipboard and paste them in the GUI by clicking on the
459 bottom right label "Current time". Support for this type of filtering should
460 be added to the filter module soon.
461
462 <h3><a href="#TOChybrid" name="hybrid">Tracing in "Hybrid" mode</a></h3>
463 <p>
464 Starting from LTTng 0.5.105 and ltt-control 0.20, a new mode can be used :
465 hybrid. It can be especially useful when studying big workloads on a long period
466 of time.
467 <p>
468 When using this mode, the most important, low rate control information will be
469 recorded during all the trace by lttd (i.e. process creation/exit). The high
470 rate information (i.e. interrupt/traps/syscall entry/exit) will be kept in a
471 flight recorder buffer (now named flight-channelname_X).
472 <p>
473 The following lttctl commands take an hybrid trace :
474 <p>
475 Create trace channel, start lttd on normal channels, start tracing:
476 <PRE>
477 lttctl -C -w /tmp/trace2 -o channel.kernel.overwrite=1 trace2
478 </PRE>
479 <p>
480 Stop tracing, start lttd on flight recorder channels, destroy trace channels :
481 <PRE>
482 lttctl -D -w /tmp/trace2 trace2
483 </PRE>
484 <p>
485 Each "overwrite" channel is flight recorder channel.
486
487
488 <h3><a href="#TOCflight" name="flight">Tracing in flight recorder mode</a></h3>
489 <li>Flight recorder mode</li>
490 <p>
491 The flight recorder mode writes data into overwritten buffers for all channels,
492 including control channels, except for the facilities tracefiles. It consists of
493 setting all channels to "overwrite".
494 <p>
495 The following lttctl commands take a flight recorder trace :
496 <PRE>
497 lttctl -C -w /tmp/trace3 -o channel.all.overwrite=1 trace3
498 ...
499 lttctl -D -w /tmp/trace3 trace3
500 </PRE>
501
502 <hr />
503
504
505 <h2><a href="#TOCsection3" name="section3">Adding new instrumentations with the
506 markers</a></h2>
507 <p>
508
509 <h3><a href="#TOCkerneltp" name="kerneltp">Adding kernel
510 instrumentation</a></h3>
511
512 <p>
513 See <a
514 href="http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/compudj/linux-2.6-lttng.git;a=blob;f=Documentation/markers.txt">Documentation/markers.txt</a>
515 and <a
516 href="http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/compudj/linux-2.6-lttng.git;a=blob;f=Documentation/trace/tracepoints.txt">Documentation/trace/tracepoints.txt</a> in your kernel
517 tree.
518 <p>
519 Also see <a
520 href="http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/compudj/linux-2.6-lttng.git;a=tree;f=ltt/probes">ltt/probes/</a>
521 for LTTng probe examples.
522
523 <h3><a href="#TOCusertp" name="usertp">Adding userspace instrumentation</a></h3>
524
525 Add new events to userspace programs with
526 <a href="http://ltt.polymtl.ca/packages/">userspace markers packages</a>.
527 Get the latest markers-userspace-*.tar.bz2 and see the Makefile and examples. It
528 allows inserting markers in executables and libraries, currently only on x86_32
529 and x86_64.
530 See <a
531 href="http://ltt.polymtl.ca/packages/markers-userspace-0.5.tar.bz2">markers-userspace-0.5.tar.bz2</a> or more recent.
532
533 <p>
534 Note that a new design document for a 3rd generation of tracepoint/marker-based
535 userspace tracing is available at <a
536 href="http://ltt.polymtl.ca/svn/trunk/lttv/doc/developer/ust.html">LTTng User-space Tracing
537 Design</a>. This new infrastructure is not yet implemented.
538
539 <p>
540 The easy quick-and-dirty way to perform userspace tracing is currently to write
541 an string to /mnt/debugfs/ltt/write_event. See <a
542 href="#userspacetracing">Userspace tracing</a> in the
543 installation for sources section of this document.
544
545 <hr />
546
547 <h2><a href="#TOCsection4" name="section4">Creating Debian or RPM packages</a></h2>
548 <p>
549
550 <h3><a href="#TOCpkgdebian" name="pkgdebian">Create custom LTTV Debian packages</a></h3>
551
552 <PRE>
553 Use : dpkg-buildpackage -rfakeroot
554 </PRE>
555 <p>
556 You should then have your LTTV .deb files created for your architecture.
557
558 <h3><a href="#TOCpkglttng" name="pkglttng">Create custom LTTng packages</a></h3>
559 <p>
560 For building LTTng Debian packages :
561 get the build tree with patches applies as explained in section 2.
562
563 <PRE>
564 make menuconfig (or xconfig or config) (customize your configuration)
565 make-kpkg kernel_image
566 </PRE>
567 <p>
568 You will then see your freshly created .deb in /usr/src. Install it with
569 <PRE>
570 dpkg -i /usr/src/(image-name).deb
571 </PRE>
572 <p>
573 Then, follow the section "Editing the system wide configuration" in section 2.
574
575 <hr />
576
577 </body>
578 </html>
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