[PATCH 00/18] [ANNOUNCE] Dynamically created function based events

Steven Rostedt
2018-02-02T23:04:58Z

At Kernel Summit back in October, we tried to bring up trace markers, which
would be nops within the kernel proper, that would allow modules to hook
arbitrary trace events to them. The reaction to this proposal was less than
favorable. We were told that we were trying to make a work around for a
problem, and not solving it. The problem in our minds is the notion of a
"stable trace event".

There are maintainers that do not want trace events, or more trace events in
their subsystems. This is due to the fact that trace events post an
interface to user space, and this interface could become required by some
tool. This may cause the trace event to become stable where it must not
break the tool, and thus prevent the code from changing.

Or, the trace event may just have to add padding for fields that tools
may require. The "success" field of the sched_wakeup trace event is one such
instance. There is no more "success" variable, but tools may fail if it were
to go away, so a "1" is simply added to the trace event wasting ring buffer
real estate.

I talked with Linus about this, and he told me that we already have these
markers in the kernel. They are from the mcount/__fentry__ used by function
tracing. Have the trace events be created by these, and see if this will
satisfy most areas that want trace events.

I decided to implement this idea, and here's the patch set.

Introducing "function based events". These are created dynamically by a
tracefs file called "function_events". By writing a pseudo prototype into
this file, you create an event.

# mount -t tracefs nodev /sys/kernel/tracing
# cd /sys/kernel/tracing
# echo 'do_IRQ(symbol ip[16] | x64[6] irq_stack[16])' > function_events
# cat events/functions/do_IRQ/format
name: do_IRQ
ID: 1399
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 __parent_ip; offset:8; size:8; signed:0;
field:unsigned long __ip; offset:16; size:8; signed:0;
field:symbol ip; offset:24; size:8; signed:0;
field:x64 irq_stack[6]; offset:32; size:48; signed:0;

print fmt: "%pS->%pS(ip=%pS, irq_stack=%llx:%llx:%llx:%llx:%llx:%llx)", REC->__ip, REC->__parent_ip,
REC->ip, REC->irq_stack[0], REC->irq_stack[1], REC->irq_stack[2], REC->irq_stack[3], REC->irq_stack[4],
REC->irq_stack[5]

# echo 1 > events/functions/do_IRQ/enable
# cat trace
<idle>-0 [003] d..3 3647.049344: ret_from_intr->do_IRQ(ip=cpuidle_enter_state+0xb1/0x330, irq_stack=ffffffff81665db1,10,246,ffffc900006c3e80,18,ffff88011eae9b40)
<idle>-0 [003] d..3 3647.049433: ret_from_intr->do_IRQ(ip=cpuidle_enter_state+0xb1/0x330, irq_stack=ffffffff81665db1,10,246,ffffc900006c3e80,18,ffff88011eae9b40)
<idle>-0 [003] d..3 3647.049672: ret_from_intr->do_IRQ(ip=cpuidle_enter_state+0xb1/0x330, irq_stack=ffffffff81665db1,10,246,ffffc900006c3e80,18,ffff88011eae9b40)
<idle>-0 [003] d..3 3647.325709: ret_from_intr->do_IRQ(ip=cpuidle_enter_state+0xb1/0x330, irq_stack=ffffffff81665db1,10,246,ffffc900006c3e80,18,ffff88011eae9b40)
<idle>-0 [003] d..3 3647.325929: ret_from_intr->do_IRQ(ip=cpuidle_enter_state+0xb1/0x330, irq_stack=ffffffff81665db1,10,246,ffffc900006c3e80,18,ffff88011eae9b40)
<idle>-0 [003] d..3 3647.325993: ret_from_intr->do_IRQ(ip=cpuidle_enter_state+0xb1/0x330, irq_stack=ffffffff81665db1,10,246,ffffc900006c3e80,18,ffff88011eae9b40)
<idle>-0 [003] d..3 3647.387571: ret_from_intr->do_IRQ(ip=cpuidle_enter_state+0xb1/0x330, irq_stack=ffffffff81665db1,10,246,ffffc900006c3e80,18,ffff88011eae9b40)
<idle>-0 [003] d..3 3647.387791: ret_from_intr->do_IRQ(ip=cpuidle_enter_state+0xb1/0x330, irq_stack=ffffffff81665db1,10,246,ffffc900006c3e80,18,ffff88011eae9b40)
<idle>-0 [003] d..3 3647.387874: ret_from_intr->do_IRQ(ip=cpuidle_enter_state+0xb1/0x330, irq_stack=ffffffff81665db1,10,246,ffffc900006c3e80,18,ffff88011eae9b40)

And this is much more powerful than just this. We can show strings, and
index off of structures into other structures.

# echo '__vfs_read(symbol read+40[0]+16)' > function_events

# echo 1 > events/functions/__vfs_read/enable
# cat trace
sshd-1343 [005] ...2 199.734752: vfs_read->__vfs_read(read=tty_read+0x0/0xf0)
bash-1344 [003] ...2 199.734822: vfs_read->__vfs_read(read=tty_read+0x0/0xf0)
sshd-1343 [005] ...2 199.734835: vfs_read->__vfs_read(read=tty_read+0x0/0xf0)
avahi-daemon-910 [003] ...2 200.136740: vfs_read->__vfs_read(read= (null))
avahi-daemon-910 [003] ...2 200.136750: vfs_read->__vfs_read(read= (null))

And even read user space:

# echo 'SyS_openat(int dfd, string path, x32 flags, x16 mode)' > function_events
# echo 1 > events/functions/enable
# grep task_fork /proc/kallsyms
ffffffff810d5a60 t task_fork_fair
ffffffff810dfc30 t task_fork_dl
# cat trace
grep-1820 [000] ...2 3926.107603: entry_SYSCALL_64_fastpath->SyS_openat(dfd=-100, path=/proc/kallsyms, flags=100, mode=0)

These are fully functional events. That is, they work with ftrace,
trace-cmd, perf, histograms, triggers, and eBPF.

What's next? I need to rewrite the function graph tracer, and be able to add
dynamic events on function return.

I made this work with x86 with a simple function that only returns
6 function parameters for x86_64 and 3 for x86_32. But this could easily
be extended.

Cheers!

git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/rostedt/linux-trace.git
ftrace/dynamic-ftrace-events

Head SHA1: 30fbdffd5d38bd27b04fb911f7158f10a99be8c4

Steven Rostedt (VMware) (18):
tracing: Add function based events
tracing: Add documentation for function based events
tracing: Add simple arguments to function based events
tracing/x86: Add arch_get_func_args() function
tracing: Add hex print for dynamic ftrace based events
tracing: Add indirect offset to args of ftrace based events
tracing: Add dereferencing multiple fields per arg
tracing: Add "unsigned" to function based events
tracing: Add indexing of arguments for function based events
tracing: Make func_type enums for easier comparing of arg types
tracing: Add symbol type to function based events
tracing: Add accessing direct address from function based events
tracing: Add array type to function based events
tracing: Have char arrays be strings for function based events
tracing: Add string type for dynamic strings in function based events
tracing: Add NULL to skip args for function based events
tracing: Add indirect to indirect access for function based events
tracing/perf: Allow perf to use function based events

----
Documentation/trace/function-based-events.rst | 426 ++++++++
arch/x86/kernel/ftrace.c | 28 +
include/linux/trace_events.h | 2 +
kernel/trace/Kconfig | 12 +
kernel/trace/Makefile | 1 +
kernel/trace/trace.h | 11 +
kernel/trace/trace_event_ftrace.c | 1440 +++++++++++++++++++++++++
kernel/trace/trace_probe.h | 11 -
8 files changed, 1920 insertions(+), 11 deletions(-)
create mode 100644 Documentation/trace/function-based-events.rst
create mode 100644 kernel/trace/trace_event_ftrace.c