xref: /freebsd/crypto/openssl/doc/man3/OSSL_trace_enabled.pod (revision 0d0c8621fd181e507f0fb50ffcca606faf66a8c2)
1=pod
2
3=head1 NAME
4
5OSSL_trace_enabled, OSSL_trace_begin, OSSL_trace_end,
6OSSL_TRACE_BEGIN, OSSL_TRACE_END, OSSL_TRACE_CANCEL,
7OSSL_TRACE, OSSL_TRACE1, OSSL_TRACE2, OSSL_TRACE3, OSSL_TRACE4,
8OSSL_TRACE5, OSSL_TRACE6, OSSL_TRACE7, OSSL_TRACE8, OSSL_TRACE9,
9OSSL_TRACEV,
10OSSL_TRACE_ENABLED
11- OpenSSL Tracing API
12
13=head1 SYNOPSIS
14
15=for openssl generic
16
17 #include <openssl/trace.h>
18
19 int OSSL_trace_enabled(int category);
20
21 BIO *OSSL_trace_begin(int category);
22 void OSSL_trace_end(int category, BIO *channel);
23
24 /* trace group macros */
25 OSSL_TRACE_BEGIN(category) {
26     ...
27     if (some_error) {
28         /* Leave trace group prematurely in case of an error */
29         OSSL_TRACE_CANCEL(category);
30         goto err;
31     }
32     ...
33 } OSSL_TRACE_END(category);
34
35 /* one-shot trace macros */
36 OSSL_TRACE1(category, format, arg1)
37 OSSL_TRACE2(category, format, arg1, arg2)
38 ...
39 OSSL_TRACE9(category, format, arg1, ..., arg9)
40
41 /* check whether a trace category is enabled */
42 if (OSSL_TRACE_ENABLED(category)) {
43     ...
44 }
45
46=head1 DESCRIPTION
47
48The functions described here are mainly interesting for those who provide
49OpenSSL functionality, either in OpenSSL itself or in engine modules
50or similar.
51
52If tracing is enabled (see L</NOTES> below), these functions are used to
53generate free text tracing output.
54
55The tracing output is divided into types which are enabled
56individually by the application.
57The tracing types are described in detail in
58L<OSSL_trace_set_callback(3)/Trace types>.
59The fallback type B<OSSL_TRACE_CATEGORY_ALL> should I<not> be used
60with the functions described here.
61
62Tracing for a specific category is enabled if a so called
63I<trace channel> is attached to it. A trace channel is simply a
64BIO object to which the application can write its trace output.
65
66The application has two different ways of registering a trace channel,
67either by directly providing a BIO object using OSSL_trace_set_channel(),
68or by providing a callback routine using OSSL_trace_set_callback().
69The latter is wrapped internally by a dedicated BIO object, so for the
70tracing code both channel types are effectively indistinguishable.
71We call them a I<simple trace channel> and a I<callback trace channel>,
72respectively.
73
74To produce trace output, it is necessary to obtain a pointer to the
75trace channel (i.e., the BIO object) using OSSL_trace_begin(), write
76to it using arbitrary BIO output routines, and finally releases the
77channel using OSSL_trace_end(). The OSSL_trace_begin()/OSSL_trace_end()
78calls surrounding the trace output create a group, which acts as a
79critical section (guarded by a mutex) to ensure that the trace output
80of different threads does not get mixed up.
81
82The tracing code normally does not call OSSL_trace_{begin,end}() directly,
83but rather uses a set of convenience macros, see the L</Macros> section below.
84
85
86=head2 Functions
87
88OSSL_trace_enabled() can be used to check if tracing for the given
89I<category> is enabled.
90
91OSSL_trace_begin() is used to start a tracing section,
92and get the channel for the given I<category> in form of a BIO.
93This BIO can only be used for output.
94The pointer returned is NULL if the category is invalid or not enabled.
95
96OSSL_trace_end() is used to end a tracing section.
97
98Using OSSL_trace_begin() and OSSL_trace_end() to wrap tracing sections
99is I<mandatory>.
100The result of trying to produce tracing output outside of such
101sections is undefined.
102
103=head2 Macros
104
105There are a number of convenience macros defined, to make tracing
106easy and consistent.
107
108OSSL_TRACE_BEGIN() and OSSL_TRACE_END() reserve the B<BIO> C<trc_out> and are
109used as follows to wrap a trace section:
110
111 OSSL_TRACE_BEGIN(TLS) {
112
113     BIO_fprintf(trc_out, ... );
114
115 } OSSL_TRACE_END(TLS);
116
117This will normally expand to:
118
119 do {
120     BIO *trc_out = OSSL_trace_begin(OSSL_TRACE_CATEGORY_TLS);
121     if (trc_out != NULL) {
122         ...
123         BIO_fprintf(trc_out, ...);
124     }
125     OSSL_trace_end(OSSL_TRACE_CATEGORY_TLS, trc_out);
126 } while (0);
127
128OSSL_TRACE_CANCEL() must be used before returning from or jumping out of a
129trace section:
130
131 OSSL_TRACE_BEGIN(TLS) {
132
133     if (some_error) {
134         OSSL_TRACE_CANCEL(TLS);
135         goto err;
136     }
137     BIO_fprintf(trc_out, ... );
138
139 } OSSL_TRACE_END(TLS);
140
141This will normally expand to:
142
143 do {
144     BIO *trc_out = OSSL_trace_begin(OSSL_TRACE_CATEGORY_TLS);
145     if (trc_out != NULL) {
146         if (some_error) {
147             OSSL_trace_end(OSSL_TRACE_CATEGORY_TLS, trc_out);
148             goto err;
149         }
150         BIO_fprintf(trc_out, ... );
151     }
152     OSSL_trace_end(OSSL_TRACE_CATEGORY_TLS, trc_out);
153 } while (0);
154
155
156OSSL_TRACE() and OSSL_TRACE1(), OSSL_TRACE2(), ... OSSL_TRACE9() are
157so-called one-shot macros:
158
159The macro call C<OSSL_TRACE(category, text)>, produces literal text trace output.
160
161The macro call C<OSSL_TRACEn(category, format, arg1, ..., argn)> produces
162printf-style trace output with n format field arguments (n=1,...,9).
163It expands to:
164
165 OSSL_TRACE_BEGIN(category) {
166     BIO_printf(trc_out, format, arg1, ..., argN)
167 } OSSL_TRACE_END(category)
168
169Internally, all one-shot macros are implemented using a generic OSSL_TRACEV()
170macro, since C90 does not support variadic macros. This helper macro has a rather
171weird synopsis and should not be used directly.
172
173The OSSL_TRACE_ENABLED() macro can be used to conditionally execute some code
174only if a specific trace category is enabled.
175In some situations this is simpler than entering a trace section using
176OSSL_TRACE_BEGIN() and OSSL_TRACE_END().
177For example, the code
178
179 if (OSSL_TRACE_ENABLED(TLS)) {
180     ...
181 }
182
183expands to
184
185 if (OSSL_trace_enabled(OSSL_TRACE_CATEGORY_TLS) {
186     ...
187 }
188
189=head1 NOTES
190
191It is not needed to guard trace output function calls like
192I<OSSL_TRACE(category, ...)> by I<OSSL_TRACE_ENABLED(category)>.
193
194If producing the trace output requires carrying out auxiliary calculations,
195this auxiliary code should be placed inside a conditional block which is
196executed only if the trace category is enabled.
197
198The most natural way to do this is to place the code inside the trace section
199itself because it already introduces such a conditional block.
200
201 OSSL_TRACE_BEGIN(TLS) {
202     int var = do_some_auxiliary_calculation();
203
204     BIO_printf(trc_out, "var = %d\n", var);
205
206 } OSSL_TRACE_END(TLS);
207
208In some cases it is more advantageous to use a simple conditional group instead
209of a trace section. This is the case if calculations and tracing happen in
210different locations of the code, or if the calculations are so time consuming
211that placing them inside a (critical) trace section would create too much
212contention.
213
214 if (OSSL_TRACE_ENABLED(TLS)) {
215     int var = do_some_auxiliary_calculation();
216
217     OSSL_TRACE1("var = %d\n", var);
218 }
219
220Note however that premature optimization of tracing code is in general futile
221and it's better to keep the tracing code as simple as possible.
222Because most often the limiting factor for the application's speed is the time
223it takes to print the trace output, not to calculate it.
224
225=head2 Configure Tracing
226
227By default, the OpenSSL library is built with tracing disabled. To
228use the tracing functionality documented here, it is therefore
229necessary to configure and build OpenSSL with the 'enable-trace' option.
230
231When the library is built with tracing disabled:
232
233=over 4
234
235=item *
236
237The macro B<OPENSSL_NO_TRACE> is defined in F<< <openssl/opensslconf.h> >>.
238
239=item *
240
241all functions are still present, but OSSL_trace_enabled() will always
242report the categories as disabled, and all other functions will do
243nothing.
244
245=item *
246
247the convenience macros are defined to produce dead code.
248For example, take this example from L</Macros> section above:
249
250 OSSL_TRACE_BEGIN(TLS) {
251
252     if (condition) {
253         OSSL_TRACE_CANCEL(TLS);
254         goto err;
255     }
256     BIO_fprintf(trc_out, ... );
257
258 } OSSL_TRACE_END(TLS);
259
260When the tracing API isn't operational, that will expand to:
261
262 do {
263     BIO *trc_out = NULL;
264     if (0) {
265         if (condition) {
266             ((void)0);
267             goto err;
268         }
269         BIO_fprintf(trc_out, ... );
270     }
271 } while (0);
272
273=back
274
275=head1 RETURN VALUES
276
277OSSL_trace_enabled() returns 1 if tracing for the given I<type> is
278operational and enabled, otherwise 0.
279
280OSSL_trace_begin() returns a B<BIO> pointer if the given I<type> is enabled,
281otherwise NULL.
282
283=head1 HISTORY
284
285The OpenSSL Tracing API was added in OpenSSL 3.0.
286
287=head1 COPYRIGHT
288
289Copyright 2019-2021 The OpenSSL Project Authors. All Rights Reserved.
290
291Licensed under the Apache License 2.0 (the "License").  You may not use
292this file except in compliance with the License.  You can obtain a copy
293in the file LICENSE in the source distribution or at
294L<https://www.openssl.org/source/license.html>.
295
296=cut
297