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 Debian or RPM packages are ready yet.
45 ***********************************************************
46 ** Section 2 * Installation from sources **
47 ***********************************************************
51 Tools needed to follow the package download steps :
58 You have to install the standard development librairies and programs necessary
61 (from Documentation/Changes in the Linux kernel tree)
62 o Gnu C 2.95.3 # gcc --version
63 o Gnu make 3.79.1 # make --version
64 o binutils 2.12 # ld -v
65 o util-linux 2.10o # fdformat --version
66 o module-init-tools 0.9.10 # depmod -V
68 You might also want to have libncurses5 to have the text mode kernel
69 configuration menu, but there are alternatives.
71 Prerequisites for LTTV 0.6.x installation are :
73 gtk 2.4 or better development libraries (libgtk2.0, libgtk2.0-dev)
74 glib 2.4 or better development libraries (libglib2.0-0, libglib2.0-dev)
75 libpopt development libraries (libpopt0, libpopt-dev)
76 libpango development libraries (libpango1.0, libpango1.0-dev)
77 libc6 development librairies (libc6, libc6-dev)
80 * Getting the LTTng packages
85 (see http://ltt.polymtl.ca/lttng for package listing)
86 wget http://ltt.polymtl.ca/lttng/lttng-modules-0.2.tar.bz2
87 wget http://ltt.polymtl.ca/lttng/patch-2.6.12-rc4-mm2-lttng-0.4.bz2
88 bzip2 -cd lttng-modules-0.2.tar.bz2 | tar xvof -
91 * Getting LTTng kernel sources
95 wget http://kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.6/testing/linux-2.6.12-rc4.tar.bz2
96 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
97 bzip2 -cd linux-2.6.12-rc4.tar.bz2 | tar xvof -
99 bzip2 -cd ../2.6.12-rc4-mm2.bz2 | patch -p1
100 bzip2 -cd /usr/src/lttng/patch-2.6.12-rc4-mm2-lttng-0.4.bz2 | patch -p1
102 mv linux-2.6.12-rc4 linux-2.6.12-rc4-mm2-lttng-0.4
105 * Installing a LTTng kernel
108 cd /usr/src/linux-2.6.12-rc4-mm2-lttng-0.4
109 make menuconfig (or make xconfig or make config)
110 Select the < Help > button if you are not familiar with kernel
112 Items preceded by [*] means they has to be built into the kernel.
113 Items preceded by [M] means they has to be built as modules.
114 Items preceded by [ ] means they should be removed.
115 go to the "General setup" section
116 Select the following options :
117 [*] Linux Trace Toolkit Instrumentation Support
118 [M] or [*] Linux Trace Toolkit Tracer
119 do NOT activate (not ready yet) :
120 [ ] Align Linux Trace Toolkit Traces
121 [ ] Activate Linux Trace Toolkit Heartbeat Timer
122 IMPORTANT : This is enabled by default : you must disable it!
130 You must activate relayfs and specify a mount point. This is typically done in
131 fstab such that it happens at boot time.
133 If you have never used RelayFS before, these operation would do this for you :
135 echo "relayfs /mnt/relayfs relayfs rw 0 0" \
140 Select the Linux 2.6.12-rc4-mm2-lttng-0.4 kernel in your boot loader.
143 * Install the ltt-modules
146 cd /usr/src/lttng/lttng-modules-0.2
147 KERNELDIR=/usr/src/linux-2.6.12-rc4-mm2-lttng-0.4 make
148 KERNELDIR=/usr/src/linux-2.6.12-rc4-mm2-lttng-0.4 make modules_install
150 You need to load the ltt-control module to be able to control tracing from user
151 space. This is done by issuing the command :
154 You can automate at boot time loading the ltt-control module by :
155 echo ltt-control >> /etc/modules
158 * Getting and installing the LTTV package
162 wget http://ltt.polymtl.ca/packages/LinuxTraceToolkitViewer-0.6.4-21092005.tar.gz
163 gzip -cd LinuxTraceToolkitViewer-0.6.4-21092005.tar.gz | tar xvof -
164 cd LinuxTraceToolkitViewer-0.6.4-21092005
165 (refer to README to see the development libraries that must be installed on you
174 ***********************************************************
175 ** Section 3 * Using LTTng and LTTV **
176 ***********************************************************
178 * Use graphical LTTV to control tracing and analyse traces
180 lttv-gui (or /usr/local/bin/lttv-gui)
181 - Spot the "Tracing Control" icon : click on it
182 (it's a traffic light icon)
183 - enter the root password
187 * You should now see a trace
189 * Use text mode LTTng to control tracing
191 The tracing can be controlled from a terminal by using the lttctl command (as
196 lttctl -n trace -d -l /mnt/relayfs/ltt -t /tmp/trace
198 Stop tracing and destroy trace channels :
202 see lttctl --help for details.
207 Fell free to look in /usr/local/lib/lttv/plugins to see all the text and
208 graphical plugins available.
210 For example, a simple trace dump in text format is available with :
212 lttv -m textDump -t /tmp/trace
214 see lttv -m textDump --help for detailed command line options of textDump.
219 ***********************************************************
220 ** Section 4 * Adding new instrumentations with genevent **
221 ***********************************************************
223 * Getting and installing genevent
227 wget http://ltt.polymtl.ca/packages/genevent-0.1.tar.gz
228 gzip -cd genevent-0.1.tar.gz | tar xvof -
234 * Add new events to the kernel with genevent
237 cd /usr/local/share/LinuxTraceToolkitViewer/facilities
238 cp process.xml yourfacility.xml
239 * edit yourfacility.xml to fit your needs.
241 /usr/local/bin/genevent /usr/local/share/LinuxTraceToolkitViewer/yourfacility.xml
242 cp ltt-facility-yourfacility.h ltt-facility-id-yourfacility.h \
243 /usr/src/linux-2.6.12-rc4-mm2-lttng-0.4/include/linux/ltt
244 cp ltt-facility-loader-yourfacility.c ltt-facility-loader-yourfacility.h \
245 /usr/src/linux-2.6.12-rc4-mm2-lttng-0.4/ltt
246 * edit the kernel file you want to instrument
247 - Add #include <linux/ltt/ltt-facility-yourfacility.h> at the beginning
249 - Add a call to the tracing functions. See their names and parameters in
250 /usr/src/linux-2.6.12-rc4-mm2-lttng-0.4/include/linux/ltt/ltt-facility-yourfacility.h