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author | Li Zefan <lizf@cn.fujitsu.com> | 2009-04-09 07:40:27 +0400 |
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committer | Ingo Molnar <mingo@elte.hu> | 2009-04-09 09:28:10 +0400 |
commit | 66bb74888eb4bef4ba7c87c931ecb7ecca3a240c (patch) | |
tree | 567e333523e16ba7285deac89efb645f72a97529 /Documentation/tracepoints.txt | |
parent | 9eb85125ce218a8b8d9a7c982510388e227adbec (diff) | |
download | linux-66bb74888eb4bef4ba7c87c931ecb7ecca3a240c.tar.xz |
tracing: consolidate documents
Move kmemtrace.txt, tracepoints.txt, ftrace.txt and mmiotrace.txt to
the new trace/ directory.
I didnt find any references to those documents in both source
files and documents, so no extra work needs to be done.
Signed-off-by: Li Zefan <lizf@cn.fujitsu.com>
Acked-by: Pekka Paalanen <pq@iki.fi>
Cc: Steven Rostedt <rostedt@goodmis.org>
Cc: Frederic Weisbecker <fweisbec@gmail.com>
Cc: Mathieu Desnoyers <mathieu.desnoyers@polymtl.ca>
LKML-Reference: <49DD6E2B.6090200@cn.fujitsu.com>
Signed-off-by: Ingo Molnar <mingo@elte.hu>
Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation/tracepoints.txt')
-rw-r--r-- | Documentation/tracepoints.txt | 116 |
1 files changed, 0 insertions, 116 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/tracepoints.txt b/Documentation/tracepoints.txt deleted file mode 100644 index c0e1ceed75a4..000000000000 --- a/Documentation/tracepoints.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,116 +0,0 @@ - Using the Linux Kernel Tracepoints - - Mathieu Desnoyers - - -This document introduces Linux Kernel Tracepoints and their use. It -provides examples of how to insert tracepoints in the kernel and -connect probe functions to them and provides some examples of probe -functions. - - -* Purpose of tracepoints - -A tracepoint placed in code provides a hook to call a function (probe) -that you can provide at runtime. A tracepoint can be "on" (a probe is -connected to it) or "off" (no probe is attached). When a tracepoint is -"off" it has no effect, except for adding a tiny time penalty -(checking a condition for a branch) and space penalty (adding a few -bytes for the function call at the end of the instrumented function -and adds a data structure in a separate section). When a tracepoint -is "on", the function you provide is called each time the tracepoint -is executed, in the execution context of the caller. When the function -provided ends its execution, it returns to the caller (continuing from -the tracepoint site). - -You can put tracepoints at important locations in the code. They are -lightweight hooks that can pass an arbitrary number of parameters, -which prototypes are described in a tracepoint declaration placed in a -header file. - -They can be used for tracing and performance accounting. - - -* Usage - -Two elements are required for tracepoints : - -- A tracepoint definition, placed in a header file. -- The tracepoint statement, in C code. - -In order to use tracepoints, you should include linux/tracepoint.h. - -In include/trace/subsys.h : - -#include <linux/tracepoint.h> - -DECLARE_TRACE(subsys_eventname, - TP_PROTO(int firstarg, struct task_struct *p), - TP_ARGS(firstarg, p)); - -In subsys/file.c (where the tracing statement must be added) : - -#include <trace/subsys.h> - -DEFINE_TRACE(subsys_eventname); - -void somefct(void) -{ - ... - trace_subsys_eventname(arg, task); - ... -} - -Where : -- subsys_eventname is an identifier unique to your event - - subsys is the name of your subsystem. - - eventname is the name of the event to trace. - -- TP_PROTO(int firstarg, struct task_struct *p) is the prototype of the - function called by this tracepoint. - -- TP_ARGS(firstarg, p) are the parameters names, same as found in the - prototype. - -Connecting a function (probe) to a tracepoint is done by providing a -probe (function to call) for the specific tracepoint through -register_trace_subsys_eventname(). Removing a probe is done through -unregister_trace_subsys_eventname(); it will remove the probe. - -tracepoint_synchronize_unregister() must be called before the end of -the module exit function to make sure there is no caller left using -the probe. This, and the fact that preemption is disabled around the -probe call, make sure that probe removal and module unload are safe. -See the "Probe example" section below for a sample probe module. - -The tracepoint mechanism supports inserting multiple instances of the -same tracepoint, but a single definition must be made of a given -tracepoint name over all the kernel to make sure no type conflict will -occur. Name mangling of the tracepoints is done using the prototypes -to make sure typing is correct. Verification of probe type correctness -is done at the registration site by the compiler. Tracepoints can be -put in inline functions, inlined static functions, and unrolled loops -as well as regular functions. - -The naming scheme "subsys_event" is suggested here as a convention -intended to limit collisions. Tracepoint names are global to the -kernel: they are considered as being the same whether they are in the -core kernel image or in modules. - -If the tracepoint has to be used in kernel modules, an -EXPORT_TRACEPOINT_SYMBOL_GPL() or EXPORT_TRACEPOINT_SYMBOL() can be -used to export the defined tracepoints. - -* Probe / tracepoint example - -See the example provided in samples/tracepoints - -Compile them with your kernel. They are built during 'make' (not -'make modules') when CONFIG_SAMPLE_TRACEPOINTS=m. - -Run, as root : -modprobe tracepoint-sample (insmod order is not important) -modprobe tracepoint-probe-sample -cat /proc/tracepoint-sample (returns an expected error) -rmmod tracepoint-sample tracepoint-probe-sample -dmesg |