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authorDaniel Baumann <daniel.baumann@progress-linux.org>2024-04-07 18:49:45 +0000
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Adding upstream version 6.1.76.upstream/6.1.76
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+=========================================
+user_events: User-based Event Tracing
+=========================================
+
+:Author: Beau Belgrave
+
+Overview
+--------
+User based trace events allow user processes to create events and trace data
+that can be viewed via existing tools, such as ftrace and perf.
+To enable this feature, build your kernel with CONFIG_USER_EVENTS=y.
+
+Programs can view status of the events via
+/sys/kernel/debug/tracing/user_events_status and can both register and write
+data out via /sys/kernel/debug/tracing/user_events_data.
+
+Programs can also use /sys/kernel/debug/tracing/dynamic_events to register and
+delete user based events via the u: prefix. The format of the command to
+dynamic_events is the same as the ioctl with the u: prefix applied.
+
+Typically programs will register a set of events that they wish to expose to
+tools that can read trace_events (such as ftrace and perf). The registration
+process gives back two ints to the program for each event. The first int is
+the status bit. This describes which bit in little-endian format in the
+/sys/kernel/debug/tracing/user_events_status file represents this event. The
+second int is the write index which describes the data when a write() or
+writev() is called on the /sys/kernel/debug/tracing/user_events_data file.
+
+The structures referenced in this document are contained within the
+/include/uapi/linux/user_events.h file in the source tree.
+
+**NOTE:** *Both user_events_status and user_events_data are under the tracefs
+filesystem and may be mounted at different paths than above.*
+
+Registering
+-----------
+Registering within a user process is done via ioctl() out to the
+/sys/kernel/debug/tracing/user_events_data file. The command to issue is
+DIAG_IOCSREG.
+
+This command takes a packed struct user_reg as an argument::
+
+ struct user_reg {
+ u32 size;
+ u64 name_args;
+ u32 status_bit;
+ u32 write_index;
+ };
+
+The struct user_reg requires two inputs, the first is the size of the structure
+to ensure forward and backward compatibility. The second is the command string
+to issue for registering. Upon success two outputs are set, the status bit
+and the write index.
+
+User based events show up under tracefs like any other event under the
+subsystem named "user_events". This means tools that wish to attach to the
+events need to use /sys/kernel/debug/tracing/events/user_events/[name]/enable
+or perf record -e user_events:[name] when attaching/recording.
+
+**NOTE:** *The write_index returned is only valid for the FD that was used*
+
+Command Format
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+The command string format is as follows::
+
+ name[:FLAG1[,FLAG2...]] [Field1[;Field2...]]
+
+Supported Flags
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+None yet
+
+Field Format
+^^^^^^^^^^^^
+::
+
+ type name [size]
+
+Basic types are supported (__data_loc, u32, u64, int, char, char[20], etc).
+User programs are encouraged to use clearly sized types like u32.
+
+**NOTE:** *Long is not supported since size can vary between user and kernel.*
+
+The size is only valid for types that start with a struct prefix.
+This allows user programs to describe custom structs out to tools, if required.
+
+For example, a struct in C that looks like this::
+
+ struct mytype {
+ char data[20];
+ };
+
+Would be represented by the following field::
+
+ struct mytype myname 20
+
+Deleting
+-----------
+Deleting an event from within a user process is done via ioctl() out to the
+/sys/kernel/debug/tracing/user_events_data file. The command to issue is
+DIAG_IOCSDEL.
+
+This command only requires a single string specifying the event to delete by
+its name. Delete will only succeed if there are no references left to the
+event (in both user and kernel space). User programs should use a separate file
+to request deletes than the one used for registration due to this.
+
+Status
+------
+When tools attach/record user based events the status of the event is updated
+in realtime. This allows user programs to only incur the cost of the write() or
+writev() calls when something is actively attached to the event.
+
+User programs call mmap() on /sys/kernel/debug/tracing/user_events_status to
+check the status for each event that is registered. The bit to check in the
+file is given back after the register ioctl() via user_reg.status_bit. The bit
+is always in little-endian format. Programs can check if the bit is set either
+using a byte-wise index with a mask or a long-wise index with a little-endian
+mask.
+
+Currently the size of user_events_status is a single page, however, custom
+kernel configurations can change this size to allow more user based events. In
+all cases the size of the file is a multiple of a page size.
+
+For example, if the register ioctl() gives back a status_bit of 3 you would
+check byte 0 (3 / 8) of the returned mmap data and then AND the result with 8
+(1 << (3 % 8)) to see if anything is attached to that event.
+
+A byte-wise index check is performed as follows::
+
+ int index, mask;
+ char *status_page;
+
+ index = status_bit / 8;
+ mask = 1 << (status_bit % 8);
+
+ ...
+
+ if (status_page[index] & mask) {
+ /* Enabled */
+ }
+
+A long-wise index check is performed as follows::
+
+ #include <asm/bitsperlong.h>
+ #include <endian.h>
+
+ #if __BITS_PER_LONG == 64
+ #define endian_swap(x) htole64(x)
+ #else
+ #define endian_swap(x) htole32(x)
+ #endif
+
+ long index, mask, *status_page;
+
+ index = status_bit / __BITS_PER_LONG;
+ mask = 1L << (status_bit % __BITS_PER_LONG);
+ mask = endian_swap(mask);
+
+ ...
+
+ if (status_page[index] & mask) {
+ /* Enabled */
+ }
+
+Administrators can easily check the status of all registered events by reading
+the user_events_status file directly via a terminal. The output is as follows::
+
+ Byte:Name [# Comments]
+ ...
+
+ Active: ActiveCount
+ Busy: BusyCount
+ Max: MaxCount
+
+For example, on a system that has a single event the output looks like this::
+
+ 1:test
+
+ Active: 1
+ Busy: 0
+ Max: 32768
+
+If a user enables the user event via ftrace, the output would change to this::
+
+ 1:test # Used by ftrace
+
+ Active: 1
+ Busy: 1
+ Max: 32768
+
+**NOTE:** *A status bit of 0 will never be returned. This allows user programs
+to have a bit that can be used on error cases.*
+
+Writing Data
+------------
+After registering an event the same fd that was used to register can be used
+to write an entry for that event. The write_index returned must be at the start
+of the data, then the remaining data is treated as the payload of the event.
+
+For example, if write_index returned was 1 and I wanted to write out an int
+payload of the event. Then the data would have to be 8 bytes (2 ints) in size,
+with the first 4 bytes being equal to 1 and the last 4 bytes being equal to the
+value I want as the payload.
+
+In memory this would look like this::
+
+ int index;
+ int payload;
+
+User programs might have well known structs that they wish to use to emit out
+as payloads. In those cases writev() can be used, with the first vector being
+the index and the following vector(s) being the actual event payload.
+
+For example, if I have a struct like this::
+
+ struct payload {
+ int src;
+ int dst;
+ int flags;
+ };
+
+It's advised for user programs to do the following::
+
+ struct iovec io[2];
+ struct payload e;
+
+ io[0].iov_base = &write_index;
+ io[0].iov_len = sizeof(write_index);
+ io[1].iov_base = &e;
+ io[1].iov_len = sizeof(e);
+
+ writev(fd, (const struct iovec*)io, 2);
+
+**NOTE:** *The write_index is not emitted out into the trace being recorded.*
+
+Example Code
+------------
+See sample code in samples/user_events.