xref: /linux/tools/perf/Documentation/perf-trace.txt (revision d4097f1937f2242d0aa0a7c654d2159a6895e5c8)
1perf-trace(1)
2=============
3
4NAME
5----
6perf-trace - strace inspired tool
7
8SYNOPSIS
9--------
10[verse]
11'perf trace'
12'perf trace record'
13
14DESCRIPTION
15-----------
16This command will show the events associated with the target, initially
17syscalls, but other system events like pagefaults, task lifetime events,
18scheduling events, etc.
19
20This is a live mode tool in addition to working with perf.data files like
21the other perf tools. Files can be generated using the 'perf record' command
22but the session needs to include the raw_syscalls events (-e 'raw_syscalls:*').
23Alternatively, 'perf trace record' can be used as a shortcut to
24automatically include the raw_syscalls events when writing events to a file.
25
26The following options apply to perf trace; options to perf trace record are
27found in the perf record man page.
28
29OPTIONS
30-------
31
32-a::
33--all-cpus::
34        System-wide collection from all CPUs.
35
36-e::
37--expr::
38--event::
39	List of syscalls and other perf events (tracepoints, HW cache events,
40	etc) to show. Globbing is supported, e.g.: "epoll_*", "*msg*", etc.
41	See 'perf list' for a complete list of events.
42	Prefixing with ! shows all syscalls but the ones specified.  You may
43	need to escape it.
44
45--filter=<filter>::
46        Event filter. This option should follow an event selector (-e) which
47	selects tracepoint event(s).
48
49
50-D msecs::
51--delay msecs::
52After starting the program, wait msecs before measuring. This is useful to
53filter out the startup phase of the program, which is often very different.
54
55-o::
56--output=::
57	Output file name.
58
59-p::
60--pid=::
61	Record events on existing process ID (comma separated list).
62
63-t::
64--tid=::
65        Record events on existing thread ID (comma separated list).
66
67-u::
68--uid=::
69        Record events in threads owned by uid. Name or number.
70
71-G::
72--cgroup::
73	Record events in threads in a cgroup.
74
75	Look for cgroups to set at the /sys/fs/cgroup/perf_event directory, then
76	remove the /sys/fs/cgroup/perf_event/ part and try:
77
78		perf trace -G A -e sched:*switch
79
80	Will set all raw_syscalls:sys_{enter,exit}, pgfault, vfs_getname, etc
81	_and_ sched:sched_switch to the 'A' cgroup, while:
82
83		perf trace -e sched:*switch -G A
84
85	will only set the sched:sched_switch event to the 'A' cgroup, all the
86	other events (raw_syscalls:sys_{enter,exit}, etc are left "without"
87	a cgroup (on the root cgroup, sys wide, etc).
88
89	Multiple cgroups:
90
91		perf trace -G A -e sched:*switch -G B
92
93	the syscall ones go to the 'A' cgroup, the sched:sched_switch goes
94	to the 'B' cgroup.
95
96--filter-pids=::
97	Filter out events for these pids and for 'trace' itself (comma separated list).
98
99-v::
100--verbose=::
101        Verbosity level.
102
103--no-inherit::
104	Child tasks do not inherit counters.
105
106-m::
107--mmap-pages=::
108	Number of mmap data pages (must be a power of two) or size
109	specification with appended unit character - B/K/M/G. The
110	size is rounded up to have nearest pages power of two value.
111
112-C::
113--cpu::
114Collect samples only on the list of CPUs provided. Multiple CPUs can be provided as a
115comma-separated list with no space: 0,1. Ranges of CPUs are specified with -: 0-2.
116In per-thread mode with inheritance mode on (default), Events are captured only when
117the thread executes on the designated CPUs. Default is to monitor all CPUs.
118
119--duration::
120	Show only events that had a duration greater than N.M ms.
121
122--sched::
123	Accrue thread runtime and provide a summary at the end of the session.
124
125--failure::
126	Show only syscalls that failed, i.e. that returned < 0.
127
128-i::
129--input::
130	Process events from a given perf data file.
131
132-T::
133--time::
134	Print full timestamp rather time relative to first sample.
135
136--comm::
137        Show process COMM right beside its ID, on by default, disable with --no-comm.
138
139-s::
140--summary::
141	Show only a summary of syscalls by thread with min, max, and average times
142    (in msec) and relative stddev.
143
144-S::
145--with-summary::
146	Show all syscalls followed by a summary by thread with min, max, and
147    average times (in msec) and relative stddev.
148
149--tool_stats::
150	Show tool stats such as number of times fd->pathname was discovered thru
151	hooking the open syscall return + vfs_getname or via reading /proc/pid/fd, etc.
152
153-f::
154--force::
155	Don't complain, do it.
156
157-F=[all|min|maj]::
158--pf=[all|min|maj]::
159	Trace pagefaults. Optionally, you can specify whether you want minor,
160	major or all pagefaults. Default value is maj.
161
162--syscalls::
163	Trace system calls. This options is enabled by default, disable with
164	--no-syscalls.
165
166--call-graph [mode,type,min[,limit],order[,key][,branch]]::
167        Setup and enable call-graph (stack chain/backtrace) recording.
168        See `--call-graph` section in perf-record and perf-report
169        man pages for details. The ones that are most useful in 'perf trace'
170        are 'dwarf' and 'lbr', where available, try: 'perf trace --call-graph dwarf'.
171
172        Using this will, for the root user, bump the value of --mmap-pages to 4
173        times the maximum for non-root users, based on the kernel.perf_event_mlock_kb
174        sysctl. This is done only if the user doesn't specify a --mmap-pages value.
175
176--kernel-syscall-graph::
177	 Show the kernel callchains on the syscall exit path.
178
179--max-events=N::
180	Stop after processing N events. Note that strace-like events are considered
181	only at exit time or when a syscall is interrupted, i.e. in those cases this
182	option is equivalent to the number of lines printed.
183
184--switch-on EVENT_NAME::
185	Only consider events after this event is found.
186
187--switch-off EVENT_NAME::
188	Stop considering events after this event is found.
189
190--show-on-off-events::
191	Show the --switch-on/off events too.
192
193--max-stack::
194        Set the stack depth limit when parsing the callchain, anything
195        beyond the specified depth will be ignored. Note that at this point
196        this is just about the presentation part, i.e. the kernel is still
197        not limiting, the overhead of callchains needs to be set via the
198        knobs in --call-graph dwarf.
199
200        Implies '--call-graph dwarf' when --call-graph not present on the
201        command line, on systems where DWARF unwinding was built in.
202
203        Default: /proc/sys/kernel/perf_event_max_stack when present for
204                 live sessions (without --input/-i), 127 otherwise.
205
206--min-stack::
207        Set the stack depth limit when parsing the callchain, anything
208        below the specified depth will be ignored. Disabled by default.
209
210        Implies '--call-graph dwarf' when --call-graph not present on the
211        command line, on systems where DWARF unwinding was built in.
212
213--print-sample::
214	Print the PERF_RECORD_SAMPLE PERF_SAMPLE_ info for the
215	raw_syscalls:sys_{enter,exit} tracepoints, for debugging.
216
217--proc-map-timeout::
218	When processing pre-existing threads /proc/XXX/mmap, it may take a long time,
219	because the file may be huge. A time out is needed in such cases.
220	This option sets the time out limit. The default value is 500 ms.
221
222--sort-events::
223	Do sorting on batches of events, use when noticing out of order events that
224	may happen, for instance, when a thread gets migrated to a different CPU
225	while processing a syscall.
226
227--libtraceevent_print::
228	Use libtraceevent to print tracepoint arguments. By default 'perf trace' uses
229	the same beautifiers used in the strace-like enter+exit lines to augment the
230	tracepoint arguments.
231
232--map-dump::
233	Dump BPF maps setup by events passed via -e, for instance the augmented_raw_syscalls
234	living in tools/perf/examples/bpf/augmented_raw_syscalls.c. For now this
235	dumps just boolean map values and integer keys, in time this will print in hex
236	by default and use BTF when available, as well as use functions to do pretty
237	printing using the existing 'perf trace' syscall arg beautifiers to map integer
238	arguments to strings (pid to comm, syscall id to syscall name, etc).
239
240
241PAGEFAULTS
242----------
243
244When tracing pagefaults, the format of the trace is as follows:
245
246<min|maj>fault [<ip.symbol>+<ip.offset>] => <addr.dso@addr.offset> (<map type><addr level>).
247
248- min/maj indicates whether fault event is minor or major;
249- ip.symbol shows symbol for instruction pointer (the code that generated the
250  fault); if no debug symbols available, perf trace will print raw IP;
251- addr.dso shows DSO for the faulted address;
252- map type is either 'd' for non-executable maps or 'x' for executable maps;
253- addr level is either 'k' for kernel dso or '.' for user dso.
254
255For symbols resolution you may need to install debugging symbols.
256
257Please be aware that duration is currently always 0 and doesn't reflect actual
258time it took for fault to be handled!
259
260When --verbose specified, perf trace tries to print all available information
261for both IP and fault address in the form of dso@symbol+offset.
262
263EXAMPLES
264--------
265
266Trace only major pagefaults:
267
268 $ perf trace --no-syscalls -F
269
270Trace syscalls, major and minor pagefaults:
271
272 $ perf trace -F all
273
274  1416.547 ( 0.000 ms): python/20235 majfault [CRYPTO_push_info_+0x0] => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libcrypto.so.1.0.0@0x61be0 (x.)
275
276  As you can see, there was major pagefault in python process, from
277  CRYPTO_push_info_ routine which faulted somewhere in libcrypto.so.
278
279Trace the first 4 open, openat or open_by_handle_at syscalls (in the future more syscalls may match here):
280
281  $ perf trace -e open* --max-events 4
282  [root@jouet perf]# trace -e open* --max-events 4
283  2272.992 ( 0.037 ms): gnome-shell/1370 openat(dfd: CWD, filename: /proc/self/stat) = 31
284  2277.481 ( 0.139 ms): gnome-shell/3039 openat(dfd: CWD, filename: /proc/self/stat) = 65
285  3026.398 ( 0.076 ms): gnome-shell/3039 openat(dfd: CWD, filename: /proc/self/stat) = 65
286  4294.665 ( 0.015 ms): sed/15879 openat(dfd: CWD, filename: /etc/ld.so.cache, flags: CLOEXEC) = 3
287  $
288
289Trace the first minor page fault when running a workload:
290
291  # perf trace -F min --max-stack=7 --max-events 1 sleep 1
292     0.000 ( 0.000 ms): sleep/18006 minfault [__clear_user+0x1a] => 0x5626efa56080 (?k)
293                                       __clear_user ([kernel.kallsyms])
294                                       load_elf_binary ([kernel.kallsyms])
295                                       search_binary_handler ([kernel.kallsyms])
296                                       __do_execve_file.isra.33 ([kernel.kallsyms])
297                                       __x64_sys_execve ([kernel.kallsyms])
298                                       do_syscall_64 ([kernel.kallsyms])
299                                       entry_SYSCALL_64 ([kernel.kallsyms])
300  #
301
302Trace the next min page page fault to take place on the first CPU:
303
304  # perf trace -F min --call-graph=dwarf --max-events 1 --cpu 0
305     0.000 ( 0.000 ms): Web Content/17136 minfault [js::gc::Chunk::fetchNextDecommittedArena+0x4b] => 0x7fbe6181b000 (?.)
306                                       js::gc::FreeSpan::initAsEmpty (inlined)
307                                       js::gc::Arena::setAsNotAllocated (inlined)
308                                       js::gc::Chunk::fetchNextDecommittedArena (/usr/lib64/firefox/libxul.so)
309                                       js::gc::Chunk::allocateArena (/usr/lib64/firefox/libxul.so)
310                                       js::gc::GCRuntime::allocateArena (/usr/lib64/firefox/libxul.so)
311                                       js::gc::ArenaLists::allocateFromArena (/usr/lib64/firefox/libxul.so)
312                                       js::gc::GCRuntime::tryNewTenuredThing<JSString, (js::AllowGC)1> (inlined)
313                                       js::AllocateString<JSString, (js::AllowGC)1> (/usr/lib64/firefox/libxul.so)
314                                       js::Allocate<JSThinInlineString, (js::AllowGC)1> (inlined)
315                                       JSThinInlineString::new_<(js::AllowGC)1> (inlined)
316                                       AllocateInlineString<(js::AllowGC)1, unsigned char> (inlined)
317                                       js::ConcatStrings<(js::AllowGC)1> (/usr/lib64/firefox/libxul.so)
318                                       [0x18b26e6bc2bd] (/tmp/perf-17136.map)
319  #
320
321Trace the next two sched:sched_switch events, four block:*_plug events, the
322next block:*_unplug and the next three net:*dev_queue events, this last one
323with a backtrace of at most 16 entries, system wide:
324
325  # perf trace -e sched:*switch/nr=2/,block:*_plug/nr=4/,block:*_unplug/nr=1/,net:*dev_queue/nr=3,max-stack=16/
326     0.000 :0/0 sched:sched_switch:swapper/2:0 [120] S ==> rcu_sched:10 [120]
327     0.015 rcu_sched/10 sched:sched_switch:rcu_sched:10 [120] R ==> swapper/2:0 [120]
328   254.198 irq/50-iwlwifi/680 net:net_dev_queue:dev=wlp3s0 skbaddr=0xffff93498051f600 len=66
329                                       __dev_queue_xmit ([kernel.kallsyms])
330   273.977 :0/0 net:net_dev_queue:dev=wlp3s0 skbaddr=0xffff93498051f600 len=78
331                                       __dev_queue_xmit ([kernel.kallsyms])
332   274.007 :0/0 net:net_dev_queue:dev=wlp3s0 skbaddr=0xffff93498051ff00 len=78
333                                       __dev_queue_xmit ([kernel.kallsyms])
334  2930.140 kworker/u16:58/2722 block:block_plug:[kworker/u16:58]
335  2930.162 kworker/u16:58/2722 block:block_unplug:[kworker/u16:58] 1
336  4466.094 jbd2/dm-2-8/748 block:block_plug:[jbd2/dm-2-8]
337  8050.123 kworker/u16:30/2694 block:block_plug:[kworker/u16:30]
338  8050.271 kworker/u16:30/2694 block:block_plug:[kworker/u16:30]
339  #
340
341SEE ALSO
342--------
343linkperf:perf-record[1], linkperf:perf-script[1]
344