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1 Kprobe-based Event Tracing
2 ==========================
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3
4 Documentation is written by Masami Hiramatsu
5
6
7Overview
8--------
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9These events are similar to tracepoint based events. Instead of Tracepoint,
10this is based on kprobes (kprobe and kretprobe). So it can probe wherever
11kprobes can probe (this means, all functions body except for __kprobes
12functions). Unlike the Tracepoint based event, this can be added and removed
13dynamically, on the fly.
d8ec9185 14
9c33c512 15To enable this feature, build your kernel with CONFIG_KPROBE_EVENT=y.
d8ec9185 16
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17Similar to the events tracer, this doesn't need to be activated via
18current_tracer. Instead of that, add probe points via
19/sys/kernel/debug/tracing/kprobe_events, and enable it via
20/sys/kernel/debug/tracing/events/kprobes/<EVENT>/enabled.
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21
22
23Synopsis of kprobe_events
24-------------------------
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25 p[:[GRP/]EVENT] [MOD:]SYM[+offs]|MEMADDR [FETCHARGS] : Set a probe
26 r[:[GRP/]EVENT] [MOD:]SYM[+0] [FETCHARGS] : Set a return probe
df3ab708 27 -:[GRP/]EVENT : Clear a probe
d8ec9185 28
f52487e9 29 GRP : Group name. If omitted, use "kprobes" for it.
2fba0c88 30 EVENT : Event name. If omitted, the event name is generated
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31 based on SYM+offs or MEMADDR.
32 MOD : Module name which has given SYM.
33 SYM[+offs] : Symbol+offset where the probe is inserted.
2fba0c88 34 MEMADDR : Address where the probe is inserted.
d8ec9185 35
2fba0c88 36 FETCHARGS : Arguments. Each probe can have up to 128 args.
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37 %REG : Fetch register REG
38 @ADDR : Fetch memory at ADDR (ADDR should be in kernel)
d8ec9185 39 @SYM[+|-offs] : Fetch memory at SYM +|- offs (SYM should be a data symbol)
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40 $stackN : Fetch Nth entry of stack (N >= 0)
41 $stack : Fetch stack address.
14640106 42 $retval : Fetch return value.(*)
35abb67d 43 $comm : Fetch current task comm.
14640106 44 +|-offs(FETCHARG) : Fetch memory at FETCHARG +|- offs address.(**)
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45 NAME=FETCHARG : Set NAME as the argument name of FETCHARG.
46 FETCHARG:TYPE : Set TYPE as the type of FETCHARG. Currently, basic types
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47 (u8/u16/u32/u64/s8/s16/s32/s64), "string" and bitfield
48 are supported.
d8ec9185 49
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50 (*) only for return probe.
51 (**) this is useful for fetching a field of data structures.
d8ec9185 52
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53Types
54-----
55Several types are supported for fetch-args. Kprobe tracer will access memory
56by given type. Prefix 's' and 'u' means those types are signed and unsigned
57respectively. Traced arguments are shown in decimal (signed) or hex (unsigned).
58String type is a special type, which fetches a "null-terminated" string from
59kernel space. This means it will fail and store NULL if the string container
60has been paged out.
61Bitfield is another special type, which takes 3 parameters, bit-width, bit-
62offset, and container-size (usually 32). The syntax is;
63
64 b<bit-width>@<bit-offset>/<container-size>
65
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66For $comm, the default type is "string"; any other type is invalid.
67
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68
69Per-Probe Event Filtering
70-------------------------
71 Per-probe event filtering feature allows you to set different filter on each
72probe and gives you what arguments will be shown in trace buffer. If an event
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73name is specified right after 'p:' or 'r:' in kprobe_events, it adds an event
74under tracing/events/kprobes/<EVENT>, at the directory you can see 'id',
75'enabled', 'format' and 'filter'.
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76
77enabled:
78 You can enable/disable the probe by writing 1 or 0 on it.
79
80format:
eca0d916 81 This shows the format of this probe event.
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82
83filter:
eca0d916 84 You can write filtering rules of this event.
d8ec9185 85
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86id:
87 This shows the id of this probe event.
d8ec9185 88
77b44d1b 89
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90Event Profiling
91---------------
92 You can check the total number of probe hits and probe miss-hits via
93/sys/kernel/debug/tracing/kprobe_profile.
94 The first column is event name, the second is the number of probe hits,
95the third is the number of probe miss-hits.
96
97
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98Usage examples
99--------------
100To add a probe as a new event, write a new definition to kprobe_events
101as below.
102
580d9e00 103 echo 'p:myprobe do_sys_open dfd=%ax filename=%dx flags=%cx mode=+4($stack)' > /sys/kernel/debug/tracing/kprobe_events
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104
105 This sets a kprobe on the top of do_sys_open() function with recording
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1061st to 4th arguments as "myprobe" event. Note, which register/stack entry is
107assigned to each function argument depends on arch-specific ABI. If you unsure
108the ABI, please try to use probe subcommand of perf-tools (you can find it
109under tools/perf/).
110As this example shows, users can choose more familiar names for each arguments.
d8ec9185 111
580d9e00 112 echo 'r:myretprobe do_sys_open $retval' >> /sys/kernel/debug/tracing/kprobe_events
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113
114 This sets a kretprobe on the return point of do_sys_open() function with
99329c44 115recording return value as "myretprobe" event.
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116 You can see the format of these events via
117/sys/kernel/debug/tracing/events/kprobes/<EVENT>/format.
118
119 cat /sys/kernel/debug/tracing/events/kprobes/myprobe/format
120name: myprobe
ec3a9039 121ID: 780
d8ec9185 122format:
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123 field:unsigned short common_type; offset:0; size:2; signed:0;
124 field:unsigned char common_flags; offset:2; size:1; signed:0;
125 field:unsigned char common_preempt_count; offset:3; size:1;signed:0;
126 field:int common_pid; offset:4; size:4; signed:1;
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127
128 field:unsigned long __probe_ip; offset:12; size:4; signed:0;
129 field:int __probe_nargs; offset:16; size:4; signed:1;
130 field:unsigned long dfd; offset:20; size:4; signed:0;
131 field:unsigned long filename; offset:24; size:4; signed:0;
132 field:unsigned long flags; offset:28; size:4; signed:0;
133 field:unsigned long mode; offset:32; size:4; signed:0;
134
135
136print fmt: "(%lx) dfd=%lx filename=%lx flags=%lx mode=%lx", REC->__probe_ip,
137REC->dfd, REC->filename, REC->flags, REC->mode
d8ec9185 138
eca0d916 139 You can see that the event has 4 arguments as in the expressions you specified.
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140
141 echo > /sys/kernel/debug/tracing/kprobe_events
142
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143 This clears all probe points.
144
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145 Or,
146
147 echo -:myprobe >> kprobe_events
148
149 This clears probe points selectively.
150
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151 Right after definition, each event is disabled by default. For tracing these
152events, you need to enable it.
153
154 echo 1 > /sys/kernel/debug/tracing/events/kprobes/myprobe/enable
155 echo 1 > /sys/kernel/debug/tracing/events/kprobes/myretprobe/enable
156
157 And you can see the traced information via /sys/kernel/debug/tracing/trace.
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158
159 cat /sys/kernel/debug/tracing/trace
160# tracer: nop
161#
162# TASK-PID CPU# TIMESTAMP FUNCTION
163# | | | | |
6e9f23d1 164 <...>-1447 [001] 1038282.286875: myprobe: (do_sys_open+0x0/0xd6) dfd=3 filename=7fffd1ec4440 flags=8000 mode=0
2e06ff63 165 <...>-1447 [001] 1038282.286878: myretprobe: (sys_openat+0xc/0xe <- do_sys_open) $retval=fffffffffffffffe
6e9f23d1 166 <...>-1447 [001] 1038282.286885: myprobe: (do_sys_open+0x0/0xd6) dfd=ffffff9c filename=40413c flags=8000 mode=1b6
2e06ff63 167 <...>-1447 [001] 1038282.286915: myretprobe: (sys_open+0x1b/0x1d <- do_sys_open) $retval=3
6e9f23d1 168 <...>-1447 [001] 1038282.286969: myprobe: (do_sys_open+0x0/0xd6) dfd=ffffff9c filename=4041c6 flags=98800 mode=10
2e06ff63 169 <...>-1447 [001] 1038282.286976: myretprobe: (sys_open+0x1b/0x1d <- do_sys_open) $retval=3
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170
171
6e9f23d1 172 Each line shows when the kernel hits an event, and <- SYMBOL means kernel
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173returns from SYMBOL(e.g. "sys_open+0x1b/0x1d <- do_sys_open" means kernel
174returns from do_sys_open to sys_open+0x1b).
175