QUICKSTART How to use LTTng and LTTV in a few lines : This document is made of four parts : The first one explains how to install LTTng and LTTV from Debian and RPM binary packages, the second one explains how to install LTTng and LTTV from sources and the third one describes the steps to follow to trace a system and view it. The fourth and last part explains briefly how to add a new trace point to the kernel and to user space applications. What you will typically want is to read sections 2 and 3 : install LTTng from sources and use it. These operations are made for installing the LTTng 0.5.X tracer on a linux 2.6.X kernel. You will also find instructions for installation of LTTV 0.8.x : the Linux Trace Toolkit Viewer. To see the list of compatibilities between LTTng, ltt-control, LTTV, genevent and ltt-usertrace, please refer to : http://ltt.polymtl.ca > LTTng+LTTV versions compatibility The following lttng patch is necessary to have the tracing hooks in the kernel. The following ltt-control module controls the tracing. Required programs and librairies are assumed to be automatically installed in an installation with Debian or RPM packages. In the case of an installation from sources, the dependencies are listed. ** Current development status ** LTTng : supported architectures : Intel Pentium (UP/SMP) with TSC PowerPC 32 and 64 bits ARM x86_64 C2 Microsystems (variant of MIPS) LTTV : supported architectures : Intel i386 and better Intel 64 bits PowerPC 32 and 64 bits Author : Mathieu Desnoyers, September 2005 Last update : May 30, 2006 *********************************************************** ** Section 1 * Installation from Debian or RPM packages ** *********************************************************** ** NOTE : RPM and debian packages are only made once a version has been thoroughly tested. If they do not exist at the moment, please install from sources (see section 2 below). To see the list of compatibilities between LTTng, ltt-control, LTTV, genevent and lttng-modules, please refer to http://ltt.polymtl.ca > LTTng+LTTV versions compatibility * Install from RPM packages on Fedora Core 4 : Get LTTV RPM from : http://ltt.polymtl.ca/packages/fedora/RPMS LTTV RPM are ready. LTTng kernel and lttng-modules RPM are available for some architectures (i586, i686). Feel free to help fix the spec files to have correct lttng-modules RPM package. * Install from Deb packages on Debian : You can use the ltt.polymtl.ca apt source to get LTTV for Debian : Add the following two sources to your /etc/apt/sources.list : deb http://ltt.polymtl.ca/packages/debian experimental main deb-src http://ltt.polymtl.ca/packages/debian experimental main * Install from precompiled binary packages (LTTV compiled only for i386, and LTTng only for i686 smp), perform the following : su - apt-get update apt-get install lttv lttv-doc apt-get install kernel-image-2.6.12-rc4-mm2-lttng-0.4.2 apt-get install lttng-modules-modules-2.6.12-rc4-mm2-lttng-0.4.2 * note : the packages are signed by myself. I am not considered a trusted Debian source yet, so warnings are normal. Then, follow the section "Editing the system wide configuration" in section 2. * Create custom LTTV Debian packages Binary packages are only available for i386. If you want to create your own LTTV packages for other platforms, do : su - cd /usr/src apt-get source lttv cd lttv-0.6.9 dpkg-buildpackage -rfakeroot You should then have your LTTV .deb files created for your architecture. * Create custom LTTng packages For building LTTng Debian packages : su - apt-get install kernel-source-2.6.12-rc4-mm2-lttng-0.4.2 cd /usr/src bzip2 -cd kernel-source-2.6.12-rc4-mm2-lttng-0.4.2.tar.bz2 | tar xvof - cd kernel-source-2.6.12-rc4-mm2-lttng-0.4.2 make menuconfig (or xconfig or config) (customize your configuration) make-kpkg kernel_image You will then see your freshly created .deb in /usr/src. Install it with dpkg -i /usr/src/(image-name).deb You will also need to create a package for the lttng-modules : su - cd /usr/src apt-get source lttng-modules cd kernel-source-2.6.12-rc4-mm2-lttng-0.4.2 make-kpkg --added_modules /usr/src/lttng-modules-0.3 modules_image You will then see your freshly created .deb in /usr/src. Install it with dpkg -i /usr/src/lttng-modules-modules-(your version).deb Then, follow the section "Editing the system wide configuration" in section 2. *********************************************************** ** Section 2 * Installation from sources ** *********************************************************** * Prerequisites Tools needed to follow the package download steps : o wget o bzip2 o gzip o tar You have to install the standard development librairies and programs necessary to compile a kernel : (from Documentation/Changes in the Linux kernel tree) o Gnu C 2.95.3 # gcc --version o Gnu make 3.79.1 # make --version o binutils 2.12 # ld -v o util-linux 2.10o # fdformat --version o module-init-tools 0.9.10 # depmod -V You might also want to have libncurses5 to have the text mode kernel configuration menu, but there are alternatives. Prerequisites for LTTV 0.x.x installation are : gcc 3.2 or better gtk 2.4 or better development libraries (Debian : libgtk2.0, libgtk2.0-dev) (Fedora : gtk2, gtk2-devel) note : For Fedora users : this might require at least core 3 from Fedora, or you might have to compile your own GTK2 library. glib 2.4 or better development libraries (Debian : libglib2.0-0, libglib2.0-dev) (Fedora : glib2, glib2-devel) libpopt development libraries (Debian : libpopt0, libpopt-dev) (Fedora : popt) libpango development libraries (Debian : libpango1.0, libpango1.0-dev) (Fedora : pango, pango-devel) libc6 development librairies (Debian : libc6, libc6-dev) (Fedora : glibc, glibc) * Getting the LTTng packages su - mkdir /usr/src/lttng cd /usr/src/lttng (see http://ltt.polymtl.ca/lttng for package listing) wget http://ltt.polymtl.ca/lttng/patch-2.6.X-lttng-0.x.xx.tar.bz2 bzip2 -cd patch-2.6.X-lttng-0.x.xx.tar.bz2 | tar xvof - * Getting LTTng kernel sources su - cd /usr/src wget http://kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.6/linux-2.6.X.tar.bz2 bzip2 -cd linux-2.6.X.tar.bz2 | tar xvof - cd linux-2.6.X cat /usr/src/lttng/patch-2.6.X-lttng-0.x.xx* | patch -p1 cd .. mv linux-2.6.X linux-2.6.X-lttng-0.x.xx * Installing a LTTng kernel su - cd /usr/src/linux-2.6.X-lttng-0.x.xx make menuconfig (or make xconfig or make config) Select the < Help > button if you are not familiar with kernel configuration. Items preceded by [*] means they has to be built into the kernel. Items preceded by [M] means they has to be built as modules. Items preceded by [ ] means they should be removed. go to the "Instrumentation Support" section Select the following options : [*] Linux Trace Toolkit Instrumentation Support or <*> Linux Trace Toolkit Tracer It makes no difference for the rest of the procedure whether the Tracer is compiled built-in or as a module. activate : [*] Align Linux Trace Toolkit Traces [*] Allow tracing from userspace your choice (see < Help >) : [ ] Activate Linux Trace Toolkit Heartbeat Timer You may or may not activate instrumentation per facility. They are all selected for logging by default. It can be used as a compile time filter to enable/disable logging of events. It is useful to discard events with a minimal impact on the system and especially useful for now, as the dynamic filter has not been implemented yet. Select Select Select make make modules_install -- on X86, X86_64 make install reboot Select the Linux 2.6.17-lttng-0.x.xx kernel in your boot loader. -- on PowerPC cp vmlinux.strip /boot/vmlinux-2.6.X-lttng-0.x.xx cp System.map /boot/System.map-2.6.X-lttng-0.x.xx cp .config /boot/config-2.6.X-lttng-0.x.xx depmod -ae -F /boot/System.map-2.6.X-lttng-0.x.xx 2.6.X-lttng-0.x.xx mkinitrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.X-lttng-0.x.xx 2.6.X-lttng-0.x.xx (edit /etc/yaboot.conf to add a new entry pointing to your kernel : the entry that comes first is the default kernel) ybin select the right entry at the yaboot prompt (see choices : tab, select : type the kernel name followed by enter) Select the Linux 2.6.17-lttng-0.x.xx kernel in your boot loader. -- * Editing the system wide configuration You must activate debugfs and specify a mount point. This is typically done in fstab such that it happens at boot time. If you have never used DebugFS before, these operation would do this for you : mkdir /mnt/debugfs cp /etc/fstab /etc/fstab.lttng.bkp echo "debugfs /mnt/debugfs debugfs rw 0 0" >> /etc/fstab then, rebooting or issuing the following command will activate debugfs : mount /mnt/debugfs You need to load the ltt-control module to be able to control tracing from user space. This is done by issuing the command : modprobe ltt-control modprobe ltt-core modprobe ltt-relay If you want to have complete information about the kernel state (including all the process names), you need to load the ltt-statedump module. This is done by issuing the command : modprobe ltt-statedump You can automate at boot time loading the ltt-control module by : echo ltt-control >> /etc/modules echo ltt-core >> /etc/modules echo ltt-relay >> /etc/modules echo ltt-statedump >> /etc/modules * Getting and installing the ltt-control package (on the traced machine) (note : the ltt-control package contains lttd and lttctl. Although it has the same name as the ltt-control kernel module, they are *not* the same thing.) su - cd /usr/src wget http://ltt.polymtl.ca/lttng/ltt-control-0.x-xxxx2006.tar.gz gzip -cd ltt-control-0.x-xxxx2006.tar.gz | tar xvof - cd ltt-control-0.x-xxxx2006 (refer to README to see the development libraries that must be installed on you system) ./configure make make install * Getting and installing the ltt-usertrace package for user space tracing See http://ltt.polymtl.ca/ > USERSPACE TRACING QUICKSTART * Getting and installing the LTTV package (on the visualisation machine, same or different from the visualisation machine) su - cd /usr/src wget http://ltt.polymtl.ca/packages/LinuxTraceToolkitViewer-0.x.xx-xxxx2006.tar.gz gzip -cd LinuxTraceToolkitViewer-0.x.xx-xxxx2006.tar.gz | tar xvof - cd LinuxTraceToolkitViewer-0.x.xx-xxxx2006 (refer to README to see the development libraries that must be installed on you system) ./configure make make install *********************************************************** ** Section 3 * Using LTTng and LTTV ** *********************************************************** * Use graphical LTTV to control tracing and analyse traces lttv-gui (or /usr/local/bin/lttv-gui) - Spot the "Tracing Control" icon : click on it (it's a traffic light icon) - enter the root password - click "start" - click "stop" - Yes * You should now see a trace * Use text mode LTTng to control tracing The tracing can be controlled from a terminal by using the lttctl command (as root). Start tracing : lttctl -n trace -d -l /mnt/debugfs/ltt -t /tmp/trace Stop tracing and destroy trace channels : lttctl -n trace -R see lttctl --help for details. * Use text mode LTTV Fell free to look in /usr/local/lib/lttv/plugins to see all the text and graphical plugins available. For example, a simple trace dump in text format is available with : lttv -m textDump -t /tmp/trace see lttv -m textDump --help for detailed command line options of textDump. *********************************************************** ** Section 4 * Adding new instrumentations with genevent ** *********************************************************** * Getting and installing genevent su - cd /usr/src wget http://ltt.polymtl.ca/packages/genevent-0.xx.tar.gz gzip -cd genevent-0.xx.tar.gz | tar xvof - cd genevent-0.xx make make install * Add new events to the kernel with genevent su - cd /usr/local/share/LinuxTraceToolkitViewer/facilities cp process.xml yourfacility.xml * edit yourfacility.xml to fit your needs. cd /tmp /usr/local/bin/genevent /usr/local/share/LinuxTraceToolkitViewer/facilities/yourfacility.xml cp ltt-facility-yourfacility.h ltt-facility-id-yourfacility.h \ /usr/src/linux-2.6.17-lttng-0.x.xx8/include/linux/ltt cp ltt-facility-loader-yourfacility.c ltt-facility-loader-yourfacility.h \ /usr/src/linux-2.6.17-lttng-0.x.xx/ltt * edit the kernel file you want to instrument - Add #include at the beginning of the file. - Add a call to the tracing functions. See their names and parameters in /usr/src/linux-2.6.17-lttng-0.x.xx/include/linux/ltt/ltt-facility-yourfacility.h * Add new events to userspace programs with genevent See http://ltt.polymtl.ca/ > USERSPACE TRACING QUICKSTART