4 How to use LTTng and LTTV in a few lines :
6 This document is made of four parts : The first one explains how to install
7 LTTng and LTTV from Debian and RPM binary packages, the second one explains how
8 to install LTTng and LTTV from sources and the third one describes the steps
9 to follow to trace a system and view it. The fourth and last part explains
10 briefly how to add a new trace point to the kernel.
12 What you will typically want is to read sections 1 and 3 : install LTTng from
13 binary packages and use it. If there are no packages ready for your system, you
14 will have to install from sources (section 2) instead.
16 These operations are made for installing the LTTng 0.4 tracer on a
17 linux 2.6.12-rc4-mm2 kernel. You will also find instructions for installtion of
18 LTTV 0.6.x : the Linux Trace Toolkit Viewer.
20 At this point, the -mm tree of the kernel is used because it has RelayFS support
21 in it. In a nearby future, a vanilla kernel 2.6.14 will be used, as RelayFS has
22 been integrated in the linux 2.6.14-rc series.
24 The following lttng patch is necessary to have the tracing hooks in the kernel.
25 The following ltt-control module controls the tracing.
27 Required programs and librairies are assumed to be automatically installed in an
28 installation with Debian or RPM packages. In the case of an installation from
29 sources, the dependencies are listed.
32 Author : Mathieu Desnoyers, September 2005
36 ***********************************************************
37 ** Section 1 * Installation from Debian or RPM packages **
38 ***********************************************************
40 No RPM packages are ready yet.
41 No Debian kernel LTTng patch is ready yet.
43 You can use the ltt.polymtl.ca apt source to get LTTV for Debian :
45 Add the following two sources to your /etc/apt/sources.list :
47 deb http://ltt.polymtl.ca/packages/debian experimental main
48 deb-src http://ltt.polymtl.ca/packages/debian experimental main
50 Then, perform the following :
54 apt-get install lttv lttv-doc
55 * note : the packages are signed by myself. I am not considered a trusted
56 Debian source yet, so warnings are normal.
62 ***********************************************************
63 ** Section 2 * Installation from sources **
64 ***********************************************************
68 Tools needed to follow the package download steps :
75 You have to install the standard development librairies and programs necessary
78 (from Documentation/Changes in the Linux kernel tree)
79 o Gnu C 2.95.3 # gcc --version
80 o Gnu make 3.79.1 # make --version
81 o binutils 2.12 # ld -v
82 o util-linux 2.10o # fdformat --version
83 o module-init-tools 0.9.10 # depmod -V
85 You might also want to have libncurses5 to have the text mode kernel
86 configuration menu, but there are alternatives.
88 Prerequisites for LTTV 0.6.x installation are :
90 gtk 2.4 or better development libraries (libgtk2.0, libgtk2.0-dev)
91 glib 2.4 or better development libraries (libglib2.0-0, libglib2.0-dev)
92 libpopt development libraries (libpopt0, libpopt-dev)
93 libpango development libraries (libpango1.0, libpango1.0-dev)
94 libc6 development librairies (libc6, libc6-dev)
97 * Getting the LTTng packages
102 (see http://ltt.polymtl.ca/lttng for package listing)
103 wget http://ltt.polymtl.ca/lttng/lttng-modules-0.3.tar.bz2
104 wget http://ltt.polymtl.ca/lttng/patch-2.6.12-rc4-mm2-lttng-0.4.bz2
105 bzip2 -cd lttng-modules-0.3.tar.bz2 | tar xvof -
108 * Getting LTTng kernel sources
112 wget http://kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.6/testing/linux-2.6.12-rc4.tar.bz2
113 wget http://kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/people/akpm/patches/2.6/2.6.12-rc4/2.6.12-rc4-mm2/2.6.12-rc4-mm2.bz2
114 bzip2 -cd linux-2.6.12-rc4.tar.bz2 | tar xvof -
116 bzip2 -cd ../2.6.12-rc4-mm2.bz2 | patch -p1
117 bzip2 -cd /usr/src/lttng/patch-2.6.12-rc4-mm2-lttng-0.4.bz2 | patch -p1
119 mv linux-2.6.12-rc4 linux-2.6.12-rc4-mm2-lttng-0.4
122 * Installing a LTTng kernel
125 cd /usr/src/linux-2.6.12-rc4-mm2-lttng-0.4
126 make menuconfig (or make xconfig or make config)
127 Select the < Help > button if you are not familiar with kernel
129 Items preceded by [*] means they has to be built into the kernel.
130 Items preceded by [M] means they has to be built as modules.
131 Items preceded by [ ] means they should be removed.
132 go to the "General setup" section
133 Select the following options :
134 [*] Linux Trace Toolkit Instrumentation Support
135 [M] or [*] Linux Trace Toolkit Tracer
136 It makes no difference for the rest of the procedure whether the Tracer
137 is compiled built-in or as a module.
138 do NOT activate (not ready yet) :
139 [ ] Align Linux Trace Toolkit Traces
140 [ ] Activate Linux Trace Toolkit Heartbeat Timer
141 IMPORTANT : This is enabled by default : you must disable it!
149 You must activate relayfs and specify a mount point. This is typically done in
150 fstab such that it happens at boot time.
152 If you have never used RelayFS before, these operation would do this for you :
155 cp /etc/fstab /etc/fstab.lttng.bkp
156 echo "relayfs /mnt/relayfs relayfs rw 0 0" >> /etc/fstab
160 Select the Linux 2.6.12-rc4-mm2-lttng-0.4 kernel in your boot loader.
163 * Install the ltt-modules
166 cd /usr/src/lttng/lttng-modules-0.3
167 KERNELDIR=/usr/src/linux-2.6.12-rc4-mm2-lttng-0.4 make
168 KERNELDIR=/usr/src/linux-2.6.12-rc4-mm2-lttng-0.4 make modules_install
170 You need to load the ltt-control module to be able to control tracing from user
171 space. This is done by issuing the command :
175 You can automate at boot time loading the ltt-control module by :
177 echo ltt-control >> /etc/modules
180 * Getting and installing the LTTV package
184 wget http://ltt.polymtl.ca/packages/LinuxTraceToolkitViewer-0.6.5-21092005.tar.gz
185 gzip -cd LinuxTraceToolkitViewer-0.6.5-21092005.tar.gz | tar xvof -
186 cd LinuxTraceToolkitViewer-0.6.5-21092005
187 (refer to README to see the development libraries that must be installed on you
196 ***********************************************************
197 ** Section 3 * Using LTTng and LTTV **
198 ***********************************************************
200 * Use graphical LTTV to control tracing and analyse traces
202 lttv-gui (or /usr/local/bin/lttv-gui)
203 - Spot the "Tracing Control" icon : click on it
204 (it's a traffic light icon)
205 - enter the root password
209 * You should now see a trace
211 * Use text mode LTTng to control tracing
213 The tracing can be controlled from a terminal by using the lttctl command (as
218 lttctl -n trace -d -l /mnt/relayfs/ltt -t /tmp/trace
220 Stop tracing and destroy trace channels :
224 see lttctl --help for details.
229 Fell free to look in /usr/local/lib/lttv/plugins to see all the text and
230 graphical plugins available.
232 For example, a simple trace dump in text format is available with :
234 lttv -m textDump -t /tmp/trace
236 see lttv -m textDump --help for detailed command line options of textDump.
241 ***********************************************************
242 ** Section 4 * Adding new instrumentations with genevent **
243 ***********************************************************
245 * Getting and installing genevent
249 wget http://ltt.polymtl.ca/packages/genevent-0.2.tar.gz
250 gzip -cd genevent-0.2.tar.gz | tar xvof -
256 * Add new events to the kernel with genevent
259 cd /usr/local/share/LinuxTraceToolkitViewer/facilities
260 cp process.xml yourfacility.xml
261 * edit yourfacility.xml to fit your needs.
263 /usr/local/bin/genevent /usr/local/share/LinuxTraceToolkitViewer/yourfacility.xml
264 cp ltt-facility-yourfacility.h ltt-facility-id-yourfacility.h \
265 /usr/src/linux-2.6.12-rc4-mm2-lttng-0.4/include/linux/ltt
266 cp ltt-facility-loader-yourfacility.c ltt-facility-loader-yourfacility.h \
267 /usr/src/linux-2.6.12-rc4-mm2-lttng-0.4/ltt
268 * edit the kernel file you want to instrument
269 - Add #include <linux/ltt/ltt-facility-yourfacility.h> at the beginning
271 - Add a call to the tracing functions. See their names and parameters in
272 /usr/src/linux-2.6.12-rc4-mm2-lttng-0.4/include/linux/ltt/ltt-facility-yourfacility.h