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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 : September 3, 2010<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="#licenses" name="TOClicenses">Licenses</a></li>
20 <ul>
21 <li><a href="#arch" name="TOCarch">Supported architectures</a></li>
22 </ul>
23
24 <li><a href="#section1" name="TOCsection1">Installing LTTng and LTTV from
25 sources</a></li>
26 <ul>
27 <li><a href="#prerequisites" name="TOCprerequisites">Prerequisistes</li>
28 <li><a href="#getlttng" name="TOCgetlttng">Getting the LTTng packages</li>
29 <li><a href="#getlttngsrc" name="TOCgetlttngsrc">Getting the LTTng kernel sources</li>
30 <li><a href="#installlttng" name="TOCinstalllttng">Installing a LTTng kernel</li>
31 <li><a href="#editconfig" name="TOCeditconfig">Editing the system wide
32 configuration</a>
33 <li><a href="#getlttctl" name="TOCgetlttctl">Getting and installing the
34 ltt-control package</li>
35 <li><a href="#userspacetracing" name="TOCuserspacetracing">Userspace Tracing</li>
36 <li><a href="#getlttv" name="TOCgetlttv">Getting and installing the LTTV package</ul>
37
38 <li><a href="#section2" name="TOCsection2">Using LTTng and LTTV</a></li>
39 <ul>
40 <li><a href="#uselttvgui" name="TOCuselttvgui">Use graphical LTTV to control
41 tracing and analyse traces</a></li>
42 <li><a href="#uselttngtext" name="TOCuselttngtext">Use text mode LTTng to
43 control tracing</a></li>
44 <li><a href="#uselttvtext" name="TOCuselttvtext">Use text mode LTTV</a></li>
45 <li><a href="#hybrid" name="TOChybrid">Tracing in "Hybrid" mode</a></li>
46 <li><a href="#flight" name="TOCflight">Tracing in flight recorder mode</a></li>
47 </ul>
48
49 <li><a href="#section3" name="TOCsection3">Adding kernel and user-space
50 instrumentation</a>
51 <ul>
52 <li><a href="#kerneltp" name="TOCkerneltp">Adding kernel instrumentation</a></li>
53 <li><a href="#usertp" name="TOCusertp">Adding userspace instrumentation</a></li>
54 </ul>
55
56 <li><a href="#section4" name="TOCsection4">Creating Debian and RPM packages
57 from LTTV</a></li>
58 <ul>
59 <li><a href="#pkgdebian" name="TOCpkgdebian">Create custom LTTV Debian
60 <li><a href="#pkglttng" name="TOCpkglttng">Create custom LTTng packages</a></li>
61 </ul>
62
63 </ul>
64
65 <hr />
66
67 <h2><a href="#TOCintro" name="intro">Introduction</a></h2>
68 <p>
69 This document is made of five parts : the first one explains how
70 to install LTTng and LTTV from sources, the second one describes the steps
71 to follow to trace a system and view it. The third part explains
72 briefly how to add a new trace point to the kernel and to user space
73 applications. The fourth and last part explains how to create Debian or RPM
74 packages from the LTTng and LTTV sources.
75 <p>
76 These operations are made for installing the LTTng 0.86 tracer on a linux 2.6.X
77 kernel. You will also find instructions for installation of LTTV 0.12.x : the
78 Linux Trace Toolkit Viewer.
79 To see the list of compatibilities between the LTTng kernel patchset, LTTng
80 modules, ltt-control, LTTV, please refer to :
81 <a
82 href="http://lttng.org/cgi-bin/gitweb.cgi?p=lttv.git;a=blob_plain;f=doc/developer/lttng-lttv-compatibility.html;hb=HEAD">LTTng+LTTV versions compatibility</a>
83
84 The ongoing work had the Linux Kernel Markers integrated in the mainline Linux
85 kernel since Linux 2.6.24 and the Tracepoints since 2.6.28. In its current
86 state, the lttng patchset is necessary to have the trace clocksource, the
87 instrumentation and the LTTng high-speed data extraction mechanism added to the
88 kernel.
89
90 <br>
91 <br>
92 <h3><a href="#TOClicenses" name="licenses">Licenses</a></h3>
93 <p>
94 LTTng, UST and LTTV are developed by an open community. LTTng is released under
95 a dual Gnu LGPLv2.1/GPLv2 license, except for very few kernel-specific files
96 which are derived work from the Linux kernel.
97 <p>
98 LTTV is available under the Gnu GPLv2. The low-level LTTV trace reading library
99 is released under Gnu LGPLv2.1.
100 <p>
101 The Eclipse LTTng trace analysis tool is released under the EPL and uses the
102 LTTV trace reading library (LGPLv2.1).
103 <p>
104 The UST (Userspace Tracing) and the Userspace RCU libraries are released under
105 the LGPLv2.1 license, which allows linking with non-GPL (BSD, proprietary...)
106 applications. The associated headers are released under MIT-style/BSD-style
107 licenses.
108 <p>
109 Please refer to each particular file licensing for details.
110
111 <h3><a href="#TOCarch" name="arch">Supported architectures</a></h3>
112 LTTng :<br>
113 <br>
114 <li> x86 32/64 bits
115 <li> PowerPC 32 and 64 bits
116 <li> ARMv7 OMAP3
117 <li> Other ARM (with limited timestamping precision, e.g. 1HZ. Need
118 architecture-specific support for better precision)
119 <li> MIPS
120 <li> sh (partial architecture-specific instrumentation)
121 <li> sparc64 (partial architecture-specific instrumentation)
122 <li> s390 (partial architecture-specific instrumentation)
123 <li> Other architectures supported without architecture-specific instrumentation
124 and with low-resolution timestamps.<br>
125 <br>
126 <br>
127 LTTV :<br>
128 <br>
129 <li> Intel 32/64 bits
130 <li> PowerPC 32 and 64 bits
131 <li> Possibly others. Takes care of endianness and type size difference between
132 the LTTng traces and the LTTV analysis tool.
133
134 <hr />
135
136
137 <h2><a href="#TOCsection1" name="section1">Installation from sources</a></h2>
138 <p>
139
140 <h3><a href="#TOCprerequisites" name="prerequisites">Prerequisites</a></h3>
141 <ul>
142 <p>
143 Tools needed to follow the package download steps :
144
145 <li>wget
146 <li>bzip2
147 <li>gzip
148 <li>tar
149
150 <p>
151 You have to install the standard development libraries and programs necessary
152 to compile a kernel :
153
154 <PRE>
155 (from Documentation/Changes in the Linux kernel tree)
156 Gnu C 2.95.3 # gcc --version
157 Gnu make 3.79.1 # make --version
158 binutils 2.12 # ld -v
159 util-linux 2.10o # fdformat --version
160 module-init-tools 0.9.10 # depmod -V
161 </PRE>
162
163 <p>
164 You might also want to have libncurses5 to have the text mode kernel
165 configuration menu, but there are alternatives.
166
167 <p>
168 Prerequisites for LTTV 0.x.x installation are :
169
170 <PRE>
171 gcc 3.2 or better
172 gtk 2.4 or better development libraries
173 (Debian : libgtk2.0, libgtk2.0-dev)
174 (Fedora : gtk2, gtk2-devel)
175 note : For Fedora users : this might require at least core 3 from Fedora,
176 or you might have to compile your own GTK2 library.
177 glib 2.16 or better development libraries
178 (Debian : libglib2.0-0, libglib2.0-dev)
179 (Fedora : glib2, glib2-devel)
180 libpopt development libraries
181 (Debian : libpopt0, libpopt-dev)
182 (Fedora : popt)
183 libpango development libraries
184 (Debian : libpango1.0, libpango1.0-dev)
185 (Fedora : pango, pango-devel)
186 libc6 development librairies
187 (Debian : libc6, libc6-dev)
188 (Fedora : glibc, glibc)
189 </PRE>
190 </ul>
191
192 <li>Reminder</li>
193
194 <p>
195 See the list of compatibilities between LTTng, ltt-control and LTTV at :
196 <a
197 href="http://lttng.org/cgi-bin/gitweb.cgi?p=lttv.git;a=blob_plain;f=doc/developer/lttng-lttv-compatibility.html;hb=HEAD">LTTng+LTTV versions compatibility</a>.
198
199
200 <h3><a href="#TOCgetlttng" name="getlttng">Getting the LTTng packages</a></h3>
201
202 <PRE>
203 su -
204 mkdir /usr/src/lttng
205 cd /usr/src/lttng
206 (see http://lttng.org/files/lttng for package listing)
207 wget http://lttng.org/files/lttng/patch-2.6.X-lttng-0.x.xx.tar.bz2
208 wget http://lttng.org/files/lttng/lttng-modules-0.x.tar.bz2
209 bzip2 -cd patch-2.6.X-lttng-0.x.xx.tar.bz2 | tar xvof -
210 bzip2 -cd lttng-modules-0.x.tar.bz2 | tar xvof -
211 </PRE>
212
213
214 <h3><a href="#TOCgetlttngsrc" name="getlttngsrc">Getting LTTng kernel sources</a></h3>
215
216 <PRE>
217 su -
218 cd /usr/src
219 wget http://kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.6/linux-2.6.X.tar.bz2
220 bzip2 -cd linux-2.6.X.tar.bz2 | tar xvof -
221 cd linux-2.6.X
222 - For LTTng 0.9.4- cat /usr/src/lttng/patch*-2.6.X-lttng-0.x.xx* | patch -p1
223 - For LTTng 0.9.5+ apply the patches in the order specified in the series file,
224 or use quilt
225 cd ..
226 mv linux-2.6.X linux-2.6.X-lttng-0.x.xx
227 </PRE>
228
229
230 <h3><a href="#TOCinstalllttng" name="installlttng">Installing a LTTng kernel</a></h3>
231
232 <PRE>
233 su -
234 cd /usr/src/linux-2.6.X-lttng-0.x.xx
235 make menuconfig (or make xconfig or make config)
236 Select the &lt; Help &gt; button if you are not familiar with kernel
237 configuration.
238 Items preceded by [*] means they has to be built into the kernel.
239 Items preceded by [M] means they has to be built as modules.
240 Items preceded by [ ] means they should be removed.
241 go to the "General setup" section
242 Select the following options :
243 [*] Prompt for development and/or incomplete code/drivers
244 [*] Activate markers
245 [*] Immediate value optimization (optional)
246 Select &lt;Exit&gt;
247 Select &lt;Exit&gt;
248 Select &lt;Yes&gt;
249 make
250 make modules_install
251 (if necessary, create a initrd with mkinitrd or your preferate alternative)
252 (mkinitrd -o /boot/initrd.img-2.6.X-lttng-0.x.xx 2.6.X-lttng-0.x.xx)
253
254 -- on X86, X86_64
255 make install
256 reboot
257 Select the Linux 2.6.X-lttng-0.x.xx kernel in your boot loader.
258
259 -- on PowerPC
260 cp vmlinux.strip /boot/vmlinux-2.6.X-lttng-0.x.xx
261 cp System.map /boot/System.map-2.6.X-lttng-0.x.xx
262 cp .config /boot/config-2.6.X-lttng-0.x.xx
263 depmod -ae -F /boot/System.map-2.6.X-lttng-0.x.xx 2.6.X-lttng-0.x.xx
264 mkinitrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.X-lttng-0.x.xx 2.6.X-lttng-0.x.xx
265 (edit /etc/yaboot.conf to add a new entry pointing to your kernel : the entry
266 that comes first is the default kernel)
267 ybin
268 select the right entry at the yaboot prompt (see choices : tab, select : type
269 the kernel name followed by enter)
270 Select the Linux 2.6.X-lttng-0.x.xx kernel in your boot loader.
271 --
272 </PRE>
273
274
275 <h3><a href="#TOCinstalllttng" name="installlttng">Installing the LTTng modules</a></h3>
276
277 <PRE>
278 su -
279 cd /usr/src/lttng/lttng-modules-0.x
280 KERNELDIR=/usr/src/linux-2.6.X-lttng-0.x.xx make
281 KERNELDIR=/usr/src/linux-2.6.X-lttng-0.x.xx make modules_install
282 </PRE>
283
284 <h3><a href="#TOCeditconfig" name="editconfig">Editing the system wide
285 configuration</a></h3>
286
287 <p>
288 You must activate debugfs and specify a mount point. This is typically done in
289 fstab such that it happens at boot time. If you have never used DebugFS before,
290 these operation would do this for you :
291
292 <PRE>
293 mkdir /mnt/debugfs
294 cp /etc/fstab /etc/fstab.lttng.bkp
295 echo "debugfs /mnt/debugfs debugfs rw 0 0" >> /etc/fstab
296 </PRE>
297
298 <p>
299 then, rebooting or issuing the following command will activate debugfs :
300 <PRE>
301 mount /mnt/debugfs
302 </PRE>
303
304 <p>
305 You need to load the LTT modules to be able to control tracing from user
306 space. This is done by issuing the following commands. Note however
307 these commands load all LTT modules. Depending on what options you chose to
308 compile statically, you may not need to issue all these commands.
309
310 <PRE>
311 modprobe ltt-trace-control
312 modprobe ltt-marker-control
313 modprobe ltt-tracer
314 modprobe ltt-relay
315 modprobe ipc-trace
316 modprobe kernel-trace
317 modprobe mm-trace
318 modprobe net-trace
319 modprobe fs-trace
320 modprobe jbd2-trace
321 modprobe ext4-trace
322 modprobe syscall-trace
323 modprobe trap-trace
324 modprobe block-trace
325 #if locking tracing is wanted, uncomment the following
326 #modprobe lockdep-trace
327 </PRE>
328
329 <p>
330 If you want to have complete information about the kernel state (including all
331 the process names), you need to load the ltt-statedump module. This is done by
332 issuing the command :
333
334 <PRE>
335 modprobe ltt-statedump
336 </PRE>
337 <p>
338 You can automate at boot time loading the ltt-control module by :
339
340 <PRE>
341 cp /etc/modules /etc/modules.bkp
342 echo ltt-trace-control >> /etc/modules
343 echo ltt-marker-control >> /etc/modules
344 echo ltt-tracer >> /etc/modules
345 echo ltt-relay >> /etc/modules
346 echo ipc-trace >> /etc/modules
347 echo kernel-trace >> /etc/modules
348 echo mm-trace >> /etc/modules
349 echo net-trace >> /etc/modules
350 echo fs-trace >> /etc/modules
351 echo jbd2-trace >> /etc/modules
352 echo ext4-trace >> /etc/modules
353 echo syscall-trace >> /etc/modules
354 echo trap-trace >> /etc/modules
355 #if locking tracing is wanted, uncomment the following
356 #echo lockdep-trace >> /etc/modules
357 </PRE>
358
359
360 <h3><a href="#TOCgetlttctl" name="getlttctl">Getting and installing the
361 ltt-control package (on the traced machine)</a></h3>
362 <p>
363 (note : the ltt-control package contains lttd and lttctl. Although it has the
364 same name as the ltt-control kernel module, they are *not* the same thing.)
365
366 <PRE>
367 su -
368 cd /usr/src
369 wget http://lttng.org/files/lttng/ltt-control-0.x-xxxx2006.tar.gz
370 gzip -cd ltt-control-0.x-xxxx2008.tar.gz | tar xvof -
371 cd ltt-control-0.x-xxxx2006
372 (refer to README to see the development libraries that must be installed on you
373 system)
374 ./configure
375 make
376 make install
377 # (run ldconfig to ensure new shared objects are taken into account)
378 ldconfig
379 </PRE>
380
381 <h3><a href="#TOCuserspacetracing" name="userspacetracing">Userspace tracing</a></h3>
382
383 <PRE>
384 Make sure you selected the kernel menuconfig option :
385 &lt;M&gt; or &lt;*&gt; Support logging events from userspace
386 And that the ltt-userspace-event kernel module is loaded if selected as a
387 module.
388
389 Simple userspace tracing is available through
390 echo "some text to record" &gt; /mnt/debugfs/ltt/write_event
391
392 It will appear in the trace under event :
393 channel : userspace
394 event name : event
395 </PRE>
396
397 <h3><a href="#TOCgetlttv" name="getlttv">Getting and installing the LTTV package
398 (on the visualisation machine, same
399 or different from the visualisation machine)</a></h3>
400
401 <PRE>
402 su -
403 cd /usr/src
404 wget http://lttng.org/files/packages/lttv-0.x.xx-xxxx2008.tar.gz
405 gzip -cd lttv-0.x.xx-xxxx2008.tar.gz | tar xvof -
406 cd lttv-0.x.xx-xxxx2008
407 (refer to README to see the development libraries that must be installed on your
408 system)
409 ./configure
410 make
411 make install
412 # (run ldconfig to ensure new shared objects are taken into account)
413 ldconfig
414 </PRE>
415
416 <hr />
417
418
419 <h2><a href="#TOCsection2" name="section2">Using LTTng and LTTV</a></h2>
420
421 <li><b>IMPORTANT : Arm Linux Kernel Markers after each boot before tracing</b></li>
422 <PRE>
423 ltt-armall
424 </PRE>
425
426 <h3><a href="#TOCuselttvgui" name="uselttvgui">Use graphical LTTV to control
427 tracing and analyse traces</a></h3>
428 <PRE>
429 lttv-gui (or /usr/local/bin/lttv-gui)
430 - Spot the "Tracing Control" icon : click on it
431 (it's a traffic light icon)
432 - enter the root password
433 - click "start"
434 - click "stop"
435 - Yes
436 * You should now see a trace
437 </PRE>
438
439 <h3><a href="#TOCuselttngtext" name="uselttngtext">Use text mode LTTng to control tracing</a></h3>
440 <PRE>
441 The tracing can be controlled from a terminal by using the lttctl command (as
442 root).
443
444 Start tracing :
445
446 lttctl -C -w /tmp/trace1 trace1
447
448 Stop tracing and destroy trace channels :
449
450 lttctl -D trace1
451
452 see lttctl --help for details.
453 </PRE>
454 <p>
455 (note : to see if the buffers has been filled, look at the dmesg output after
456 lttctl -D or after stopping tracing from the GUI, it will show an event lost
457 count. If it is the case, try using larger buffers. See lttctl --help to learn
458 how. lttv now also shows event lost messages in the console when loading a trace
459 with missing events or lost subbuffers.)
460
461 <h3><a href="#TOCuselttvtext" name="uselttvtext">Use text mode LTTV</a></h3>
462 <p>
463 Feel free to look in /usr/local/lib/lttv/plugins to see all the text and
464 graphical plugins available.
465 <p>
466 For example, a simple trace dump in text format is available with :
467 <PRE>
468 lttv -m textDump -t /tmp/trace
469 </PRE>
470 <p>
471 See lttv -m textDump --help for detailed command line options of textDump.
472 <p>
473 It is, in the current state of the project, very useful to use "grep" on the
474 text output to filter by specific event fields. You can later copy the timestamp
475 of the events to the clipboard and paste them in the GUI by clicking on the
476 bottom right label "Current time". Support for this type of filtering should
477 be added to the filter module soon.
478
479 <h3><a href="#TOChybrid" name="hybrid">Tracing in "Hybrid" mode</a></h3>
480 <p>
481 Starting from LTTng 0.5.105 and ltt-control 0.20, a new mode can be used :
482 hybrid. It can be especially useful when studying big workloads on a long period
483 of time.
484 <p>
485 When using this mode, the most important, low rate control information will be
486 recorded during all the trace by lttd (i.e. process creation/exit). The high
487 rate information (i.e. interrupt/traps/syscall entry/exit) will be kept in a
488 flight recorder buffer (now named flight-channelname_X).
489 <p>
490 The following lttctl commands take an hybrid trace :
491 <p>
492 Create trace channel, start lttd on normal channels, start tracing:
493 <PRE>
494 lttctl -C -w /tmp/trace2 -o channel.kernel.overwrite=1 trace2
495 </PRE>
496 <p>
497 Stop tracing, start lttd on flight recorder channels, destroy trace channels :
498 <PRE>
499 lttctl -D -w /tmp/trace2 trace2
500 </PRE>
501 <p>
502 Each "overwrite" channel is flight recorder channel.
503
504
505 <h3><a href="#TOCflight" name="flight">Tracing in flight recorder mode</a></h3>
506 <li>Flight recorder mode</li>
507 <p>
508 The flight recorder mode writes data into overwritten buffers for all channels,
509 including control channels, except for the facilities tracefiles. It consists of
510 setting all channels to "overwrite".
511 <p>
512 The following lttctl commands take a flight recorder trace :
513 <PRE>
514 lttctl -C -w /tmp/trace3 -o channel.all.overwrite=1 trace3
515 ...
516 lttctl -D -w /tmp/trace3 trace3
517 </PRE>
518
519 <hr />
520
521
522 <h2><a href="#TOCsection3" name="section3">Adding new instrumentations with the
523 markers</a></h2>
524 <p>
525
526 <h3><a href="#TOCkerneltp" name="kerneltp">Adding kernel
527 instrumentation</a></h3>
528
529 <p>
530 See <a
531 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>
532 and <a
533 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
534 tree.
535 <p>
536 Also see <a
537 href="http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/compudj/linux-2.6-lttng.git;a=tree;f=ltt/probes">ltt/probes/</a>
538 for LTTng probe examples.
539
540 <h3><a href="#TOCusertp" name="usertp">Adding userspace instrumentation</a></h3>
541
542 Add new events to userspace programs with
543 <a href="http://lttng.org/files/packages/">userspace markers packages</a>.
544 Get the latest markers-userspace-*.tar.bz2 and see the Makefile and examples. It
545 allows inserting markers in executables and libraries, currently only on x86_32
546 and x86_64.
547 See <a
548 href="http://lttng.org/files/packages/markers-userspace-0.5.tar.bz2">markers-userspace-0.5.tar.bz2</a> or more recent.
549
550 <p>
551 Note that tracepoint/marker-based userspace tracing is available at <a
552 href="http://lttng.org/ust/">LTTng User-space Tracer (UST)</a>.
553
554 <p>
555 The easy quick-and-dirty way to perform userspace tracing is currently to write
556 an string to /mnt/debugfs/ltt/write_event. See <a
557 href="#userspacetracing">Userspace tracing</a> in the
558 installation for sources section of this document.
559
560 <hr />
561
562 <h2><a href="#TOCsection4" name="section4">Creating Debian or RPM packages</a></h2>
563 <p>
564
565 <h3><a href="#TOCpkgdebian" name="pkgdebian">Create custom LTTV Debian packages</a></h3>
566
567 <PRE>
568 Use : dpkg-buildpackage -rfakeroot
569 </PRE>
570 <p>
571 You should then have your LTTV .deb files created for your architecture.
572
573 <h3><a href="#TOCpkglttng" name="pkglttng">Create custom LTTng packages</a></h3>
574 <p>
575 For building LTTng Debian packages :
576 get the build tree with patches applies as explained in section 2.
577
578 <PRE>
579 make menuconfig (or xconfig or config) (customize your configuration)
580 make-kpkg kernel_image
581 </PRE>
582 <p>
583 You will then see your freshly created .deb in /usr/src. Install it with
584 <PRE>
585 dpkg -i /usr/src/(image-name).deb
586 </PRE>
587 <p>
588 Then, follow the section "Editing the system wide configuration" in section 2.
589
590 <hr />
591
592 </body>
593 </html>
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