1perf-probe(1) 2============= 3 4NAME 5---- 6perf-probe - Define new dynamic tracepoints 7 8SYNOPSIS 9-------- 10[verse] 11'perf probe' [options] --add='PROBE' [...] 12or 13'perf probe' [options] PROBE 14or 15'perf probe' [options] --del='[GROUP:]EVENT' [...] 16or 17'perf probe' --list[=[GROUP:]EVENT] 18or 19'perf probe' [options] --line='LINE' 20or 21'perf probe' [options] --vars='PROBEPOINT' 22or 23'perf probe' [options] --funcs 24or 25'perf probe' [options] --definition='PROBE' [...] 26 27DESCRIPTION 28----------- 29This command defines dynamic tracepoint events, by symbol and registers 30without debuginfo, or by C expressions (C line numbers, C function names, 31and C local variables) with debuginfo. 32 33 34OPTIONS 35------- 36-k:: 37--vmlinux=PATH:: 38 Specify vmlinux path which has debuginfo (Dwarf binary). 39 Only when using this with --definition, you can give an offline 40 vmlinux file. 41 42-m:: 43--module=MODNAME|PATH:: 44 Specify module name in which perf-probe searches probe points 45 or lines. If a path of module file is passed, perf-probe 46 treat it as an offline module (this means you can add a probe on 47 a module which has not been loaded yet). 48 49-s:: 50--source=PATH:: 51 Specify path to kernel source. 52 53-v:: 54--verbose:: 55 Be more verbose (show parsed arguments, etc). 56 Can not use with -q. 57 58-q:: 59--quiet:: 60 Be quiet (do not show any messages including errors). 61 Can not use with -v. 62 63-a:: 64--add=:: 65 Define a probe event (see PROBE SYNTAX for detail). 66 67-d:: 68--del=:: 69 Delete probe events. This accepts glob wildcards('*', '?') and character 70 classes(e.g. [a-z], [!A-Z]). 71 72-l:: 73--list[=[GROUP:]EVENT]:: 74 List up current probe events. This can also accept filtering patterns of 75 event names. 76 When this is used with --cache, perf shows all cached probes instead of 77 the live probes. 78 79-L:: 80--line=:: 81 Show source code lines which can be probed. This needs an argument 82 which specifies a range of the source code. (see LINE SYNTAX for detail) 83 84-V:: 85--vars=:: 86 Show available local variables at given probe point. The argument 87 syntax is same as PROBE SYNTAX, but NO ARGs. 88 89--externs:: 90 (Only for --vars) Show external defined variables in addition to local 91 variables. 92 93--no-inlines:: 94 (Only for --add) Search only for non-inlined functions. The functions 95 which do not have instances are ignored. 96 97-F:: 98--funcs[=FILTER]:: 99 Show available functions in given module or kernel. With -x/--exec, 100 can also list functions in a user space executable / shared library. 101 This also can accept a FILTER rule argument. 102 103-D:: 104--definition=:: 105 Show trace-event definition converted from given probe-event instead 106 of write it into tracing/[k,u]probe_events. 107 108--filter=FILTER:: 109 (Only for --vars and --funcs) Set filter. FILTER is a combination of glob 110 pattern, see FILTER PATTERN for detail. 111 Default FILTER is "!__k???tab_* & !__crc_*" for --vars, and "!_*" 112 for --funcs. 113 If several filters are specified, only the last filter is used. 114 115-f:: 116--force:: 117 Forcibly add events with existing name. 118 119-n:: 120--dry-run:: 121 Dry run. With this option, --add and --del doesn't execute actual 122 adding and removal operations. 123 124--cache:: 125 (With --add) Cache the probes. Any events which successfully added 126 are also stored in the cache file. 127 (With --list) Show cached probes. 128 (With --del) Remove cached probes. 129 130--max-probes=NUM:: 131 Set the maximum number of probe points for an event. Default is 128. 132 133-x:: 134--exec=PATH:: 135 Specify path to the executable or shared library file for user 136 space tracing. Can also be used with --funcs option. 137 138--demangle:: 139 Demangle application symbols. --no-demangle is also available 140 for disabling demangling. 141 142--demangle-kernel:: 143 Demangle kernel symbols. --no-demangle-kernel is also available 144 for disabling kernel demangling. 145 146In absence of -m/-x options, perf probe checks if the first argument after 147the options is an absolute path name. If its an absolute path, perf probe 148uses it as a target module/target user space binary to probe. 149 150PROBE SYNTAX 151------------ 152Probe points are defined by following syntax. 153 154 1) Define event based on function name 155 [[GROUP:]EVENT=]FUNC[@SRC][:RLN|+OFFS|%return|;PTN] [ARG ...] 156 157 2) Define event based on source file with line number 158 [[GROUP:]EVENT=]SRC:ALN [ARG ...] 159 160 3) Define event based on source file with lazy pattern 161 [[GROUP:]EVENT=]SRC;PTN [ARG ...] 162 163 4) Pre-defined SDT events or cached event with name 164 %[sdt_PROVIDER:]SDTEVENT 165 or, 166 sdt_PROVIDER:SDTEVENT 167 168'EVENT' specifies the name of new event, if omitted, it will be set the name of the probed function. You can also specify a group name by 'GROUP', if omitted, set 'probe' is used for kprobe and 'probe_<bin>' is used for uprobe. 169Note that using existing group name can conflict with other events. Especially, using the group name reserved for kernel modules can hide embedded events in the 170modules. 171'FUNC' specifies a probed function name, and it may have one of the following options; '+OFFS' is the offset from function entry address in bytes, ':RLN' is the relative-line number from function entry line, and '%return' means that it probes function return. And ';PTN' means lazy matching pattern (see LAZY MATCHING). Note that ';PTN' must be the end of the probe point definition. In addition, '@SRC' specifies a source file which has that function. 172It is also possible to specify a probe point by the source line number or lazy matching by using 'SRC:ALN' or 'SRC;PTN' syntax, where 'SRC' is the source file path, ':ALN' is the line number and ';PTN' is the lazy matching pattern. 173'ARG' specifies the arguments of this probe point, (see PROBE ARGUMENT). 174'SDTEVENT' and 'PROVIDER' is the pre-defined event name which is defined by user SDT (Statically Defined Tracing) or the pre-cached probes with event name. 175Note that before using the SDT event, the target binary (on which SDT events are defined) must be scanned by linkperf:perf-buildid-cache[1] to make SDT events as cached events. 176 177For details of the SDT, see below. 178https://sourceware.org/gdb/onlinedocs/gdb/Static-Probe-Points.html 179 180PROBE ARGUMENT 181-------------- 182Each probe argument follows below syntax. 183 184 [NAME=]LOCALVAR|$retval|%REG|@SYMBOL[:TYPE] 185 186'NAME' specifies the name of this argument (optional). You can use the name of local variable, local data structure member (e.g. var->field, var.field2), local array with fixed index (e.g. array[1], var->array[0], var->pointer[2]), or kprobe-tracer argument format (e.g. $retval, %ax, etc). Note that the name of this argument will be set as the last member name if you specify a local data structure member (e.g. field2 for 'var->field1.field2'.) 187'$vars' and '$params' special arguments are also available for NAME, '$vars' is expanded to the local variables (including function parameters) which can access at given probe point. '$params' is expanded to only the function parameters. 188'TYPE' casts the type of this argument (optional). If omitted, perf probe automatically set the type based on debuginfo (*). Currently, basic types (u8/u16/u32/u64/s8/s16/s32/s64), hexadecimal integers (x/x8/x16/x32/x64), signedness casting (u/s), "string" and bitfield are supported. (see TYPES for detail) 189On x86 systems %REG is always the short form of the register: for example %AX. %RAX or %EAX is not valid. 190 191TYPES 192----- 193Basic types (u8/u16/u32/u64/s8/s16/s32/s64) and hexadecimal integers (x8/x16/x32/x64) are integer types. Prefix 's' and 'u' means those types are signed and unsigned respectively, and 'x' means that is shown in hexadecimal format. Traced arguments are shown in decimal (sNN/uNN) or hex (xNN). You can also use 's' or 'u' to specify only signedness and leave its size auto-detected by perf probe. Moreover, you can use 'x' to explicitly specify to be shown in hexadecimal (the size is also auto-detected). 194String type is a special type, which fetches a "null-terminated" string from kernel space. This means it will fail and store NULL if the string container has been paged out. You can specify 'string' type only for the local variable or structure member which is an array of or a pointer to 'char' or 'unsigned char' type. 195Bitfield is another special type, which takes 3 parameters, bit-width, bit-offset, and container-size (usually 32). The syntax is; 196 197 b<bit-width>@<bit-offset>/<container-size> 198 199LINE SYNTAX 200----------- 201Line range is described by following syntax. 202 203 "FUNC[@SRC][:RLN[+NUM|-RLN2]]|SRC[:ALN[+NUM|-ALN2]]" 204 205FUNC specifies the function name of showing lines. 'RLN' is the start line 206number from function entry line, and 'RLN2' is the end line number. As same as 207probe syntax, 'SRC' means the source file path, 'ALN' is start line number, 208and 'ALN2' is end line number in the file. It is also possible to specify how 209many lines to show by using 'NUM'. Moreover, 'FUNC@SRC' combination is good 210for searching a specific function when several functions share same name. 211So, "source.c:100-120" shows lines between 100th to l20th in source.c file. And "func:10+20" shows 20 lines from 10th line of func function. 212 213LAZY MATCHING 214------------- 215 The lazy line matching is similar to glob matching but ignoring spaces in both of pattern and target. So this accepts wildcards('*', '?') and character classes(e.g. [a-z], [!A-Z]). 216 217e.g. 218 'a=*' can matches 'a=b', 'a = b', 'a == b' and so on. 219 220This provides some sort of flexibility and robustness to probe point definitions against minor code changes. For example, actual 10th line of schedule() can be moved easily by modifying schedule(), but the same line matching 'rq=cpu_rq*' may still exist in the function.) 221 222FILTER PATTERN 223-------------- 224 The filter pattern is a glob matching pattern(s) to filter variables. 225 In addition, you can use "!" for specifying filter-out rule. You also can give several rules combined with "&" or "|", and fold those rules as one rule by using "(" ")". 226 227e.g. 228 With --filter "foo* | bar*", perf probe -V shows variables which start with "foo" or "bar". 229 With --filter "!foo* & *bar", perf probe -V shows variables which don't start with "foo" and end with "bar", like "fizzbar". But "foobar" is filtered out. 230 231EXAMPLES 232-------- 233Display which lines in schedule() can be probed: 234 235 ./perf probe --line schedule 236 237Add a probe on schedule() function 12th line with recording cpu local variable: 238 239 ./perf probe schedule:12 cpu 240 or 241 ./perf probe --add='schedule:12 cpu' 242 243 this will add one or more probes which has the name start with "schedule". 244 245 Add probes on lines in schedule() function which calls update_rq_clock(). 246 247 ./perf probe 'schedule;update_rq_clock*' 248 or 249 ./perf probe --add='schedule;update_rq_clock*' 250 251Delete all probes on schedule(). 252 253 ./perf probe --del='schedule*' 254 255Add probes at zfree() function on /bin/zsh 256 257 ./perf probe -x /bin/zsh zfree or ./perf probe /bin/zsh zfree 258 259Add probes at malloc() function on libc 260 261 ./perf probe -x /lib/libc.so.6 malloc or ./perf probe /lib/libc.so.6 malloc 262 263SEE ALSO 264-------- 265linkperf:perf-trace[1], linkperf:perf-record[1], linkperf:perf-buildid-cache[1] 266