xref: /freebsd/share/man/man4/ktr.4 (revision fa9896e082a1046ff4fbc75fcba4d18d1f2efc19)

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.Dd March 26, 2021
.Dt KTR 4
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm ktr
.Nd kernel tracing facility
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.Cd options KTR
.Cd options ALQ
.Cd options KTR_ALQ
.Cd options KTR_COMPILE=(KTR_LOCK|KTR_INTR|KTR_PROC)
.Cd options KTR_CPUMASK=0x3
.Cd options KTR_ENTRIES=8192
.Cd options KTR_MASK=(KTR_INTR|KTR_PROC)
.Cd options KTR_VERBOSE
.Sh DESCRIPTION
The
.Nm
facility allows kernel events to be logged while the kernel executes so that
they can be examined later when debugging.
The only mandatory option to enable
.Nm
is
.Dq Li options KTR .
.Pp
The
.Dv KTR_ENTRIES
option sets the size of the buffer of events.
The size of the buffer in the currently running kernel can be found via the
sysctl
.Va debug.ktr.entries .
By default the buffer contains 1024 entries.
.Ss Event Masking
Event levels can be enabled or disabled to trim excessive and overly verbose
logging.
First, a mask of events is specified at compile time via the
.Dv KTR_COMPILE
option to limit which events are actually compiled into the kernel.
The default value for this option is for all events to be enabled.
.Pp
Secondly, the actual events logged while the kernel runs can be further
masked via the run time event mask.
The
.Dv KTR_MASK
option sets the default value of the run time event mask.
The runtime event mask can also be set by the
.Xr loader 8
via the
.Va debug.ktr.mask
environment variable.
It can also be examined and set after booting via the
.Va debug.ktr.mask
sysctl.
By default the run time mask is set to block any tracing.
The definitions of the event mask bits can be found in
.In sys/ktr_class.h .
.Pp
Furthermore, there is a CPU event mask whose default value can be changed via
the
.Dv KTR_CPUMASK
option.
When two or more parameters to
.Dv KTR_CPUMASK ,
are used, it is important they are not separated by whitespace.
A CPU must have the bit corresponding to its logical id set in this bitmask
for events that occur on it to be logged.
This mask can be set by the
.Xr loader 8
via the
.Va debug.ktr.cpumask
environment variable.
It can also be examined and set after booting via the
.Va debug.ktr.cpumask
sysctl.
By default, only CPUs specified in
.Dv KTR_CPUMASK
will log events.
See
.Pa sys/conf/NOTES
for more information.
.Ss Verbose Mode
By default, events are only logged to the internal buffer for examination
later, but if the verbose flag is set then they are dumped to the kernel
console as well.
This flag can also be set from the loader via the
.Va debug.ktr.verbose
environment variable, or it can be examined and set after booting via the
.Va debug.ktr.verbose
sysctl.
If the flag is set to zero, which is the default, then verbose output is
disabled.
If the flag is set to one, then the contents of the log message and the CPU
number are printed to the kernel console.
If the flag is greater than one, then the filename and line number of the
event are output to the console in addition to the log message and the CPU
number.
The
.Dv KTR_VERBOSE
option sets the flag to one.
.Ss Examining the Events
The KTR buffer can be examined from within
.Xr ddb 4
via the
.Ic show ktr Op Cm /vV
command.
This command displays the contents of the trace buffer one page at a time.
At the
.Dq Li --more--
prompt, the Enter key displays one more entry and prompts again.
The spacebar displays another page of entries.
Any other key quits.
By default the timestamp, filename, and line number are not displayed with
each log entry.
If the
.Cm /v
modifier is specified, then they are displayed in addition to the normal
output.
If the
.Cm /V
modifier is specified, then just the timestamp is displayed in
addition to the normal output.
Note that the events are displayed in reverse chronological order.
That is, the most recent events are displayed first.
.Ss Logging ktr to Disk
The
.Dv KTR_ALQ
option can be used to log
.Nm
entries to disk for post analysis using the
.Xr ktrdump 8
utility.
This option depends on the
.Dv ALQ
option.
Due to the potentially high volume of trace messages the trace mask should be
selected carefully.
This feature is configured through a group of sysctls.
.Bl -tag -width ".Va debug.ktr.alq_enable"
.It Va debug.ktr.alq_file
displays or sets the file that
.Nm
will log to.
By default its value is
.Pa /tmp/ktr.out .
If the file name is changed while
.Nm
is enabled it will not take effect until
the next invocation.
.It Va debug.ktr.alq_enable
enables logging of
.Nm
entries to disk if it is set to one.
Setting this to 0 will terminate logging to disk and revert to
logging to the normal ktr ring buffer.
Data is not sent to the ring buffer while logging to disk.
.It Va debug.ktr.alq_max
is the maximum number of entries that will be recorded to disk, or 0 for
infinite.
This is helpful for limiting the number of particularly high frequency entries
that are recorded.
.It Va debug.ktr.alq_depth
determines the number of entries in the write buffer.
This is the buffer that holds entries before they are written to disk and
defaults to the value of the
.Dv KTR_ENTRIES
option.
.It Va debug.ktr.alq_failed
records the number of times we failed to write an entry due to overflowing the
write buffer.
This may happen if the frequency of the logged
.Nm
messages outpaces the depth
of the queue.
.It Va debug.ktr.alq_cnt
records the number of entries that have currently been written to disk.
.El
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr ktrdump 8 ,
.Xr alq 9 ,
.Xr ktr 9
.Sh HISTORY
The KTR kernel tracing facility first appeared in
.Bsx 3.0
and was imported into
.Fx 5.0 .