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1.\" generated with Ronn/v0.5
2.\" http://github.com/rtomayko/ronn/
3.
4.TH "USTCTL" "1" "August 2010" "" ""
5.
6.SH "NAME"
7\fBustctl\fR \-\- a program to control the tracing of userspace applications
8.
9.SH "SYNOPSIS"
10\fBustctl\fR [\fIcommand\fR] [\fIPIDs\fR]...
11.
12.SH "DESCRIPTION"
13\fBustctl\fR is a program to control the tracing of userspace applications. It can
14list markers, start the tracing, stop the tracing, enable/disable markers, etc.
15.
16.SH "OPTIONS"
17These programs follow the usual GNU command line syntax, with long options
18starting with two dashes(`\-'). A summary of options is included below.
19.
20.TP
21\fB\-h\fR, \fB\-\-help\fR
22Show summary of options.
23.
24.TP
25\fB\-\-create\-trace\fR
26Create trace.
27.
28.TP
29\fB\-\-alloc\-trace\fR
30Allocate trace.
31.
32.TP
33\fB\-\-start\-trace\fR
34Start tracing.
35.
36.TP
37\fB\-\-stop\-trace\fR
38Stop tracing.
39.
40.TP
41\fB\-\-destroy\-trace\fR
42Destroy the trace.
43.
44.TP
45\fB\-\-set\-subbuf\-size\fR \fICHANNEL\fR/\fIbytes\fR
46Set the size of subbuffers in CHANNEL.
47.
48.TP
49\fB\-\-set\-subbuf\-num\fR \fICHANNEL\fR
50Set the number of subbuffers per buffer for CHANNEL. Must be a power of 2.
51.
52.TP
53\fB\-\-set\-sock\-path\fR
54Set the path of the daemon socket.
55.
56.TP
57\fB\-\-get\-subbuf\-size\fR \fICHANNEL\fR
58Print the size of subbuffers per buffer for CHANNEL.
59.
60.TP
61\fB\-\-get\-subbuf\-num\fR \fICHANNEL\fR
62Print the number of subbuffers per buffer for CHANNEL.
63.
64.TP
65\fB\-\-get\-sock\-path\fR
66Get the path of the daemon socket.
67.
68.TP
69\fB\-\-enable\-marker\fR \fICHANNEL\fR/\fIMARKER\fR
70Enable a marker.
71.
72.TP
73\fB\-\-disable\-marker\fR \fICHANNEL\fR/\fIMARKER\fR
74Disable a marker.
75.
76.TP
77\fB\-\-list\-markers\fR
78List the markers of the process, their state and format string.
79.
80.TP
81\fB\-\-force\-switch\fR
82Force a subbuffer switch. This will flush all the data currently held.
83.
84.SH "LIFE CYCLE OF A TRACE"
85Typically, the first step is to enable markers with \fB\-\-enable\-marker\fR. An
86enabled marker generates an event when the control flow passes over it
87(assuming the trace is recording). A disabled marker produces nothing. Enabling
88and disabling markers may however be done at any point, including while the
89trace is being recorded.
90.
91.P
92In order to record events, a trace is first created with \fB\-\-create\-trace\fR. At
93this point, the subbuffer count and size may be changed with \fB\-\-set\-subbuf\-num\fR
94and \fB\-\-set\-subbuf\-size\fR.
95.
96.P
97Afterward, the trace may be allocated with \fB\-\-alloc\-trace\fR. This allocates the
98buffers in memory, so once this is done, the subbuffer size and count can not
99be changed. Trace allocation also causes the daemon to connect to the trace
100buffers and wait for data to arrive. Explicit allocation is optional, as it is
101done automatically at trace start.
102.
103.P
104The trace may then be started with \fB\-\-start\-trace\fR. This results in events
105being recorded in the buffer. The daemon automatically collects these events.
106.
107.P
108The trace may be stopped with \fB\-\-stop\-trace\fR, either definitely after all the
109wanted information is collected, or temporarily, before being started again
110with \fB\-\-start\-trace\fR. This results in effectively 'pausing' the recording.
111After using \fB\-\-stop\-trace\fR, if a daemon is collecting the trace, it may not
112have flushed to the disk the full contents of the buffer yet.
113.
114.P
115Finally, when \fB\-\-destroy\-trace\fR is used, the trace buffers are unallocated.
116However, the memory may not be effectively freed until the daemon finishes to
117collect them. When the trace is being collected by \fBustd\fR, this command
118guarantees its full contents is flushed to the disk.
119.
120.SH "STRUCTURE OF A TRACE"
121Each instrumentation point that is added in a program is associated to a
122channel.
123.
124.P
125Trace events are put in buffers. There is one buffer per channel, per cpu.
126For example, on a system with 4 cores and tracing an application with 3
127channels, there will be 12 buffers in total. The content of each of these
128buffers is put in a distinct file in the trace directory. For example, the \fBmetadata_2\fR file contains the data that was extracted from the buffer that
129contained the events from the metadata channel and having occurred on cpu 2.
130.
131.P
132In memory, each buffer is divided in subbuffers. Subbuffers are equally\-sized,
133contiguous parts of a buffer. The size of a buffer is equal to the number of
134subbuffers it contains times the size of each subbuffer. When a subbuffer is
135full, it is collected by the daemon while the others are filled. If, however,
136the buffer size is too small, buffer overflows may occur and result in event
137loss. By default, the number of subbuffers per buffer is 2. Subbuffer size
138for a given channel may be chosen with \fB\-\-set\-subbuf\-size\fR while the subbuffer
139count is set with \fB\-\-set\-subbuf\-num\fR.
140.
141.SH "SEE ALSO"
142usttrace(1), ustd(1)
143.
144.SH "AUTHOR"
145\fBustctl\fR was written by Pierre\-Marc Fournier.
146.
147.P
148This manual page was written by Jon Bernard <jbernard@debian.org>, for
149the Debian project (and may be used by others). It was updated by Pierre\-Marc
150Fournier.
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