diff options
Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation/trace/kprobetrace.rst')
| -rw-r--r-- | Documentation/trace/kprobetrace.rst | 257 |
1 files changed, 257 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/trace/kprobetrace.rst b/Documentation/trace/kprobetrace.rst new file mode 100644 index 000000000..b175d88f3 --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/trace/kprobetrace.rst @@ -0,0 +1,257 @@ +========================== +Kprobe-based Event Tracing +========================== + +:Author: Masami Hiramatsu + +Overview +-------- +These events are similar to tracepoint based events. Instead of Tracepoint, +this is based on kprobes (kprobe and kretprobe). So it can probe wherever +kprobes can probe (this means, all functions except those with +__kprobes/nokprobe_inline annotation and those marked NOKPROBE_SYMBOL). +Unlike the Tracepoint based event, this can be added and removed +dynamically, on the fly. + +To enable this feature, build your kernel with CONFIG_KPROBE_EVENTS=y. + +Similar to the events tracer, this doesn't need to be activated via +current_tracer. Instead of that, add probe points via +/sys/kernel/debug/tracing/kprobe_events, and enable it via +/sys/kernel/debug/tracing/events/kprobes/<EVENT>/enable. + +You can also use /sys/kernel/debug/tracing/dynamic_events instead of +kprobe_events. That interface will provide unified access to other +dynamic events too. + +Synopsis of kprobe_events +------------------------- +:: + + p[:[GRP/]EVENT] [MOD:]SYM[+offs]|MEMADDR [FETCHARGS] : Set a probe + r[MAXACTIVE][:[GRP/]EVENT] [MOD:]SYM[+0] [FETCHARGS] : Set a return probe + p:[GRP/]EVENT] [MOD:]SYM[+0]%return [FETCHARGS] : Set a return probe + -:[GRP/]EVENT : Clear a probe + + GRP : Group name. If omitted, use "kprobes" for it. + EVENT : Event name. If omitted, the event name is generated + based on SYM+offs or MEMADDR. + MOD : Module name which has given SYM. + SYM[+offs] : Symbol+offset where the probe is inserted. + SYM%return : Return address of the symbol + MEMADDR : Address where the probe is inserted. + MAXACTIVE : Maximum number of instances of the specified function that + can be probed simultaneously, or 0 for the default value + as defined in Documentation/trace/kprobes.rst section 1.3.1. + + FETCHARGS : Arguments. Each probe can have up to 128 args. + %REG : Fetch register REG + @ADDR : Fetch memory at ADDR (ADDR should be in kernel) + @SYM[+|-offs] : Fetch memory at SYM +|- offs (SYM should be a data symbol) + $stackN : Fetch Nth entry of stack (N >= 0) + $stack : Fetch stack address. + $argN : Fetch the Nth function argument. (N >= 1) (\*1) + $retval : Fetch return value.(\*2) + $comm : Fetch current task comm. + +|-[u]OFFS(FETCHARG) : Fetch memory at FETCHARG +|- OFFS address.(\*3)(\*4) + \IMM : Store an immediate value to the argument. + NAME=FETCHARG : Set NAME as the argument name of FETCHARG. + FETCHARG:TYPE : Set TYPE as the type of FETCHARG. Currently, basic types + (u8/u16/u32/u64/s8/s16/s32/s64), hexadecimal types + (x8/x16/x32/x64), "string", "ustring" and bitfield + are supported. + + (\*1) only for the probe on function entry (offs == 0). + (\*2) only for return probe. + (\*3) this is useful for fetching a field of data structures. + (\*4) "u" means user-space dereference. See :ref:`user_mem_access`. + +Types +----- +Several types are supported for fetch-args. Kprobe tracer will access memory +by given type. Prefix 's' and 'u' means those types are signed and unsigned +respectively. 'x' prefix implies it is unsigned. Traced arguments are shown +in decimal ('s' and 'u') or hexadecimal ('x'). Without type casting, 'x32' +or 'x64' is used depends on the architecture (e.g. x86-32 uses x32, and +x86-64 uses x64). +These value types can be an array. To record array data, you can add '[N]' +(where N is a fixed number, less than 64) to the base type. +E.g. 'x16[4]' means an array of x16 (2bytes hex) with 4 elements. +Note that the array can be applied to memory type fetchargs, you can not +apply it to registers/stack-entries etc. (for example, '$stack1:x8[8]' is +wrong, but '+8($stack):x8[8]' is OK.) +String type is a special type, which fetches a "null-terminated" string from +kernel space. This means it will fail and store NULL if the string container +has been paged out. "ustring" type is an alternative of string for user-space. +See :ref:`user_mem_access` for more info.. +The string array type is a bit different from other types. For other base +types, <base-type>[1] is equal to <base-type> (e.g. +0(%di):x32[1] is same +as +0(%di):x32.) But string[1] is not equal to string. The string type itself +represents "char array", but string array type represents "char * array". +So, for example, +0(%di):string[1] is equal to +0(+0(%di)):string. +Bitfield is another special type, which takes 3 parameters, bit-width, bit- +offset, and container-size (usually 32). The syntax is:: + + b<bit-width>@<bit-offset>/<container-size> + +Symbol type('symbol') is an alias of u32 or u64 type (depends on BITS_PER_LONG) +which shows given pointer in "symbol+offset" style. +For $comm, the default type is "string"; any other type is invalid. + +.. _user_mem_access: + +User Memory Access +------------------ +Kprobe events supports user-space memory access. For that purpose, you can use +either user-space dereference syntax or 'ustring' type. + +The user-space dereference syntax allows you to access a field of a data +structure in user-space. This is done by adding the "u" prefix to the +dereference syntax. For example, +u4(%si) means it will read memory from the +address in the register %si offset by 4, and the memory is expected to be in +user-space. You can use this for strings too, e.g. +u0(%si):string will read +a string from the address in the register %si that is expected to be in user- +space. 'ustring' is a shortcut way of performing the same task. That is, ++0(%si):ustring is equivalent to +u0(%si):string. + +Note that kprobe-event provides the user-memory access syntax but it doesn't +use it transparently. This means if you use normal dereference or string type +for user memory, it might fail, and may always fail on some archs. The user +has to carefully check if the target data is in kernel or user space. + +Per-Probe Event Filtering +------------------------- +Per-probe event filtering feature allows you to set different filter on each +probe and gives you what arguments will be shown in trace buffer. If an event +name is specified right after 'p:' or 'r:' in kprobe_events, it adds an event +under tracing/events/kprobes/<EVENT>, at the directory you can see 'id', +'enable', 'format', 'filter' and 'trigger'. + +enable: + You can enable/disable the probe by writing 1 or 0 on it. + +format: + This shows the format of this probe event. + +filter: + You can write filtering rules of this event. + +id: + This shows the id of this probe event. + +trigger: + This allows to install trigger commands which are executed when the event is + hit (for details, see Documentation/trace/events.rst, section 6). + +Event Profiling +--------------- +You can check the total number of probe hits and probe miss-hits via +/sys/kernel/debug/tracing/kprobe_profile. +The first column is event name, the second is the number of probe hits, +the third is the number of probe miss-hits. + +Kernel Boot Parameter +--------------------- +You can add and enable new kprobe events when booting up the kernel by +"kprobe_event=" parameter. The parameter accepts a semicolon-delimited +kprobe events, which format is similar to the kprobe_events. +The difference is that the probe definition parameters are comma-delimited +instead of space. For example, adding myprobe event on do_sys_open like below + + p:myprobe do_sys_open dfd=%ax filename=%dx flags=%cx mode=+4($stack) + +should be below for kernel boot parameter (just replace spaces with comma) + + p:myprobe,do_sys_open,dfd=%ax,filename=%dx,flags=%cx,mode=+4($stack) + + +Usage examples +-------------- +To add a probe as a new event, write a new definition to kprobe_events +as below:: + + echo 'p:myprobe do_sys_open dfd=%ax filename=%dx flags=%cx mode=+4($stack)' > /sys/kernel/debug/tracing/kprobe_events + +This sets a kprobe on the top of do_sys_open() function with recording +1st to 4th arguments as "myprobe" event. Note, which register/stack entry is +assigned to each function argument depends on arch-specific ABI. If you unsure +the ABI, please try to use probe subcommand of perf-tools (you can find it +under tools/perf/). +As this example shows, users can choose more familiar names for each arguments. +:: + + echo 'r:myretprobe do_sys_open $retval' >> /sys/kernel/debug/tracing/kprobe_events + +This sets a kretprobe on the return point of do_sys_open() function with +recording return value as "myretprobe" event. +You can see the format of these events via +/sys/kernel/debug/tracing/events/kprobes/<EVENT>/format. +:: + + cat /sys/kernel/debug/tracing/events/kprobes/myprobe/format + name: myprobe + ID: 780 + format: + field:unsigned short common_type; offset:0; size:2; signed:0; + field:unsigned char common_flags; offset:2; size:1; signed:0; + field:unsigned char common_preempt_count; offset:3; size:1;signed:0; + field:int common_pid; offset:4; size:4; signed:1; + + field:unsigned long __probe_ip; offset:12; size:4; signed:0; + field:int __probe_nargs; offset:16; size:4; signed:1; + field:unsigned long dfd; offset:20; size:4; signed:0; + field:unsigned long filename; offset:24; size:4; signed:0; + field:unsigned long flags; offset:28; size:4; signed:0; + field:unsigned long mode; offset:32; size:4; signed:0; + + + print fmt: "(%lx) dfd=%lx filename=%lx flags=%lx mode=%lx", REC->__probe_ip, + REC->dfd, REC->filename, REC->flags, REC->mode + +You can see that the event has 4 arguments as in the expressions you specified. +:: + + echo > /sys/kernel/debug/tracing/kprobe_events + +This clears all probe points. + +Or, +:: + + echo -:myprobe >> kprobe_events + +This clears probe points selectively. + +Right after definition, each event is disabled by default. For tracing these +events, you need to enable it. +:: + + echo 1 > /sys/kernel/debug/tracing/events/kprobes/myprobe/enable + echo 1 > /sys/kernel/debug/tracing/events/kprobes/myretprobe/enable + +Use the following command to start tracing in an interval. +:: + + # echo 1 > tracing_on + Open something... + # echo 0 > tracing_on + +And you can see the traced information via /sys/kernel/debug/tracing/trace. +:: + + cat /sys/kernel/debug/tracing/trace + # tracer: nop + # + # TASK-PID CPU# TIMESTAMP FUNCTION + # | | | | | + <...>-1447 [001] 1038282.286875: myprobe: (do_sys_open+0x0/0xd6) dfd=3 filename=7fffd1ec4440 flags=8000 mode=0 + <...>-1447 [001] 1038282.286878: myretprobe: (sys_openat+0xc/0xe <- do_sys_open) $retval=fffffffffffffffe + <...>-1447 [001] 1038282.286885: myprobe: (do_sys_open+0x0/0xd6) dfd=ffffff9c filename=40413c flags=8000 mode=1b6 + <...>-1447 [001] 1038282.286915: myretprobe: (sys_open+0x1b/0x1d <- do_sys_open) $retval=3 + <...>-1447 [001] 1038282.286969: myprobe: (do_sys_open+0x0/0xd6) dfd=ffffff9c filename=4041c6 flags=98800 mode=10 + <...>-1447 [001] 1038282.286976: myretprobe: (sys_open+0x1b/0x1d <- do_sys_open) $retval=3 + + +Each line shows when the kernel hits an event, and <- SYMBOL means kernel +returns from SYMBOL(e.g. "sys_open+0x1b/0x1d <- do_sys_open" means kernel +returns from do_sys_open to sys_open+0x1b). |