xref: /freebsd/share/man/man9/SDT.9 (revision 19ca1aa0d4476cb6a02a176bebbf859f77edb778)
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25.\" $FreeBSD$
26.\"
27.Dd July 3, 2013
28.Dt SDT 9
29.Os
30.Sh NAME
31.Nm SDT
32.Nd a DTrace framework for adding statically-defined tracing probes
33.Sh SYNOPSIS
34.In sys/sdt.h
35.Fn SDT_PROVIDER_DECLARE prov
36.Fn SDT_PROVIDER_DEFINE prov
37.Fn SDT_PROBE_DECLARE prov mod func name
38.Fn SDT_PROBE_DEFINE prov mod func name sname
39.Fn SDT_PROBE_DEFINE0 prov mod func name sname
40.Fn SDT_PROBE_DEFINE1 prov mod func name sname arg0
41.Fn SDT_PROBE_DEFINE2 prov mod func name sname arg0 arg1
42.Fn SDT_PROBE_DEFINE3 prov mod func name sname arg0 arg1 arg2
43.Fn SDT_PROBE_DEFINE4 prov mod func name sname arg0 arg1 arg2 arg3
44.Fn SDT_PROBE_DEFINE5 prov mod func name sname arg0 arg1 arg2 arg3 arg4
45.Fn SDT_PROBE_DEFINE6 prov mod func name sname arg0 arg1 arg2 arg3 arg4 arg5
46.Fn SDT_PROBE_DEFINE7 prov mod func name sname arg0 arg1 arg2 arg3 arg4 arg5   \
47    arg6
48.Fn SDT_PROBE0 prov mod func name
49.Fn SDT_PROBE1 prov mod func name arg0
50.Fn SDT_PROBE2 prov mod func name arg0 arg1
51.Fn SDT_PROBE3 prov mod func name arg0 arg1 arg2
52.Fn SDT_PROBE4 prov mod func name arg0 arg1 arg2 arg3
53.Fn SDT_PROBE5 prov mod func name arg0 arg1 arg2 arg3 arg4
54.Fn SDT_PROBE6 prov mod func name arg0 arg1 arg2 arg3 arg4 arg5
55.Fn SDT_PROBE7 prov mod func name arg0 arg1 arg2 arg3 arg4 arg5 arg6
56.Sh DESCRIPTION
57The
58.Nm
59macros allow programmers to define static trace points in kernel code.
60These trace points are used by the
61.Nm
62framework to create DTrace probes, allowing the code to be instrumented
63using
64.Xr dtrace 1 .
65By default,
66.Nm
67trace points are disabled and have no effect on the surrounding code.
68When a DTrace probe corresponding to a given trace point is enabled, threads
69that execute the trace point will call a handler and cause the probe to fire.
70Moreover, trace points can take arguments, making it possible to pass data
71to the DTrace framework when an enabled probe fires.
72.Pp
73Multiple trace points may correspond to a single DTrace probe, allowing
74programmers to create DTrace probes that correspond to logical system events
75rather than tying probes to specific code execution paths.
76For instance, a DTrace probe corresponding to the arrival of an IP packet into
77the network stack may be defined using two
78.Nm
79trace points: one for IPv4 packets and one for IPv6 packets.
80.Pp
81In addition to defining DTrace probes, the
82.Nm
83macros allow programmers to define new DTrace providers, making it possible to
84namespace logically-related probes.
85An example is FreeBSD's sctp provider, which contains
86.Nm
87probes for FreeBSD's
88.Xr sctp 4
89implementation.
90.Pp
91The
92.Fn SDT_PROVIDER_DECLARE
93and
94.Fn SDT_PROVIDER_DEFINE
95macros are used respectively to declare and define a DTrace provider named
96.Ar prov
97with the
98.Nm
99framework.
100A provider need only be defined once; however, the provider must be declared
101before defining any
102.Nm
103probes belonging to that provider.
104.Pp
105Similarly, the
106.Fn SDT_PROBE_DECLARE
107and
108.Fn SDT_PROBE_DEFINE*
109macros are used to declare and define DTrace probes using the
110.Nm
111framework.
112Once a probe has been defined, trace points for that probe may be added to
113kernel code.
114DTrace probe identifiers consist of a provider, module, function and name, all
115of which may be specified in the
116.Nm
117probe definition.
118Note that probes should not specify a module name: the module name of a probe is
119used to determine whether or not it should be destroyed when a kernel module is
120unloaded.
121See the
122.Sx BUGS
123section.
124Note in particular that probes must not be defined across multiple kernel
125modules.
126The
127.Fn SDT_PROBE_DEFINE*
128macros also take an extra
129.Ar sname
130parameter.
131This is used to allow the creation of probes with names containing the
132.Ql -
133character.
134Specifically, the
135.Ar name
136argument should contain the probe name with all dashes converted to underscores,
137and the
138.Ar sname
139argument should be the probe name as it will be referenced by D scripts.
140.Pp
141The
142.Fn SDT_PROBE_DEFINE*
143macros also allow programmers to declare the types of the arguments that are
144passed to probes.
145This is optional; if the argument types are omitted (through use of the
146.Fn SDT_PROBE_DEFINE
147macro), users wishing to make use of the arguments will have to manually cast
148them to the correct types in their D scripts.
149It is strongly recommended that probe definitions include a declaration of their
150argument types.
151.Pp
152The
153.Fn SDT_PROBE*
154macros are used to create
155.Nm
156trace points.
157They are meant to be added to executable code and can be used to instrument the
158code in which they are called.
159.Sh EXAMPLES
160The following probe definition will create a DTrace probe called
161.Ql icmp::unreach:pkt-receive ,
162which would hypothetically be triggered when the kernel receives an ICMP packet
163of type Destination Unreachable:
164.Bd -literal -offset indent
165SDT_PROVIDER_DECLARE(icmp);
166
167SDT_PROBE_DEFINE2(icmp, , unreach, pkt_receive, pkt-receive,
168    "struct mbuf *", "struct icmp *");
169
170.Ed
171This particular probe would take two arguments: a pointer to the
172.Xr mbuf 9
173containing the incoming packet, and a pointer to the ICMP header for the packet.
174Note that the module name of this probe is not specified.
175.Pp
176Consider a DTrace probe which fires when the network stack receives an IP
177packet.
178Such a probe would be defined by multiple tracepoints:
179.Bd -literal -offset indent
180SDT_PROBE_DEFINE2(ip, , , receive, receive, "struct mbuf *",
181    "struct ifnet *", "struct ip *", "struct ip6_hdr *");
182
183int
184ip_input(struct mbuf *m)
185{
186	struct ip *ip;
187	...
188	ip = mtod(m, struct ip *);
189	SDT_PROBE4(ip, , , receive, m, m->m_pkthdr.rcvif, ip, NULL);
190	...
191}
192
193int
194ip6_input(struct mbuf *m)
195{
196	struct ip6_hdr *ip6;
197	...
198	ip6 = mtod(m, struct ip6_hdr *);
199	SDT_PROBE4(ip, , , receive, m, m->m_pkthdr.rcvif, NULL, ip6);
200	...
201}
202
203.Ed
204In particular, the probe should fire when the kernel receives either an IPv4
205packet or an IPv6 packet.
206.Sh SEE ALSO
207.Xr dtrace 1
208.Sh AUTHORS
209.An -nosplit
210DTrace and the
211.Nm
212framework were originally ported to FreeBSD from Solaris by
213.An John Birrell Aq jb@FreeBSD.org .
214This manual page was written by
215.An Mark Johnston Aq markj@FreeBSD.org .
216.Sh BUGS
217The
218.Nm
219macros allow the module name of a probe to be specified as part of a probe
220definition.
221However, the DTrace framework uses the module name of probes to determine
222which probes should be destroyed when a kernel module is unloaded, so the module
223name of a probe should match the name of the module in which its defined.
224.Nm
225will set the module name properly if it is left unspecified in the probe
226definition; see the
227.Sx EXAMPLES
228section.
229.Pp
230One of the goals of the original
231.Nm
232implementation (and by extension, of FreeBSD's port) is that inactive
233.Nm
234probes should have no performance impact.
235This is unfortunately not the case;
236.Nm
237trace points will add a small but non-zero amount of latency to the code
238in which they are defined.
239A more sophisticated implementation of the probes will help alleviate this
240problem.
241