Clarify probe registration documentation/errors
[lttng-ust.git] / doc / man / lttng-ust.3
CommitLineData
eba411c6
MD
1.TH "LTTNG-UST" "3" "February 16, 2012" "" ""
2
3.SH "NAME"
4lttng-ust \(em Linux Trace Toolkit Next Generation User-Space Tracer
5
6.SH "SYNOPSIS"
7
8.PP
9.nf
10Link liblttng-ust.so with applications, following this manpage.
11.fi
12.SH "DESCRIPTION"
13
14.PP
15LTTng-UST, the Linux Trace Toolkit Next Generation Userspace Tracer, is
16port of the low-overhead tracing capabilities of the LTTng kernel tracer
17to user-space. The library "liblttng-ust" enables tracing of
18applications and libraries.
19
20.SH "USAGE"
21.PP
22The simple way to generate the lttng-ust tracepoint probes is to use the
23lttng-gen-tp(1) tool. See the lttng-gen-tp(1) manpage for explanation.
24.PP
25
26.PP
27Here is the way to do it manually, without the lttng-gen-tp(1) helper
28script, through an example:
29.PP
30
31.SH "CREATION OF TRACEPOINT PROVIDER"
32
33.nf
34
35To create a tracepoint provider, within a build tree similar to
36examples/easy-ust installed with lttng-ust documentation, a
37sample_component_provider.h for the general layout. This manpage will
38focus on the various types that can be recorded into a trace event:
39
40TRACEPOINT_EVENT(
41 /*
42 * provider name, not a variable but a string starting with a
43 * letter and containing either letters, numbers or underscores.
44 * Needs to be the same as TRACEPOINT_PROVIDER. Needs to
45 * follow the namespacing guide-lines in lttng/tracepoint.h:
46 *
47 * Must be included before include tracepoint provider
48 * ex.: project_event
49 * ex.: project_component_event
50 *
51 * Optional company name goes here
52 * ex.: com_efficios_project_component_event
53 *
54 * In this example, "sample" is the project, and "component" is the
55 * component.
56 */
57 sample_component,
58
59 /*
60 * tracepoint name, same format as sample provider. Does not
61 * need to be declared before. in this case the name is
62 * "message"
63 */
64 message,
65
66 /*
67 * TP_ARGS macro contains the arguments passed for the tracepoint
68 * it is in the following format
69 * TP_ARGS(type1, name1, type2, name2, ... type10,
70 name10)
71 * where there can be from zero to ten elements.
72 * typeN is the datatype, such as int, struct or double **.
73 * name is the variable name (in "int myInt" the name would be
74 * myint)
75 * TP_ARGS() is valid to mean no arguments
76 * TP_ARGS(void) is valid too
77 */
78 TP_ARGS(int, anint, int, netint, long *, values,
79 char *, text, size_t, textlen,
80 double, doublearg, float, floatarg),
81
82 /*
83 * TP_FIELDS describes how to write the fields of the trace event.
84 * You can put expressions in the "argument expression" area,
85 * typically using the input arguments from TP_ARGS.
86 */
87 TP_FIELDS(
88 /*
89 * ctf_integer: standard integer field.
90 * args: (type, field name, argument expression)
91 */
92 ctf_integer(int, intfield, anint)
93 ctf_integer(long, longfield, anint)
94
95 /*
96 * ctf_integer_hex: integer field printed as hexadecimal.
97 * args: (type, field name, argument expression)
98 */
99 ctf_integer_hex(int, intfield2, anint)
100
101 /*
102 * ctf_integer_network: integer field in network byte
103 * order. (_hex: printed as hexadecimal too)
104 * args: (type, field name, argument expression)
105 */
106 ctf_integer_network(int, netintfield, netint)
107 ctf_integer_network_hex(int, netintfieldhex, netint)
108
109 /*
110 * ctf_array: a statically-sized array.
111 * args: (type, field name, argument expression, value)
112 */
113 ctf_array(long, arrfield1, values, 3)
114
115 /*
116 * ctf_array_text: a statically-sized array, printed as
117 * a string. No need to be terminated by a null
118 * character.
119 */
120 ctf_array_text(char, arrfield2, text, 10)
121
122 /*
123 * ctf_sequence: a dynamically-sized array.
124 * args: (type, field name, argument expression,
125 * type of length expression, length expression)
126 */
127 ctf_sequence(char, seqfield1, text,
128 size_t, textlen)
129
130 /*
131 * ctf_sequence_text: a dynamically-sized array, printed
132 * as string. No need to be null-terminated.
133 */
134 ctf_sequence_text(char, seqfield2, text,
135 size_t, textlen)
136
137 /*
138 * ctf_string: null-terminated string.
139 * args: (field name, argument expression)
140 */
141 ctf_string(stringfield, text)
142
143 /*
144 * ctf_float: floating-point number.
145 * args: (type, field name, argument expression)
146 */
147 ctf_float(float, floatfield, floatarg)
148 ctf_float(double, doublefield, doublearg)
149 )
150)
62708e69
MD
151
152There can be an arbitrary number of tracepoint providers within an
153application, but they must each have their own provider name. Duplicate
154provider names are not allowed.
155
eba411c6
MD
156.fi
157
5883c06f
MD
158.SH "ASSIGNING LOGLEVEL TO EVENTS"
159
160.nf
161
162Optionally, a loglevel can be assigned to a TRACEPOINT_EVENT using the
163following construct:
164
165 TRACEPOINT_LOGLEVEL(< [com_company_]project[_component] >,
166 < event >, < loglevel_name >)
167
168 The first field is the provider name, the second field is the name of
169the tracepoint, and the third field is the loglevel name. A
170TRACEPOINT_EVENT should be declared prior to the the TRACEPOINT_LOGLEVEL
171for a given tracepoint name. The TRACEPOINT_PROVIDER must be already
172declared before declaring a TRACEPOINT_LOGLEVEL.
173
174The loglevels go from 0 to 14. Higher numbers imply the most verbosity
175(higher event throughput expected.
176
177Loglevels 0 through 6, and loglevel 14, match syslog(3) loglevels
178semantic. Loglevels 7 through 13 offer more fine-grained selection of
179debug information.
180
181 TRACE_EMERG 0
182 system is unusable
183
184 TRACE_ALERT 1
185 action must be taken immediately
186
187 TRACE_CRIT 2
188 critical conditions
189
190 TRACE_ERR 3
191 error conditions
192
193 TRACE_WARNING 4
194 warning conditions
195
196 TRACE_NOTICE 5
197 normal, but significant, condition
198
199 TRACE_INFO 6
200 informational message
201
202 TRACE_DEBUG_SYSTEM 7
203 debug information with system-level scope (set of programs)
204
205 TRACE_DEBUG_PROGRAM 8
206 debug information with program-level scope (set of processes)
207
208 TRACE_DEBUG_PROCESS 9
209 debug information with process-level scope (set of modules)
210
211 TRACE_DEBUG_MODULE 10
212 debug information with module (executable/library) scope (set of
213 units)
214
215 TRACE_DEBUG_UNIT 11
216 debug information with compilation unit scope (set of functions)
217
218 TRACE_DEBUG_FUNCTION 12
219 debug information with function-level scope
220
221 TRACE_DEBUG_LINE 13
222 debug information with line-level scope (TRACEPOINT_EVENT default)
223
224 TRACE_DEBUG 14
225 debug-level message (trace_printf default)
226
227See lttng(1) for information on how to use LTTng-UST loglevels.
228
229.fi
230
eba411c6
MD
231.SH "ADDING TRACEPOINTS TO YOUR CODE"
232
233.nf
234
235Include the provider header in each C files you plan to instrument,
236following the building/linking directives in the next section.
237
238For instance, add within a function:
239
240 tracepoint(ust_tests_hello, tptest, i, netint, values,
241 text, strlen(text), dbl, flt);
242
243As a call to the tracepoint. It will only be activated when requested by
244lttng(1) through lttng-sessiond(8).
245
246.fi
247
248.SH "BUILDING/LINKING THE TRACEPOINT PROVIDER"
249
250.nf
251There are 2 ways to compile the Tracepoint Provider with the
252application: either statically or dynamically. Please follow
253carefully:
254
255 1.1) Compile the Tracepoint provider with the application, either
256 directly or through a static library (.a):
257 - Into exactly one object of your application: define
258 "TRACEPOINT_DEFINE" and include the tracepoint provider.
9b6435af 259 - Use "\-I." for the compilation unit containing the tracepoint
eba411c6 260 provider include (e.g. tp.c).
9b6435af 261 - Link application with "\-ldl".
eba411c6 262 - If building the provider directly into the application,
9b6435af 263 link the application with "\-llttng-ust".
eba411c6 264 - If building a static library for the provider, link the static
881de2e9 265 library with "\-llttng-ust".
eba411c6
MD
266 - Include the tracepoint provider header into all C files using
267 the provider.
268 - Example:
269 tests/hello/ hello.c tp.c ust_tests_hello.h Makefile.example
270
271 2) Compile the Tracepoint Provider separately from the application,
272 using dynamic linking:
273 - Into exactly one object of your application: define
274 "TRACEPOINT_DEFINE" _and_ also define
275 "TRACEPOINT_PROBE_DYNAMIC_LINKAGE", then include the tracepoint
276 provider header.
277 - Include the tracepoint provider header into all instrumented C
278 files that use the provider.
9b6435af
AM
279 - Compile the tracepoint provider with "\-I.".
280 - Link the tracepoint provider with "\-llttng-ust".
281 - Link application with "\-ldl".
eba411c6
MD
282 - Set a LD_PRELOAD environment to preload the tracepoint provider
283 shared object before starting the application when tracing is
284 needed.
285 - Example:
286 - tests/demo/ demo.c tp*.c ust_tests_demo*.h demo-trace
287
288 - Note about dlopen() usage: due to locking side-effects due to the
289 way libc lazily resolves Thread-Local Storage (TLS) symbols when a
290 library is dlopen'd, linking the tracepoint probe or liblttng-ust
291 with dlopen() is discouraged. They should be linked with the
9b6435af 292 application using "\-llibname" or loaded with LD_PRELOAD.
eba411c6
MD
293 - Enable instrumentation and control tracing with the "lttng" command
294 from lttng-tools. See lttng-tools doc/quickstart.txt.
bf62473e
MD
295 - Note for C++ support: although an application instrumented with
296 tracepoints can be compiled with g++, tracepoint probes should be
297 compiled with gcc (only tested with gcc so far).
eba411c6
MD
298
299.fi
300
a9deca90
MD
301.SH "USING LTTNG UST WITH DAEMONS"
302
303.nf
304Some extra care is needed when using liblttng-ust with daemon
305applications that call fork(), clone(), or BSD rfork() without a
306following exec() family system call. The library "liblttng-ust-fork.so"
307needs to be preloaded for the application (launch with e.g.
308LD_PRELOAD=liblttng-ust-fork.so appname).
309
310.fi
311
eba411c6
MD
312.SH "ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES"
313
314.PP
315.IP "LTTNG_UST_DEBUG"
316Activate liblttng-ust debug output.
317.PP
318.IP "LTTNG_UST_REGISTER_TIMEOUT"
319The environment variable "LTTNG_UST_REGISTER_TIMEOUT" can be used to
320specify how long the applications should wait for sessiond
321"registration done" command before proceeding to execute the main
322program. The default is 3000ms (3 seconds). The timeout value is
323specified in milliseconds. The value 0 means "don't wait". The value
9b6435af 324\-1 means "wait forever". Setting this environment variable to 0 is
eba411c6
MD
325recommended for applications with time constraints on the process
326startup time.
327.PP
328
329.SH "SEE ALSO"
330
331.PP
332lttng-gen-tp(1), lttng(1), babeltrace(1), lttng-sessiond(8)
333.PP
1b8747b1
MD
334
335.SH "COMPATIBILITY"
336
337.PP
338Older lttng-ust libraries reject more recent, and incompatible, probe
339providers. Newer lttng-ust librairies accept older probe providers, even
340though some newer features might not be available with those providers.
341.PP
342
eba411c6
MD
343.SH "BUGS"
344
345.PP
1b8747b1
MD
346LTTng-UST 2.0 and 2.1 lttng-ust libraries do not check for probe
347provider version compatibility. This can lead to out-of-bound accesses
348when using a more recent probe provider with an older lttng-ust library.
349These error only trigger when tracing is active. This issue has been
350fixed in LTTng-UST 2.2.
eba411c6
MD
351
352If you encounter any issues or usability problem, please report it on
353our mailing list <lttng-dev@lists.lttng.org> to help improve this
354project.
355.SH "CREDITS"
356
357liblttng-ust is distributed under the GNU Lesser General Public License
358version 2.1. The headers are distributed under the MIT license.
359.PP
360See http://lttng.org for more information on the LTTng project.
361.PP
362Mailing list for support and development: <lttng-dev@lists.lttng.org>.
363.PP
364You can find us on IRC server irc.oftc.net (OFTC) in #lttng.
365.PP
366.SH "THANKS"
367
368Thanks to Ericsson for funding this work, providing real-life use-cases,
369and testing.
370
371Special thanks to Michel Dagenais and the DORSAL laboratory at
372Polytechnique de Montreal for the LTTng journey.
373.PP
374.SH "AUTHORS"
375
376.PP
377liblttng-ust was originally written by Mathieu Desnoyers, with additional
378contributions from various other people. It is currently maintained by
379Mathieu Desnoyers <mathieu.desnoyers@efficios.com>.
380.PP
This page took 0.03567 seconds and 4 git commands to generate.