xref: /freebsd/share/man/man4/ktr.4 (revision 2be1a816b9ff69588e55be0a84cbe2a31efc0f2f)
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25.\" $FreeBSD$
26.\"
27.Dd January 25, 2005
28.Dt KTR 4
29.Os
30.Sh NAME
31.Nm ktr
32.Nd kernel tracing facility
33.Sh SYNOPSIS
34.Cd options KTR
35.Cd options ALQ
36.Cd options KTR_ALQ
37.Cd options KTR_COMPILE=(KTR_LOCK|KTR_INTR|KTR_PROC)
38.Cd options KTR_CPUMASK=0x3
39.Cd options KTR_ENTRIES=8192
40.Cd options KTR_MASK=(KTR_INTR|KTR_PROC)
41.Cd options KTR_VERBOSE
42.Sh DESCRIPTION
43The
44.Nm
45facility allows kernel events to be logged while the kernel executes so that
46they can be examined later when debugging.
47The only mandatory option to enable
48.Nm
49is
50.Dq Li options KTR .
51.Pp
52The
53.Dv KTR_ENTRIES
54option sets the size of the buffer of events.
55It must be a power of two.
56The size of the buffer in the currently running kernel can be found via the
57read-only sysctl
58.Va debug.ktr.entries .
59By default the buffer contains 1024 entries.
60.Ss Event Masking
61Event levels can be enabled or disabled to trim excessive and overly verbose
62logging.
63First, a mask of events is specified at compile time via the
64.Dv KTR_COMPILE
65option to limit which events are actually compiled into the kernel.
66The default value for this option is for all events to be enabled.
67.Pp
68Secondly, the actual events logged while the kernel runs can be further
69masked via the run time event mask.
70The
71.Dv KTR_MASK
72option sets the default value of the run time event mask.
73The runtime event mask can also be set by the
74.Xr loader 8
75via the
76.Va debug.ktr.mask
77environment variable.
78It can also be examined and set after booting via the
79.Va debug.ktr.mask
80sysctl.
81By default the run time mask is set to log only
82.Dv KTR_GEN
83events.
84The definitions of the event mask bits can be found in
85.In sys/ktr.h .
86.Pp
87Furthermore, there is a CPU event mask whose default value can be changed via
88the
89.Dv KTR_CPUMASK
90option.
91A CPU must have the bit corresponding to its logical id set in this bitmask
92for events that occur on it to be logged.
93This mask can be set by the
94.Xr loader 8
95via the
96.Va debug.ktr.cpumask
97environment variable.
98It can also be examined and set after booting via the
99.Va debug.ktr.cpumask
100sysctl.
101By default events on all CPUs are enabled.
102.Ss Verbose Mode
103By default, events are only logged to the internal buffer for examination
104later, but if the verbose flag is set then they are dumped to the kernel
105console as well.
106This flag can also be set from the loader via the
107.Va debug.ktr.verbose
108environment variable, or it can be examined and set after booting via the
109.Va debug.ktr.verbose
110sysctl.
111If the flag is set to zero, which is the default, then verbose output is
112disabled.
113If the flag is set to one, then the contents of the log message and the CPU
114number are printed to the kernel console.
115If the flag is greater than one, then the filename and line number of the
116event are output to the console in addition to the log message and the CPU
117number.
118The
119.Dv KTR_VERBOSE
120option sets the flag to one.
121.Ss Examining the Events
122The KTR buffer can be examined from within
123.Xr ddb 4
124via the
125.Ic show ktr Op Cm /v
126command.
127This command displays the contents of the trace buffer one page at a time.
128At the
129.Dq Li --more--
130prompt, the Enter key displays one more entry and prompts again.
131The spacebar displays another page of entries.
132Any other key quits.
133By default the timestamp, filename, and line number are not displayed with
134each log entry.
135If the
136.Cm /v
137modifier is specified, then they are displayed in addition to the normal
138output.
139Note that the events are displayed in reverse chronological order.
140That is, the most recent events are displayed first.
141.Ss Logging ktr to Disk
142The
143.Dv KTR_ALQ
144option can be used to log
145.Nm
146entries to disk for post analysis using the
147.Xr ktrdump 8
148utility.
149This option depends on the
150.Dv ALQ
151option.
152Due to the potentially high volume of trace messages the trace mask should be
153selected carefully.
154This feature is configured through a group of sysctls.
155.Bl -tag -width ".Va debug.ktr.alq_enable"
156.It Va debug.ktr.alq_file
157displays or sets the file that
158.Nm
159will log to.
160By default its value is
161.Pa /tmp/ktr.out .
162If the file name is changed while
163.Nm
164is enabled it will not take effect until
165the next invocation.
166.It Va debug.ktr.alq_enable
167enables logging of
168.Nm
169entries to disk if it is set to one.
170Setting this to 0 will terminate logging.
171.It Va debug.ktr.alq_max
172is the maximum number of entries that will be recorded to disk, or 0 for
173infinite.
174This is helpful for limiting the number of particularly high frequency entries
175that are recorded.
176.It Va debug.ktr.alq_depth
177determines the number of entries in the write buffer.
178This is the buffer that holds entries before they are written to disk and
179defaults to the value of the
180.Dv KTR_ENTRIES
181option.
182.It Va debug.ktr.alq_failed
183records the number of times we failed to write an entry due to overflowing the
184write buffer.
185This may happen if the frequency of the logged
186.Nm
187messages outpaces the depth
188of the queue.
189.It Va debug.ktr.alq_cnt
190records the number of entries that have currently been written to disk.
191.El
192.Sh SEE ALSO
193.Xr ktrdump 8 ,
194.Xr alq 9 ,
195.Xr ktr 9
196.Sh HISTORY
197The KTR kernel tracing facility first appeared in
198.Bsx 3.0
199and was imported into
200.Fx 5.0 .
201