0.6.4

[lttv.git] / ltt / branches / poly / QUICKSTART

QUICKSTART

How to use LTTng and LTTV in a few lines :

This document is made of four parts : The first one explains how to install
LTTng and LTTV from Debian and RPM binary packages, the second one explains how
to install LTTng and LTTV from sources and the third one describes the steps
to follow to trace a system and view it. The fourth and last part explains
briefly how to add a new trace point to the kernel.

What you will typically want is to read sections 1 and 3 : install LTTng from
binary packages and use it. If there are no packages ready for your system, you
will have to install from sources (section 2) instead.

These operations are made for installing LTTng 0.4 on a linux 2.6.12-rc2-mm2
kernel. Change the versions to fit your needs.

Author : Mathieu Desnoyers, September 2005



***********************************************************
** Section 1 * Installation from Debian or RPM packages  **
***********************************************************

No Debian or RPM packages are ready yet.

TODO


***********************************************************
** Section 2 * Installation from sources                 **
***********************************************************

* Getting the LTTng packages

su -
mkdir /usr/src/lttng
cd /usr/src/lttng
(see http://ltt.polymtl.ca/lttng for package listing)
wget http://ltt.polymtl.ca/lttng/lttng-modules-0.2.tar.bz2
wget http://ltt.polymtl.ca/lttng/patch-2.6.12-rc4-mm2-lttng-0.4.bz2
bzip2 -cd lttng-modules-0.2.tar.bz2 | tar xvof -


* Getting LTTng kernel sources

su -
cd /usr/src
wget http://kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.6/testing/linux-2.6.12-rc4.tar.bz2
wget http://kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/people/akpm/patches/2.6/2.6.12-rc4/2.6.12-rc4-mm2/2.6.12-rc4-mm2.bz2
bzip2 -cd linux-2.6.12-rc4.tar.bz2 | tar xvof -
cd linux-2.6.12-rc4
bzip2 -cd ../2.6.12-rc4-mm2.bz2 | patch -p1
bzip2 -cd /usr/src/lttng/patch-2.6.12-rc4-mm2-lttng-0.4.bz2 | patch -p1
cd ..
mv linux-2.6.12-rc4 linux-2.6.12-rc4-mm2-lttng-0.4


* Installing a LTTng kernel

su -
cd /usr/src/linux-2.6.12-rc4-mm2-lttng-0.4
make menuconfig
  General setup
    * Linux Trace Toolkit Instrumentation Support
    M or * Linux Trace Toolkit Tracer
    do NOT activate (not ready yet) :
        Align Linux Trace Toolkit Traces
        Activate Linux Trace Toolkit Heartbeat Timer
              IMPORTANT : This is enabled by default : you must disable it!
make
make install
make modules_install

The first time you use relayfs, you have to specify a mount point in you system:
mkdir /mnt/relayfs
echo "relayfs         /mnt/relayfs    relayfs rw              0       0" \
   >> /etc/fstab

Depending on your boot loader, you may want to execute :
update-grub or lilo

reboot


* Install the ltt-modules

su -
cd /usr/src/lttng/lttng-modules-0.2
KERNELDIR=/usr/src/linux-2.6.12-rc4-mm2-lttng-0.4 make
KERNELDIR=/usr/src/linux-2.6.12-rc4-mm2-lttng-0.4 make modules_install

note : at this stage, you might want to execute
modprobe ltt-control

and you might also want to do this :
echo ltt-control >> /etc/modules


* Getting and installing the LTTV package

su -
cd /usr/src
wget http://ltt.polymtl.ca/packages/LinuxTraceToolkitViewer-0.6.4-21092005.tar.gz
gzip -cd LinuxTraceToolkitViewer-0.6.4-21092005.tar.gz | tar xvof -
cd LinuxTraceToolkitViewer-0.6.4-21092005
(refer to README to see the development libraries that must be installed on you
system)
./configure
make
make install




***********************************************************
** Section 3 * Using LTTng and LTTV                      **
***********************************************************

* Use graphical LTTV to control tracing and analyse traces

lttv-gui (or /usr/local/bin/lttv-gui)
  - Spot the "Tracing Control" icon : click on it
      (it's a traffic light icon)
    - enter the root password
    - click "start"
    - click "stop"
    - Yes
      * You should now see a trace

* Use text mode LTTng to control tracing

The tracing can be controlled from a terminal by using the lttctl command (as
root).

Start tracing :

lttctl -n trace -d -l /mnt/relayfs/ltt -t /tmp/trace

Stop tracing and destroy trace channels :

lttctl -n trace -R

see lttctl --help for details.


* Use text mode LTTV

Fell free to look in /usr/local/lib/lttv/plugins to see all the text and
graphical plugins available.

For example, a simple trace dump in text format is available with :

lttv -m textDump -t /tmp/trace

see lttv -m textDump --help for detailed command line options of textDump.




***********************************************************
** Section 4 * Adding new instrumentations with genevent **
***********************************************************

* Getting and installing genevent

su -
cd /usr/src
wget http://ltt.polymtl.ca/packages/genevent-0.1.tar.gz
gzip -cd genevent-0.1.tar.gz | tar xvof -
cd genevent-0.1
make
make install


* Add new events to the kernel with genevent

su -
cd /usr/local/share/LinuxTraceToolkitViewer/facilities
cp process.xml yourfacility.xml
  * edit yourfacility.xml to fit your needs.
cd /tmp
/usr/local/bin/genevent /usr/local/share/LinuxTraceToolkitViewer/yourfacility.xml
cp ltt-facility-yourfacility.h ltt-facility-id-yourfacility.h \
         /usr/src/linux-2.6.12-rc4-mm2-lttng-0.4/include/linux/ltt
cp ltt-facility-loader-yourfacility.c ltt-facility-loader-yourfacility.h \
         /usr/src/linux-2.6.12-rc4-mm2-lttng-0.4/ltt
  * edit the kernel file you want to instrument
    - Add #include <linux/ltt/ltt-facility-yourfacility.h> at the beginning
      of the file.
    - Add a call to the tracing functions. See their names and parameters in
      /usr/src/linux-2.6.12-rc4-mm2-lttng-0.4/include/linux/ltt/ltt-facility-yourfacility.h