doc/java-agent.txt

   1 ======================
   2  Using the Java agent
   3 ======================
   4
   5 The agent can be built in three different configurations:
   6
   7 1) Java agent with JUL support:
   8
   9 $ ./configure --enable-java-agent-jul
  10
  11 2) Java agent with Log4j 1.x support (deprecated):
  12
  13 $ export CLASSPATH=$CLASSPATH:/path/to/log4j.jar
  14 $ ./configure --enable-java-agent-log4j
  15
  16 3) Java agent with Log4j 2.x support:
  17
  18 $ export CLASSPATH=$CLASSPATH:/path/to/log4j-core.jar:/path/to/log4j-api.jar
  19 $ ./configure --enable-java-agent-log4j2
  20
  21 4) Java agent with JUL + Log4j 1.x + Log4j 2.x support
  22
  23 $ export CLASSPATH=$CLASSPATH:/path/to/log4j.jar:/path/to/log4j-core.jar:/path/to/log4j-api.jar
  24 $ ./configure --enable-java-agent-all
  25
  26 To build the agent with log4j support, make sure that the log4j jar
  27 is in your Java classpath.
  28
  29 The configure script will automatically detect the appropriate Java
  30 binaries to use in order to build the Java agent.
  31
  32 Enabling the JUL support will build a "lttng-ust-agent-jul.jar" file. Enabling
  33 the log4j 1.x support will build a "lttng-ust-agent-log4j.jar" and enabling
  34 log4j 2.x support will build a "lttng-ust-agent-log4j2.jar". All of these jars
  35 depend on a third "lttng-ust-agent-common.jar", which will always be built.
  36
  37 All these archives will be installed in the arch-agnostic "$prefix/share/java"
  38 path, e.g: "/usr/share/java". You need to make sure the .jar for the logging
  39 API you want to use (either "lttng-ust-agent-jul.jar",
  40 "lttng-ust-agent-log4j.jar" or "lttng-ust-agent-log4j2.jar") is on your
  41 application's classpath.
  42
  43 The logging libraries require an architecture-specific shared object,
  44 "liblttng-ust-jul-jni.so" for JUL and "liblttng-ust-jul-log4j.so" for both
  45 Log4j 1.x and 2.x, which are installed by the build system when doing "make
  46 install". Make sure that your Java application can find this shared object, by
  47 using the "java.library.path" property if necessary.
  48
  49 In order to use UST tracing in your Java application, you simply need to
  50 instantiate a LttngLogHandler or a LttngLogAppender (for JUL or Log4j,
  51 respectively), then attach it to a JUL or Log4j Logger class.
  52
  53 Refer to the code examples in "examples/java-jul/", "examples/java-log4j/" and
  54 "examples/java-log4j2-*/".
  55
  56 LTTng session daemon agents will be initialized as needed. If no session daemon
  57 is available, the execution will continue and the agents will retry connecting
  58 every 3 seconds.
  59
  60
  61 ==============
  62  Object model
  63 ==============
  64
  65 The object model of the Java agent implementation is as follows:
  66
  67 ---------
  68 Ownership
  69 ---------
  70 Log Handlers: LttngLogHandler, LttngLogAppender
  71   n handlers/appenders, managed by the application.
  72   Can be created programmatically, or via a configuration file,
  73   Each one registers to a specific agent singleton (one per logging API) that is loaded on-demand
  74
  75 Agent singletons: LttngJulAgent, LttngLog4jAgent
  76   Keep track of all handlers/appenders registered to them.
  77   Are disposed when last handler deregisters.
  78   Each agent instantiates 2 TCP clients, one for the root session daemon, one for the user one.
  79   One type of TCP client class for now. TCP client may become a singleton in the future.
  80
  81 -------
  82 Control
  83 -------
  84 Messages come from the session daemon through the socket connection.
  85 Agent passes back-reference to itself to the TCP clients.
  86 Clients use this reference to invoke callbacks, which modify the state of the agent (enabling/disabling events, etc.)
  87
  88 ---------
  89 Data path
  90 ---------
  91 Log messages are generated by the application and sent to the Logger objects,
  92 which then send them to the Handlers.
  93
  94 When a log event is received by a Handler (publish(LogRecord)), the handler
  95 checks with the agent if it should log it or not, via
  96 ILttngAgent#isEventEnabled() for example.
  97
  98 Events that are logged call the native tracepoint through JNI, which generates
  99 a UST event. There is one type of tracepoint per domain (Jul or Logj4).
 100
 101 -----------------------
 102 Filtering notifications
 103 -----------------------
 104 FilterChangeNotifier is the singleton notifier class.
 105 Applications implement an IFilterChangeListener, and register it to the notifier.
 106
 107 Whenever new event rules are enabled or disabled, the relevant agent informs the
 108 notifier, which then sends notifications to all registered listeners by invoking
 109 their callbacks.
 110
 111 Upon registration, a new listener will receive notifications for all currently
 112 active rules.
 113
 114 The notifier keeps track of its own event rule refcounting, to handle the case
 115 of multiple sessions or multiple agents enabling identical event rules.
 116
 117 The FilterChangeNotifier does not have threads of its own. The listeners's
 118 callbacks will be invoked by these threads:
 119 * In the case of a notification being received while a listener is already
 120   registered, the callback is executed by the TCP client's thread. This
 121   effectively blocks the "lttng" command line until all callbacks are processed
 122   (assuming no timeouts).
 123 * In the case of a listener registering and receiving the currently-active
 124   rules, the callbacks will be executed by the application's thread doing the
 125   registerListener() call.
 126
 127 The notifier is entirely synchronized. This ensure that if a rule is enabled
 128 at the same time a listener is registered, that listener does not miss or
 129 receive duplicate notifications.