Unlike TRACE_FORMAT() macros, the TRACE_EVENT() macros do not show
the event name in the trace file. Knowing the event type in the trace
output is very useful.
Instead of:
task swapper:0 [140] ==> ntpd:3308 [120]
We now have:
sched_switch: task swapper:0 [140] ==> ntpd:3308 [120]
Signed-off-by: Steven Rostedt <srostedt@redhat.com>
Impact: clean up / comments
The comments that described the ftrace macros to manipulate the
TRACE_EVENT and TRACE_FORMAT macros no longer match the code.
This patch updates them.
Reported-by: KOSAKI Motohiro <kosaki.motohiro@jp.fujitsu.com>
Signed-off-by: Steven Rostedt <srostedt@redhat.com>
Impact: clean up
In trying to stay consistant with the C style format in the TRACE_EVENT
macro, it makes more sense to do the printk after the assigning of
the variables.
Reported-by: Ingo Molnar <mingo@elte.hu>
Signed-off-by: Steven Rostedt <srostedt@redhat.com>
Impact: clean up and enhancement
The TRACE_EVENT_FORMAT macro looks quite ugly and is limited in its
ability to save data as well as to print the record out. Working with
Ingo Molnar, we came up with a new format that is much more pleasing to
the eye of C developers. This new macro is more C style than the old
macro, and is more obvious to what it does.
Here's the example. The only updated macro in this patch is the
sched_switch trace point.
The old method looked like this:
TRACE_EVENT_FORMAT(sched_switch,
TP_PROTO(struct rq *rq, struct task_struct *prev,
struct task_struct *next),
TP_ARGS(rq, prev, next),
TP_FMT("task %s:%d ==> %s:%d",
prev->comm, prev->pid, next->comm, next->pid),
TRACE_STRUCT(
TRACE_FIELD(pid_t, prev_pid, prev->pid)
TRACE_FIELD(int, prev_prio, prev->prio)
TRACE_FIELD_SPECIAL(char next_comm[TASK_COMM_LEN],
next_comm,
TP_CMD(memcpy(TRACE_ENTRY->next_comm,
next->comm,
TASK_COMM_LEN)))
TRACE_FIELD(pid_t, next_pid, next->pid)
TRACE_FIELD(int, next_prio, next->prio)
),
TP_RAW_FMT("prev %d:%d ==> next %s:%d:%d")
);
The above method is hard to read and requires two format fields.
The new method:
/*
* Tracepoint for task switches, performed by the scheduler:
*
* (NOTE: the 'rq' argument is not used by generic trace events,
* but used by the latency tracer plugin. )
*/
TRACE_EVENT(sched_switch,
TP_PROTO(struct rq *rq, struct task_struct *prev,
struct task_struct *next),
TP_ARGS(rq, prev, next),
TP_STRUCT__entry(
__array( char, prev_comm, TASK_COMM_LEN )
__field( pid_t, prev_pid )
__field( int, prev_prio )
__array( char, next_comm, TASK_COMM_LEN )
__field( pid_t, next_pid )
__field( int, next_prio )
),
TP_printk("task %s:%d [%d] ==> %s:%d [%d]",
__entry->prev_comm, __entry->prev_pid, __entry->prev_prio,
__entry->next_comm, __entry->next_pid, __entry->next_prio),
TP_fast_assign(
memcpy(__entry->next_comm, next->comm, TASK_COMM_LEN);
__entry->prev_pid = prev->pid;
__entry->prev_prio = prev->prio;
memcpy(__entry->prev_comm, prev->comm, TASK_COMM_LEN);
__entry->next_pid = next->pid;
__entry->next_prio = next->prio;
)
);
This macro is called TRACE_EVENT, it is broken up into 5 parts:
TP_PROTO: the proto type of the trace point
TP_ARGS: the arguments of the trace point
TP_STRUCT_entry: the structure layout of the entry in the ring buffer
TP_printk: the printk format
TP_fast_assign: the method used to write the entry into the ring buffer
The structure is the definition of how the event will be saved in the
ring buffer. The printk is used by the internal tracing in case of
an oops, and the kernel needs to print out the format of the record
to the console. This the TP_printk gives a means to show the records
in a human readable format. It is also used to print out the data
from the trace file.
The TP_fast_assign is executed directly. It is basically like a C function,
where the __entry is the handle to the record.
Signed-off-by: Steven Rostedt <srostedt@redhat.com>
Impact: clean up
The macros TPPROTO, TPARGS, TPFMT, TPRAWFMT, and TPCMD all look a bit
ugly. This patch adds an underscore to their names.
Signed-off-by: Steven Rostedt <srostedt@redhat.com>
Impact: clean up
Move the macro that creates the event format file to a separate header.
This will allow the default ftrace events to use this same macro
to create the formats to read those events.
Signed-off-by: Steven Rostedt <srostedt@redhat.com>
This patch adds the "format" file to the trace point event directory.
This is based off of work by Tom Zanussi, in which a file is exported
to be tread from user land such that a user space app may read the
binary record stored in the ring buffer.
# cat /debug/tracing/events/sched/sched_switch/format
field:pid_t prev_pid; offset:12; size:4;
field:int prev_prio; offset:16; size:4;
field special:char next_comm[TASK_COMM_LEN]; offset:20; size:16;
field:pid_t next_pid; offset:36; size:4;
field:int next_prio; offset:40; size:4;
Idea-from: Tom Zanussi <tzanussi@gmail.com>
Signed-off-by: Steven Rostedt <srostedt@redhat.com>
Tom Zanussi pointed out that the simple TRACE_FIELD was not enough to
record trace data that required memcpy. This patch addresses this issue
by adding a TRACE_FIELD_SPECIAL. The format is similar to TRACE_FIELD
but looks like so:
TRACE_FIELD_SPECIAL(type_item, item, cmd)
What TRACE_FIELD gave was:
TRACE_FIELD(type, item, assign)
The TRACE_FIELD would be used in declaring a structure:
struct {
type item;
};
And later assign it via:
entry->item = assign;
What TRACE_FIELD_SPECIAL gives us is:
In the declaration of the structure:
struct {
type_item;
};
And the assignment:
cmd;
This change log will explain the one example used in the patch:
TRACE_EVENT_FORMAT(sched_switch,
TPPROTO(struct rq *rq, struct task_struct *prev,
struct task_struct *next),
TPARGS(rq, prev, next),
TPFMT("task %s:%d ==> %s:%d",
prev->comm, prev->pid, next->comm, next->pid),
TRACE_STRUCT(
TRACE_FIELD(pid_t, prev_pid, prev->pid)
TRACE_FIELD(int, prev_prio, prev->prio)
TRACE_FIELD_SPECIAL(char next_comm[TASK_COMM_LEN],
next_comm,
TPCMD(memcpy(TRACE_ENTRY->next_comm,
next->comm,
TASK_COMM_LEN)))
TRACE_FIELD(pid_t, next_pid, next->pid)
TRACE_FIELD(int, next_prio, next->prio)
),
TPRAWFMT("prev %d:%d ==> next %s:%d:%d")
);
The struct will be create as:
struct {
pid_t prev_pid;
int prev_prio;
char next_comm[TASK_COMM_LEN];
pid_t next_pid;
int next_prio;
};
Note the TRACE_ENTRY in the cmd part of TRACE_SPECIAL. TRACE_ENTRY will
be set by the tracer to point to the structure inside the trace buffer.
entry->prev_pid = prev->pid;
entry->prev_prio = prev->prio;
memcpy(entry->next_comm, next->comm, TASK_COMM_LEN);
entry->next_pid = next->pid;
entry->next_prio = next->prio
Reported-by: Tom Zanussi <tzanussi@gmail.com>
Signed-off-by: Steven Rostedt <srostedt@redhat.com>
Impact: lower overhead tracing
The current event tracer can automatically pick up trace points
that are registered with the TRACE_FORMAT macro. But it required
a printf format string and parsing. Although, this adds the ability
to get guaranteed information like task names and such, it took
a hit in overhead processing. This processing can add about 500-1000
nanoseconds overhead, but in some cases that too is considered
too much and we want to shave off as much from this overhead as
possible.
Tom Zanussi recently posted tracing patches to lkml that are based
on a nice idea about capturing the data via C structs using
STRUCT_ENTER, STRUCT_EXIT type of macros.
I liked that method very much, but did not like the implementation
that required a developer to add data/code in several disjoint
locations.
This patch extends the event_tracer macros to do a similar "raw C"
approach that Tom Zanussi did. But instead of having the developers
needing to tweak a bunch of code all over the place, they can do it
all in one macro - preferably placed near the code that it is
tracing. That makes it much more likely that tracepoints will be
maintained on an ongoing basis by the code they modify.
The new macro TRACE_EVENT_FORMAT is created for this approach. (Note,
a developer may still utilize the more low level DECLARE_TRACE macros
if they don't care about getting their traces automatically in the event
tracer.)
They can also use the existing TRACE_FORMAT if they don't need to code
the tracepoint in C, but just want to use the convenience of printf.
So if the developer wants to "hardwire" a tracepoint in the fastest
possible way, and wants to acquire their data via a user space utility
in a raw binary format, or wants to see it in the trace output but not
sacrifice any performance, then they can implement the faster but
more complex TRACE_EVENT_FORMAT macro.
Here's what usage looks like:
TRACE_EVENT_FORMAT(name,
TPPROTO(proto),
TPARGS(args),
TPFMT(fmt, fmt_args),
TRACE_STUCT(
TRACE_FIELD(type1, item1, assign1)
TRACE_FIELD(type2, item2, assign2)
[...]
),
TPRAWFMT(raw_fmt)
);
Note name, proto, args, and fmt, are all identical to what TRACE_FORMAT
uses.
name: is the unique identifier of the trace point
proto: The proto type that the trace point uses
args: the args in the proto type
fmt: printf format to use with the event printf tracer
fmt_args: the printf argments to match fmt
TRACE_STRUCT starts the ability to create a structure.
Each item in the structure is defined with a TRACE_FIELD
TRACE_FIELD(type, item, assign)
type: the C type of item.
item: the name of the item in the stucture
assign: what to assign the item in the trace point callback
raw_fmt is a way to pretty print the struct. It must match
the order of the items are added in TRACE_STUCT
An example of this would be:
TRACE_EVENT_FORMAT(sched_wakeup,
TPPROTO(struct rq *rq, struct task_struct *p, int success),
TPARGS(rq, p, success),
TPFMT("task %s:%d %s",
p->comm, p->pid, success?"succeeded":"failed"),
TRACE_STRUCT(
TRACE_FIELD(pid_t, pid, p->pid)
TRACE_FIELD(int, success, success)
),
TPRAWFMT("task %d success=%d")
);
This creates us a unique struct of:
struct {
pid_t pid;
int success;
};
And the way the call back would assign these values would be:
entry->pid = p->pid;
entry->success = success;
The nice part about this is that the creation of the assignent is done
via macro magic in the event tracer. Once the TRACE_EVENT_FORMAT is
created, the developer will then have a faster method to record
into the ring buffer. They do not need to worry about the tracer itself.
The developer would only need to touch the files in include/trace/*.h
Again, I would like to give special thanks to Tom Zanussi for this
nice idea.
Idea-from: Tom Zanussi <tzanussi@gmail.com>
Signed-off-by: Steven Rostedt <srostedt@redhat.com>
Steven Rostedt