summaryrefslogtreecommitdiffstats
path: root/Documentation/trace
diff options
context:
space:
mode:
authorLinus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>2016-10-06 11:48:41 -0700
committerLinus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>2016-10-06 11:48:41 -0700
commit95107b30be68953e3a4f1c3994c2233500502ccf (patch)
treeed1824ce842d9813f2ee8a5fa8683e0d6b13f662 /Documentation/trace
parent541efb7632642cab55361178d73d544f025b593c (diff)
parenta0d0c6216afad4b2b1704a72bd76bea259e07655 (diff)
downloadop-kernel-dev-95107b30be68953e3a4f1c3994c2233500502ccf.zip
op-kernel-dev-95107b30be68953e3a4f1c3994c2233500502ccf.tar.gz
Merge tag 'trace-v4.9' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/rostedt/linux-trace
Pull tracing updates from Steven Rostedt: "This release cycle is rather small. Just a few fixes to tracing. The big change is the addition of the hwlat tracer. It not only detects SMIs, but also other latency that's caused by the hardware. I have detected some latency from large boxes having bus contention" * tag 'trace-v4.9' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/rostedt/linux-trace: tracing: Call traceoff trigger after event is recorded ftrace/scripts: Add helper script to bisect function tracing problem functions tracing: Have max_latency be defined for HWLAT_TRACER as well tracing: Add NMI tracing in hwlat detector tracing: Have hwlat trace migrate across tracing_cpumask CPUs tracing: Add documentation for hwlat_detector tracer tracing: Added hardware latency tracer ftrace: Access ret_stack->subtime only in the function profiler function_graph: Handle TRACE_BPUTS in print_graph_comment tracing/uprobe: Drop isdigit() check in create_trace_uprobe
Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation/trace')
-rw-r--r--Documentation/trace/ftrace.txt10
-rw-r--r--Documentation/trace/hwlat_detector.txt79
2 files changed, 84 insertions, 5 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/trace/ftrace.txt b/Documentation/trace/ftrace.txt
index a6b3705..185c39f 100644
--- a/Documentation/trace/ftrace.txt
+++ b/Documentation/trace/ftrace.txt
@@ -858,11 +858,11 @@ x494] <- /root/a.out[+0x4a8] <- /lib/libc-2.7.so[+0x1e1a6]
When enabled, it will account time the task has been
scheduled out as part of the function call.
- graph-time - When running function graph tracer, to include the
- time to call nested functions. When this is not set,
- the time reported for the function will only include
- the time the function itself executed for, not the time
- for functions that it called.
+ graph-time - When running function profiler with function graph tracer,
+ to include the time to call nested functions. When this is
+ not set, the time reported for the function will only
+ include the time the function itself executed for, not the
+ time for functions that it called.
record-cmd - When any event or tracer is enabled, a hook is enabled
in the sched_switch trace point to fill comm cache
diff --git a/Documentation/trace/hwlat_detector.txt b/Documentation/trace/hwlat_detector.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3207717
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Documentation/trace/hwlat_detector.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,79 @@
+Introduction:
+-------------
+
+The tracer hwlat_detector is a special purpose tracer that is used to
+detect large system latencies induced by the behavior of certain underlying
+hardware or firmware, independent of Linux itself. The code was developed
+originally to detect SMIs (System Management Interrupts) on x86 systems,
+however there is nothing x86 specific about this patchset. It was
+originally written for use by the "RT" patch since the Real Time
+kernel is highly latency sensitive.
+
+SMIs are not serviced by the Linux kernel, which means that it does not
+even know that they are occuring. SMIs are instead set up by BIOS code
+and are serviced by BIOS code, usually for "critical" events such as
+management of thermal sensors and fans. Sometimes though, SMIs are used for
+other tasks and those tasks can spend an inordinate amount of time in the
+handler (sometimes measured in milliseconds). Obviously this is a problem if
+you are trying to keep event service latencies down in the microsecond range.
+
+The hardware latency detector works by hogging one of the cpus for configurable
+amounts of time (with interrupts disabled), polling the CPU Time Stamp Counter
+for some period, then looking for gaps in the TSC data. Any gap indicates a
+time when the polling was interrupted and since the interrupts are disabled,
+the only thing that could do that would be an SMI or other hardware hiccup
+(or an NMI, but those can be tracked).
+
+Note that the hwlat detector should *NEVER* be used in a production environment.
+It is intended to be run manually to determine if the hardware platform has a
+problem with long system firmware service routines.
+
+Usage:
+------
+
+Write the ASCII text "hwlat" into the current_tracer file of the tracing system
+(mounted at /sys/kernel/tracing or /sys/kernel/tracing). It is possible to
+redefine the threshold in microseconds (us) above which latency spikes will
+be taken into account.
+
+Example:
+
+ # echo hwlat > /sys/kernel/tracing/current_tracer
+ # echo 100 > /sys/kernel/tracing/tracing_thresh
+
+The /sys/kernel/tracing/hwlat_detector interface contains the following files:
+
+width - time period to sample with CPUs held (usecs)
+ must be less than the total window size (enforced)
+window - total period of sampling, width being inside (usecs)
+
+By default the width is set to 500,000 and window to 1,000,000, meaning that
+for every 1,000,000 usecs (1s) the hwlat detector will spin for 500,000 usecs
+(0.5s). If tracing_thresh contains zero when hwlat tracer is enabled, it will
+change to a default of 10 usecs. If any latencies that exceed the threshold is
+observed then the data will be written to the tracing ring buffer.
+
+The minimum sleep time between periods is 1 millisecond. Even if width
+is less than 1 millisecond apart from window, to allow the system to not
+be totally starved.
+
+If tracing_thresh was zero when hwlat detector was started, it will be set
+back to zero if another tracer is loaded. Note, the last value in
+tracing_thresh that hwlat detector had will be saved and this value will
+be restored in tracing_thresh if it is still zero when hwlat detector is
+started again.
+
+The following tracing directory files are used by the hwlat_detector:
+
+in /sys/kernel/tracing:
+
+ tracing_threshold - minimum latency value to be considered (usecs)
+ tracing_max_latency - maximum hardware latency actually observed (usecs)
+ tracing_cpumask - the CPUs to move the hwlat thread across
+ hwlat_detector/width - specified amount of time to spin within window (usecs)
+ hwlat_detector/window - amount of time between (width) runs (usecs)
+
+The hwlat detector's kernel thread will migrate across each CPU specified in
+tracing_cpumask between each window. To limit the migration, either modify
+tracing_cpumask, or modify the hwlat kernel thread (named [hwlatd]) CPU
+affinity directly, and the migration will stop.
OpenPOWER on IntegriCloud