kernel/linux.git/Documentation/admin-guide/dynamic-debug-howto.rst, branch linux-6.19.y

dynamic_debug: add support for print stack

2025-11-12T18:00:16+00:00

In practical problem diagnosis, especially during the boot phase, it is often desirable to know the call sequence. However, currently, apart from adding print statements and recompiling the kernel, there seems to be no good alternative. If dynamic_debug supported printing the call stack, it would be very helpful for diagnosing issues. This patch add support '+d' for dump stack. Link: https://lkml.kernel.org/r/20251025080003.312536-1-yebin@huaweicloud.com Signed-off-by: Ye Bin Cc: Jason Baron Cc: Jim Cromie Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton

Documentation: add reference from dynamic debug to loglevel kernel params

2024-07-09T14:57:52+00:00

This is useful information for somebody who has managed to dig into enabling debug output, but is wondering why there is no such output appearing on the console. Signed-off-by: Daniel Lublin Signed-off-by: Jonathan Corbet Link: https://lore.kernel.org/r/4633bdb82c1c7c014d79840887878624a55c59f8.1720533043.git.daniel@lublin.se

Documentation: Remove redundant file names from examples

2023-12-15T16:15:05+00:00

Since most examples use the ddcmd alias, remove the redundant file names Signed-off-by: Rex Nie Signed-off-by: Jonathan Corbet Link: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20231213073735.2850-1-rex.nie@jaguarmicro.com

Documentation: fix typo in dynamic-debug howto

2023-10-23T02:37:17+00:00

Signed-off-by: Jade Lovelace Signed-off-by: Jonathan Corbet Message-ID: <20231019231655.3162225-1-lists@jade.fyi>

dyndbg: add source filename to prefix

2023-08-04T13:28:41+00:00

Printing the line number without the file is of limited usefulness. Knowing the filename also makes it also easier to relate the logged information to the controlfile. Example: # modprobe test_dynamic_debug # echo 'file test_dynamic_debug.c =pfsl' > /proc/dynamic_debug/control # echo 1 > /sys/module/test_dynamic_debug/parameters/do_prints # dmesg | tail -2 [ 71.802212] do_cats:lib/test_dynamic_debug.c:103: test_dd: doing categories [ 71.802227] do_levels:lib/test_dynamic_debug.c:123: test_dd: doing levels Signed-off-by: Thomas Weißschuh Acked-by: Jim Cromie Acked-by: Jason Baron Reviewed-by: Luis Chamberlain Link: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20230709-dyndbg-filename-v2-3-fd83beef0925@weissschuh.net Signed-off-by: Greg Kroah-Hartman

Documentation: admin-guide: correct spelling

2023-02-02T18:04:42+00:00

Correct spelling problems for Documentation/admin-guide/ as reported by codespell. Signed-off-by: Randy Dunlap Reviewed-by: Mukesh Ojha Cc: Tejun Heo Cc: Zefan Li Cc: Johannes Weiner Cc: cgroups@vger.kernel.org Cc: Alasdair Kergon Cc: Mike Snitzer Cc: dm-devel@redhat.com Cc: Mauro Carvalho Chehab Cc: linux-media@vger.kernel.org Cc: linux-mm@kvack.org Link: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20230129231053.20863-2-rdunlap@infradead.org Signed-off-by: Jonathan Corbet

doc-dyndbg: edit dynamic-debug-howto for brevity, audience

2022-09-07T15:04:49+00:00

Rework/modernize docs: - use /proc/dynamic_debug/control in examples its *always* there (when dyndbg is config'd), even when is not. drop talk, its a distraction here. - alias ddcmd='echo $* > /proc/dynamic_debug/control focus on args: declutter, hide boilerplate, make pwd independent. - swap sections: Viewing before Controlling. control file as Catalog. - focus on use by a system administrator add an alias to make examples more readable drop grep-101 lessons, admins know this. - use init/main.c as 1st example, thread it thru doc where useful. everybodys kernel boots, runs these. - add *prdbg* api section to the bottom of the file, its for developers more than admins. move list of api functions there. - simplify - drop extra words, phrases, sentences. - add "decorator" flags line to unify "prefix", trim fmlt descriptions CC: linux-doc@vger.kernel.org Signed-off-by: Jim Cromie Link: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20220904214134.408619-20-jim.cromie@gmail.com Signed-off-by: Greg Kroah-Hartman

doc-dyndbg: describe "class CLASS_NAME" query support

2022-09-07T15:04:49+00:00

Add an explanation of the new "class CLASS_NAME" syntax and meaning, noting that the module determines if CLASS_NAME applies to it. Signed-off-by: Jim Cromie Link: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20220904214134.408619-19-jim.cromie@gmail.com Signed-off-by: Greg Kroah-Hartman

dyndbg: refine verbosity 1-4 summary-detail

2021-10-21T11:01:25+00:00

adjust current v*pr_info() calls to fit an overview..detail scheme: 1- module level activity: add/remove, etc 2- command ingest, splitting, summary of effects. per >control write 3- command parsing: op, flags, search terms 4- per-site change msg can yield ~3k x 2 logs per echo "+p;-p" > command. Summarize these 4 levels in MODULE_PARM_DESC, and update verbose=3 in Doc. 2- is new, to isolate a problem where a stress-test script (which feeds ~4kb multi-command strings) would produce short writes, truncating last command and causing parsing errors, which confused test results. The script fix was to use syswrite, to deliver full proper commands. 4- gets per-callsite "changed:" pr-infos, which are very noisy during stress tests, and formerly obscured v1-3 messages, and overwhelmed the static-key workload being tested. The verbose parameter has previously seen adjustment: commit 481c0e33f1e7 ("dyndbg: refine debug verbosity; 1 is basic, 2 more chatty") The script driving these adjustments is: !/usr/bin/perl -w =for Doc 1st purpose was to benchmark the effect of wildcard queries on query performance; if wildcards are risk free cheap enough, we can deploy them in the (floating) format search. 1st finding: wildcards take 2x as long to process. 2nd purpose was to benchmark real static-key changes VS simple flag changes. Found ~100x decrease for the hard work. The script maximizes workload per >control by packing it a ~4kb string of "+p; -p;" commands; this uncovered some broken stuff. The 85th query failed, and appears to be truncated, so is gramatically incorrect. Its either an error here, or in the kernel. Its not happening atm, retest. Plot thickens: fail only happens doing +-p, not +-mf, likely load dependent. Error remains consistent. Looks like a short write, longer on writer than kernel-reader. Try syswrite on handle to control this. That fixed short write. =cut use Getopt::Std; getopts('vN:k:', \my %opts) or die <', $ctrl) or die "cant open $ctrl for writing: $!\n"; sub vx { my $arg = shift; my $cmd = "echo $arg > /sys/module/dynamic_debug/parameters/verbose"; system($cmd); warn("vx problem: rc:$? err:$! qry: $cmd\n") if ($?); } sub qryOK { my $qry = shift; print "syntax test: <\n$qry>\n" if $opts{v}; my $bytes = syswrite $CTL, $qry; printf "short read: $bytes / %d\n", length $qry if $bytes < length $qry; if ($?) { warn "rc:$? err:$! qry: $qry\n"; return 0; } return 1; } sub build_queries { my ($cmd, $flags, $ct) = @_; # build experiment and reference queries my $cycle = " $cmd +$flags # on ; $cmd -$flags # off \n"; my $ref = " +$flags ; -$flags \n"; my $len = length $cycle; my $max = int(4096 / $len); # break/fit to buffer size $ct |= $max; print "qry: ct:$max x << \n$cycle >>\n"; return unless qryOK($ref); return unless qryOK($cycle); my $wild = $cycle x $ct; my $empty = $ref x $ct; printf "len: %d, %d\n", length $wild, length $empty; return { trial => $wild, ref => $empty, probe => $cycle, zero => $ref, count => $ct, max => $max }; } my $query_set = build_queries(' file "*" module "*" func "*" ', "mf"); qryOK($query_set->{zero}); qryOK($query_set->{probe}); qryOK($query_set->{ref}); qryOK($query_set->{trial}); use Benchmark; sub dobatch { my ($cmd, $flags, $reps, $ct) = @_; $reps ||= $opts{N}; my $qs = build_queries($cmd, $flags, $ct); timethese($reps, { wildcards => sub { syswrite $CTL, $qs->{trial}; }, no_search => sub { syswrite $CTL, $qs->{ref}; } } ); } sub bench_static_key_toggle { vx 0; dobatch(' file "*" module "*" func "*" ', "mf"); dobatch(' file "*" module "*" func "*" ', "p"); } sub bench_verbose_levels { for my $i (0..4) { vx $i; dobatch(' file "*" module "*" func "*" ', "mf"); } } bench_static_key_toggle(); __END__ Heres how the test-script runs: :: verbose=3 parsing info [ 48.401646] dyndbg: query 95: "file "*" module "*" func "*" -mf # off " mod:* [ 48.402040] dyndbg: split into words: "file" "*" "module" "*" "func" "*" "-mf" [ 48.402456] dyndbg: op='-' [ 48.402615] dyndbg: flags=0x6 [ 48.402779] dyndbg: *flagsp=0x0 *maskp=0xfffffff9 [ 48.403033] dyndbg: parsed: func="*" file="*" module="*" format="" lineno=0-0 [ 48.403674] dyndbg: applied: func="*" file="*" module="*" format="" lineno=0-0 :: verbose=2 >control summary. ~300k site matches/changes per 4kb command [ 48.404063] dyndbg: processed 96 queries, with 296160 matches, 0 errs :: 2 queries against each other, no-search vs all-wildcard-search qry: ct:48 x << file "*" module "*" func "*" +mf # on ; file "*" module "*" func "*" -mf # off >> len: 4080, 576 Benchmark: timing 10 iterations of no_search, wildcards... no_search: 0 wallclock secs ( 0.00 usr + 0.03 sys = 0.03 CPU) @ 333.33/s (n=10) (warning: too few iterations for a reliable count) wildcards: 0 wallclock secs ( 0.00 usr + 0.09 sys = 0.09 CPU) @ 111.11/s (n=10) (warning: too few iterations for a reliable count) :: 2 queries, both doing real work / changing stati-key states. qry: ct:49 x << file "*" module "*" func "*" +p # on ; file "*" module "*" func "*" -p # off >> len: 4067, 490 Benchmark: timing 10 iterations of no_search, wildcards... no_search: 20 wallclock secs ( 0.00 usr + 20.36 sys = 20.36 CPU) @ 0.49/s (n=10) wildcards: 21 wallclock secs ( 0.00 usr + 21.08 sys = 21.08 CPU) @ 0.47/s (n=10) bash-5.1# Thats 150k static-key-toggles / sec ~600x slower than simple flags on qemu --smp 3 run Signed-off-by: Jim Cromie Link: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20211019210746.185307-1-jim.cromie@gmail.com Signed-off-by: Greg Kroah-Hartman

Documentation: dyndbg: Improve cli param examples

2021-10-14T08:48:56+00:00

Jim pointed out that using $module.dyndbg= is always a more flexible choice for using dynamic debug on the command line. The $module.dyndbg style is checked at boot and handles if $module is a builtin. If it is actually a loadable module, it is handled again later when the module is loaded. If you just use dyndbg="module $module +p" dynamic debug is only enabled when $module is a builtin. It was recommended to illustrate wildcard usage as well. Suggested-by: Jim Cromie Signed-off-by: Andrew Halaney Signed-off-by: Jason Baron Link: https://lore.kernel.org/r/1634139622-20667-4-git-send-email-jbaron@akamai.com Signed-off-by: Greg Kroah-Hartman