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author | Yang Zhang <yang.z.zhang@intel.com> | 2015-08-28 09:58:54 +0800 |
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committer | Yang Zhang <yang.z.zhang@intel.com> | 2015-09-01 12:44:00 +0800 |
commit | e44e3482bdb4d0ebde2d8b41830ac2cdb07948fb (patch) | |
tree | 66b09f592c55df2878107a468a91d21506104d3f /qemu/docs/tracing.txt | |
parent | 9ca8dbcc65cfc63d6f5ef3312a33184e1d726e00 (diff) |
Add qemu 2.4.0
Change-Id: Ic99cbad4b61f8b127b7dc74d04576c0bcbaaf4f5
Signed-off-by: Yang Zhang <yang.z.zhang@intel.com>
Diffstat (limited to 'qemu/docs/tracing.txt')
-rw-r--r-- | qemu/docs/tracing.txt | 349 |
1 files changed, 349 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/qemu/docs/tracing.txt b/qemu/docs/tracing.txt new file mode 100644 index 000000000..7117c5e7d --- /dev/null +++ b/qemu/docs/tracing.txt @@ -0,0 +1,349 @@ += Tracing = + +== Introduction == + +This document describes the tracing infrastructure in QEMU and how to use it +for debugging, profiling, and observing execution. + +== Quickstart == + +1. Build with the 'simple' trace backend: + + ./configure --enable-trace-backends=simple + make + +2. Create a file with the events you want to trace: + + echo bdrv_aio_readv > /tmp/events + echo bdrv_aio_writev >> /tmp/events + +3. Run the virtual machine to produce a trace file: + + qemu -trace events=/tmp/events ... # your normal QEMU invocation + +4. Pretty-print the binary trace file: + + ./scripts/simpletrace.py trace-events trace-* # Override * with QEMU <pid> + +== Trace events == + +There is a set of static trace events declared in the "trace-events" source +file. Each trace event declaration names the event, its arguments, and the +format string which can be used for pretty-printing: + + qemu_vmalloc(size_t size, void *ptr) "size %zu ptr %p" + qemu_vfree(void *ptr) "ptr %p" + +The "trace-events" file is processed by the "tracetool" script during build to +generate code for the trace events. Trace events are invoked directly from +source code like this: + + #include "trace.h" /* needed for trace event prototype */ + + void *qemu_vmalloc(size_t size) + { + void *ptr; + size_t align = QEMU_VMALLOC_ALIGN; + + if (size < align) { + align = getpagesize(); + } + ptr = qemu_memalign(align, size); + trace_qemu_vmalloc(size, ptr); + return ptr; + } + +=== Declaring trace events === + +The "tracetool" script produces the trace.h header file which is included by +every source file that uses trace events. Since many source files include +trace.h, it uses a minimum of types and other header files included to keep the +namespace clean and compile times and dependencies down. + +Trace events should use types as follows: + + * Use stdint.h types for fixed-size types. Most offsets and guest memory + addresses are best represented with uint32_t or uint64_t. Use fixed-size + types over primitive types whose size may change depending on the host + (32-bit versus 64-bit) so trace events don't truncate values or break + the build. + + * Use void * for pointers to structs or for arrays. The trace.h header + cannot include all user-defined struct declarations and it is therefore + necessary to use void * for pointers to structs. + + * For everything else, use primitive scalar types (char, int, long) with the + appropriate signedness. + +Format strings should reflect the types defined in the trace event. Take +special care to use PRId64 and PRIu64 for int64_t and uint64_t types, +respectively. This ensures portability between 32- and 64-bit platforms. + +=== Hints for adding new trace events === + +1. Trace state changes in the code. Interesting points in the code usually + involve a state change like starting, stopping, allocating, freeing. State + changes are good trace events because they can be used to understand the + execution of the system. + +2. Trace guest operations. Guest I/O accesses like reading device registers + are good trace events because they can be used to understand guest + interactions. + +3. Use correlator fields so the context of an individual line of trace output + can be understood. For example, trace the pointer returned by malloc and + used as an argument to free. This way mallocs and frees can be matched up. + Trace events with no context are not very useful. + +4. Name trace events after their function. If there are multiple trace events + in one function, append a unique distinguisher at the end of the name. + +== Generic interface and monitor commands == + +You can programmatically query and control the state of trace events through a +backend-agnostic interface provided by the header "trace/control.h". + +Note that some of the backends do not provide an implementation for some parts +of this interface, in which case QEMU will just print a warning (please refer to +header "trace/control.h" to see which routines are backend-dependent). + +The state of events can also be queried and modified through monitor commands: + +* info trace-events + View available trace events and their state. State 1 means enabled, state 0 + means disabled. + +* trace-event NAME on|off + Enable/disable a given trace event or a group of events (using wildcards). + +The "-trace events=<file>" command line argument can be used to enable the +events listed in <file> from the very beginning of the program. This file must +contain one event name per line. + +If a line in the "-trace events=<file>" file begins with a '-', the trace event +will be disabled instead of enabled. This is useful when a wildcard was used +to enable an entire family of events but one noisy event needs to be disabled. + +Wildcard matching is supported in both the monitor command "trace-event" and the +events list file. That means you can enable/disable the events having a common +prefix in a batch. For example, virtio-blk trace events could be enabled using +the following monitor command: + + trace-event virtio_blk_* on + +== Trace backends == + +The "tracetool" script automates tedious trace event code generation and also +keeps the trace event declarations independent of the trace backend. The trace +events are not tightly coupled to a specific trace backend, such as LTTng or +SystemTap. Support for trace backends can be added by extending the "tracetool" +script. + +The trace backends are chosen at configure time: + + ./configure --enable-trace-backends=simple + +For a list of supported trace backends, try ./configure --help or see below. +If multiple backends are enabled, the trace is sent to them all. + +The following subsections describe the supported trace backends. + +=== Nop === + +The "nop" backend generates empty trace event functions so that the compiler +can optimize out trace events completely. This is the default and imposes no +performance penalty. + +Note that regardless of the selected trace backend, events with the "disable" +property will be generated with the "nop" backend. + +=== Stderr === + +The "stderr" backend sends trace events directly to standard error. This +effectively turns trace events into debug printfs. + +This is the simplest backend and can be used together with existing code that +uses DPRINTF(). + +=== Simpletrace === + +The "simple" backend supports common use cases and comes as part of the QEMU +source tree. It may not be as powerful as platform-specific or third-party +trace backends but it is portable. This is the recommended trace backend +unless you have specific needs for more advanced backends. + +The "simple" backend currently does not capture string arguments, it simply +records the char* pointer value instead of the string that is pointed to. + +=== Ftrace === + +The "ftrace" backend writes trace data to ftrace marker. This effectively +sends trace events to ftrace ring buffer, and you can compare qemu trace +data and kernel(especially kvm.ko when using KVM) trace data. + +if you use KVM, enable kvm events in ftrace: + + # echo 1 > /sys/kernel/debug/tracing/events/kvm/enable + +After running qemu by root user, you can get the trace: + + # cat /sys/kernel/debug/tracing/trace + +Restriction: "ftrace" backend is restricted to Linux only. + +==== Monitor commands ==== + +* trace-file on|off|flush|set <path> + Enable/disable/flush the trace file or set the trace file name. + +==== Analyzing trace files ==== + +The "simple" backend produces binary trace files that can be formatted with the +simpletrace.py script. The script takes the "trace-events" file and the binary +trace: + + ./scripts/simpletrace.py trace-events trace-12345 + +You must ensure that the same "trace-events" file was used to build QEMU, +otherwise trace event declarations may have changed and output will not be +consistent. + +=== LTTng Userspace Tracer === + +The "ust" backend uses the LTTng Userspace Tracer library. There are no +monitor commands built into QEMU, instead UST utilities should be used to list, +enable/disable, and dump traces. + +Package lttng-tools is required for userspace tracing. You must ensure that the +current user belongs to the "tracing" group, or manually launch the +lttng-sessiond daemon for the current user prior to running any instance of +QEMU. + +While running an instrumented QEMU, LTTng should be able to list all available +events: + + lttng list -u + +Create tracing session: + + lttng create mysession + +Enable events: + + lttng enable-event qemu:g_malloc -u + +Where the events can either be a comma-separated list of events, or "-a" to +enable all tracepoint events. Start and stop tracing as needed: + + lttng start + lttng stop + +View the trace: + + lttng view + +Destroy tracing session: + + lttng destroy + +Babeltrace can be used at any later time to view the trace: + + babeltrace $HOME/lttng-traces/mysession-<date>-<time> + +=== SystemTap === + +The "dtrace" backend uses DTrace sdt probes but has only been tested with +SystemTap. When SystemTap support is detected a .stp file with wrapper probes +is generated to make use in scripts more convenient. This step can also be +performed manually after a build in order to change the binary name in the .stp +probes: + + scripts/tracetool --dtrace --stap \ + --binary path/to/qemu-binary \ + --target-type system \ + --target-name x86_64 \ + <trace-events >qemu.stp + +== Trace event properties == + +Each event in the "trace-events" file can be prefixed with a space-separated +list of zero or more of the following event properties. + +=== "disable" === + +If a specific trace event is going to be invoked a huge number of times, this +might have a noticeable performance impact even when the event is +programmatically disabled. + +In this case you should declare such event with the "disable" property. This +will effectively disable the event at compile time (by using the "nop" backend), +thus having no performance impact at all on regular builds (i.e., unless you +edit the "trace-events" file). + +In addition, there might be cases where relatively complex computations must be +performed to generate values that are only used as arguments for a trace +function. In these cases you can use the macro 'TRACE_${EVENT_NAME}_ENABLED' to +guard such computations and avoid its compilation when the event is disabled: + + #include "trace.h" /* needed for trace event prototype */ + + void *qemu_vmalloc(size_t size) + { + void *ptr; + size_t align = QEMU_VMALLOC_ALIGN; + + if (size < align) { + align = getpagesize(); + } + ptr = qemu_memalign(align, size); + if (TRACE_QEMU_VMALLOC_ENABLED) { /* preprocessor macro */ + void *complex; + /* some complex computations to produce the 'complex' value */ + trace_qemu_vmalloc(size, ptr, complex); + } + return ptr; + } + +You can check both if the event has been disabled and is dynamically enabled at +the same time using the 'trace_event_get_state' routine (see header +"trace/control.h" for more information). + +=== "tcg" === + +Guest code generated by TCG can be traced by defining an event with the "tcg" +event property. Internally, this property generates two events: +"<eventname>_trans" to trace the event at translation time, and +"<eventname>_exec" to trace the event at execution time. + +Instead of using these two events, you should instead use the function +"trace_<eventname>_tcg" during translation (TCG code generation). This function +will automatically call "trace_<eventname>_trans", and will generate the +necessary TCG code to call "trace_<eventname>_exec" during guest code execution. + +Events with the "tcg" property can be declared in the "trace-events" file with a +mix of native and TCG types, and "trace_<eventname>_tcg" will gracefully forward +them to the "<eventname>_trans" and "<eventname>_exec" events. Since TCG values +are not known at translation time, these are ignored by the "<eventname>_trans" +event. Because of this, the entry in the "trace-events" file needs two printing +formats (separated by a comma): + + tcg foo(uint8_t a1, TCGv_i32 a2) "a1=%d", "a1=%d a2=%d" + +For example: + + #include "trace-tcg.h" + + void some_disassembly_func (...) + { + uint8_t a1 = ...; + TCGv_i32 a2 = ...; + trace_foo_tcg(a1, a2); + } + +This will immediately call: + + void trace_foo_trans(uint8_t a1); + +and will generate the TCG code to call: + + void trace_foo(uint8_t a1, uint32_t a2); |