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 and to user space
13 What you will typically want is to read sections 2 and 3 : install LTTng from
16 These operations are made for installing the LTTng 0.5.X tracer on a
17 linux 2.6.X kernel. You will also find instructions for installation of
18 LTTV 0.8.x : the Linux Trace Toolkit Viewer.
20 To see the list of compatibilities between LTTng, ltt-control, LTTV, genevent
21 and ltt-usertrace, please refer to :
22 http://ltt.polymtl.ca > LTTng+LTTV versions compatibility
26 The following lttng patch is necessary to have the tracing hooks in the kernel.
27 The following ltt-control module controls the tracing.
29 Required programs and librairies are assumed to be automatically installed in an
30 installation with Debian or RPM packages. In the case of an installation from
31 sources, the dependencies are listed.
34 ** Current development status **
37 supported architectures :
38 Intel Pentium (UP/SMP) with TSC
39 PowerPC 32 and 64 bits
41 C2 Microsystems (variant of MIPS)
44 supported architectures :
47 PowerPC 32 and 64 bits
51 Author : Mathieu Desnoyers, September 2005
52 Last update : May 30, 2006
55 ***********************************************************
56 ** Section 1 * Installation from Debian or RPM packages **
57 ***********************************************************
59 ** NOTE : RPM and debian packages are only made once a version has been
60 thoroughly tested. If they do not exist at the moment, please install from
61 sources (see section 2 below). To see the list of compatibilities between
62 LTTng, ltt-control, LTTV, genevent and lttng-modules, please refer to
63 http://ltt.polymtl.ca > LTTng+LTTV versions compatibility
66 * Install from RPM packages on Fedora Core 4 :
70 http://ltt.polymtl.ca/packages/fedora/RPMS
74 LTTng kernel and lttng-modules RPM are available for some architectures (i586,
75 i686). Feel free to help fix the spec files to have correct lttng-modules RPM
79 * Install from Deb packages on Debian :
81 You can use the ltt.polymtl.ca apt source to get LTTV for Debian :
83 Add the following two sources to your /etc/apt/sources.list :
85 deb http://ltt.polymtl.ca/packages/debian experimental main
86 deb-src http://ltt.polymtl.ca/packages/debian experimental main
89 * Install from precompiled binary packages (LTTV compiled only for i386, and
90 LTTng only for i686 smp), perform the following :
94 apt-get install lttv lttv-doc
95 apt-get install kernel-image-2.6.12-rc4-mm2-lttng-0.4.2
96 apt-get install lttng-modules-modules-2.6.12-rc4-mm2-lttng-0.4.2
97 * note : the packages are signed by myself. I am not considered a trusted
98 Debian source yet, so warnings are normal.
100 Then, follow the section "Editing the system wide configuration" in section 2.
102 * Create custom LTTV Debian packages
104 Binary packages are only available for i386. If you want to create your own LTTV
105 packages for other platforms, do :
111 dpkg-buildpackage -rfakeroot
113 You should then have your LTTV .deb files created for your architecture.
115 * Create custom LTTng packages
117 For building LTTng Debian packages :
120 apt-get install kernel-source-2.6.12-rc4-mm2-lttng-0.4.2
122 bzip2 -cd kernel-source-2.6.12-rc4-mm2-lttng-0.4.2.tar.bz2 | tar xvof -
123 cd kernel-source-2.6.12-rc4-mm2-lttng-0.4.2
124 make menuconfig (or xconfig or config) (customize your configuration)
125 make-kpkg kernel_image
127 You will then see your freshly created .deb in /usr/src. Install it with
128 dpkg -i /usr/src/(image-name).deb
130 You will also need to create a package for the lttng-modules :
134 apt-get source lttng-modules
135 cd kernel-source-2.6.12-rc4-mm2-lttng-0.4.2
136 make-kpkg --added_modules /usr/src/lttng-modules-0.3 modules_image
138 You will then see your freshly created .deb in /usr/src. Install it with
139 dpkg -i /usr/src/lttng-modules-modules-(your version).deb
142 Then, follow the section "Editing the system wide configuration" in section 2.
145 ***********************************************************
146 ** Section 2 * Installation from sources **
147 ***********************************************************
151 Tools needed to follow the package download steps :
158 You have to install the standard development librairies and programs necessary
159 to compile a kernel :
161 (from Documentation/Changes in the Linux kernel tree)
162 o Gnu C 2.95.3 # gcc --version
163 o Gnu make 3.79.1 # make --version
164 o binutils 2.12 # ld -v
165 o util-linux 2.10o # fdformat --version
166 o module-init-tools 0.9.10 # depmod -V
168 You might also want to have libncurses5 to have the text mode kernel
169 configuration menu, but there are alternatives.
171 Prerequisites for LTTV 0.x.x installation are :
174 gtk 2.4 or better development libraries
175 (Debian : libgtk2.0, libgtk2.0-dev)
176 (Fedora : gtk2, gtk2-devel)
177 note : For Fedora users : this might require at least core 3 from Fedora,
178 or you might have to compile your own GTK2 library.
179 glib 2.4 or better development libraries
180 (Debian : libglib2.0-0, libglib2.0-dev)
181 (Fedora : glib2, glib2-devel)
182 libpopt development libraries
183 (Debian : libpopt0, libpopt-dev)
185 libpango development libraries
186 (Debian : libpango1.0, libpango1.0-dev)
187 (Fedora : pango, pango-devel)
188 libc6 development librairies
189 (Debian : libc6, libc6-dev)
190 (Fedora : glibc, glibc)
193 * Getting the LTTng packages
198 (see http://ltt.polymtl.ca/lttng for package listing)
199 wget http://ltt.polymtl.ca/lttng/patch-2.6.X-lttng-0.x.xx.tar.bz2
200 bzip2 -cd patch-2.6.X-lttng-0.x.xx.tar.bz2 | tar xvof -
203 * Getting LTTng kernel sources
207 wget http://kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.6/testing/linux-2.6.X.tar.bz2
208 bzip2 -cd linux-2.6.X.tar.bz2 | tar xvof -
210 cat /usr/src/lttng/patch-2.6.X-lttng-0.x.xx* | patch -p1
212 mv linux-2.6.X linux-2.6.X-lttng-0.x.xx
215 * Installing a LTTng kernel
218 cd /usr/src/linux-2.6.X-lttng-0.x.xx
219 make menuconfig (or make xconfig or make config)
220 Select the < Help > button if you are not familiar with kernel
222 Items preceded by [*] means they has to be built into the kernel.
223 Items preceded by [M] means they has to be built as modules.
224 Items preceded by [ ] means they should be removed.
225 go to the "Instrumentation Support" section
226 Select the following options :
227 [*] Linux Trace Toolkit Instrumentation Support
228 <M> or <*> Linux Trace Toolkit Tracer
229 It makes no difference for the rest of the procedure whether the Tracer
230 is compiled built-in or as a module.
232 [*] Align Linux Trace Toolkit Traces
233 [*] Allow tracing from userspace
234 your choice (see < Help >) :
235 [ ] Activate Linux Trace Toolkit Heartbeat Timer
236 You may or may not activate instrumentation per facility. They are all
237 selected for logging by default. It can be used as a compile time filter to
238 enable/disable logging of events. It is useful to discard events with a
239 minimal impact on the system and especially useful for now, as the dynamic
240 filter has not been implemented yet.
250 Select the Linux 2.6.16-lttng-0.x.xx kernel in your boot loader.
253 cp vmlinux /boot/vmlinux-2.6.X-lttng-0.x.xx
254 cp System.map /boot/System.map-2.6.X-lttng-0.x.xx
255 cp .config /boot/config-2.6.X-lttng-0.x.xx
256 depmod -ae -F /boot/System.map-2.6.X-lttng-0.x.xx 2.6.X-lttng-0.x.xx
257 mkinitrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.X-lttng-0.x.xx 2.6.X-lttng-0.x.xx
258 (edit /etc/yaboot.conf to add a new entry pointing to your kernel : the entry
259 that comes first is the default kernel)
261 select the right entry at the yaboot prompt (see choices : tab, select : type
262 the kernel name followed by enter)
263 Select the Linux 2.6.16-lttng-0.x.xx kernel in your boot loader.
268 * Editing the system wide configuration
270 You must activate relayfs and specify a mount point. This is typically done in
271 fstab such that it happens at boot time.
273 If you have never used RelayFS before, these operation would do this for you :
276 cp /etc/fstab /etc/fstab.lttng.bkp
277 echo "relayfs /mnt/relayfs relayfs rw 0 0" >> /etc/fstab
279 then, rebooting or issuing the following command will activate relayfs :
283 You need to load the ltt-control module to be able to control tracing from user
284 space. This is done by issuing the command :
288 If you want to have complete information about the kernel state (including all
289 the process names), you need to load the ltt-statedump module. This is done by
290 issuing the command :
292 modprobe ltt-statedump
294 You can automate at boot time loading the ltt-control module by :
296 echo ltt-control >> /etc/modules
297 echo ltt-statedump >> /etc/modules
300 * Getting and installing the ltt-control package (on the traced machine)
301 (note : the ltt-control package contains lttd and lttctl. Although it has the
302 same name as the ltt-control kernel module, they are *not* the same thing.)
305 wget http://ltt.polymtl.ca/lttng/ltt-control-0.x-xxxx2006.tar.gz
306 gzip -cd ltt-control-0.x-xxxx2006.tar.gz | tar xvof -
307 cd ltt-control-0.x-xxxx2006
308 (refer to README to see the development libraries that must be installed on you
314 * Getting and installing the ltt-usertrace package for user space tracing
315 See http://ltt.polymtl.ca/ > USERSPACE TRACING QUICKSTART
318 * Getting and installing the LTTV package (on the visualisation machine, same or
319 different from the visualisation machine)
323 wget http://ltt.polymtl.ca/packages/LinuxTraceToolkitViewer-0.x.xx-xxxx2006.tar.gz
324 gzip -cd LinuxTraceToolkitViewer-0.x.xx-xxxx2006.tar.gz | tar xvof -
325 cd LinuxTraceToolkitViewer-0.x.xx-xxxx2006
326 (refer to README to see the development libraries that must be installed on you
335 ***********************************************************
336 ** Section 3 * Using LTTng and LTTV **
337 ***********************************************************
339 * Use graphical LTTV to control tracing and analyse traces
341 lttv-gui (or /usr/local/bin/lttv-gui)
342 - Spot the "Tracing Control" icon : click on it
343 (it's a traffic light icon)
344 - enter the root password
348 * You should now see a trace
350 * Use text mode LTTng to control tracing
352 The tracing can be controlled from a terminal by using the lttctl command (as
357 lttctl -n trace -d -l /mnt/relayfs/ltt -t /tmp/trace
359 Stop tracing and destroy trace channels :
363 see lttctl --help for details.
368 Fell free to look in /usr/local/lib/lttv/plugins to see all the text and
369 graphical plugins available.
371 For example, a simple trace dump in text format is available with :
373 lttv -m textDump -t /tmp/trace
375 see lttv -m textDump --help for detailed command line options of textDump.
380 ***********************************************************
381 ** Section 4 * Adding new instrumentations with genevent **
382 ***********************************************************
384 * Getting and installing genevent
388 wget http://ltt.polymtl.ca/packages/genevent-0.xx.tar.gz
389 gzip -cd genevent-0.xx.tar.gz | tar xvof -
395 * Add new events to the kernel with genevent
398 cd /usr/local/share/LinuxTraceToolkitViewer/facilities
399 cp process.xml yourfacility.xml
400 * edit yourfacility.xml to fit your needs.
402 /usr/local/bin/genevent /usr/local/share/LinuxTraceToolkitViewer/facilities/yourfacility.xml
403 cp ltt-facility-yourfacility.h ltt-facility-id-yourfacility.h \
404 /usr/src/linux-2.6.16-lttng-0.x.xx8/include/linux/ltt
405 cp ltt-facility-loader-yourfacility.c ltt-facility-loader-yourfacility.h \
406 /usr/src/linux-2.6.16-lttng-0.x.xx/ltt
407 * edit the kernel file you want to instrument
408 - Add #include <linux/ltt/ltt-facility-yourfacility.h> at the beginning
410 - Add a call to the tracing functions. See their names and parameters in
411 /usr/src/linux-2.6.16-lttng-0.x.xx/include/linux/ltt/ltt-facility-yourfacility.h
413 * Add new events to userspace programs with genevent
414 See http://ltt.polymtl.ca/ > USERSPACE TRACING QUICKSTART