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Diffstat (limited to 'src/VBox/Devices/Trace/README.txt')
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diff --git a/src/VBox/Devices/Trace/README.txt b/src/VBox/Devices/Trace/README.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..e12efb2a --- /dev/null +++ b/src/VBox/Devices/Trace/README.txt @@ -0,0 +1,32 @@ +/* $Id: README.txt $ */ +Introduction: + + This is a simple tracing driver which hooks into a driver chain and logs all executed callbacks for a particular interface + with their parameters. + It uses the RTTraceLog API to write the data into a compact binary log file which can be examined using RTTraceLogTool + (which is still very basic at this point but will be enhanced when certain features are required). + + Currently implemented interfaces are (implement more on a need basis and add them here): + - PDMISERIALPORT and PDMISERIALCONNECTOR + +Benefits: + + This driver allows to gather more detailed information about the interaction between devices and attached drivers without + the need to add additional debug/logging code. This is especially useful for debugging user reported issues as it can avoid + having to send a special testbuil to the user (provided the interfaces are implemented by the trace driver), + the user just requires instructions on how to enable the tracing for her particular setup. + + Later on this might also come in handy for a driver testbench because it allows recording the interaction from a complicated setup and + allows replaying it in a more controlled/compact environment for unit testing or fuzzing. + +Setup: + + To inject the driver into an existing driver chain the PDM driver transformations feature is used. + The following example injects the trace driver right before every instance of the "Host Serial" driver: + + VBoxManage setextradata <VM name> "VBoxInternal/PDM/DriverTransformations/SerialTrace/AboveDriver" "Host Serial" + VBoxManage setextradata <VM name> "VBoxInternal/PDM/DriverTransformations/SerialTrace/AttachedDriver/Config/TraceFilePath" "<trace/log/file/path>" + VBoxManage setextradata <VM name> "VBoxInternal/PDM/DriverTransformations/SerialTrace/AttachedDriver/Driver" "IfTrace"/> + + + |