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 0.4.1 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 ** Current development status **
35 supported architectures :
36 Intel Pentium (UP/SMP) with TSC
39 supported architectures :
45 Author : Mathieu Desnoyers, September 2005
49 ***********************************************************
50 ** Section 1 * Installation from Debian or RPM packages **
51 ***********************************************************
53 * Install from RPM packages on Fedora Core 4 :
57 http://ltt.polymtl.ca/packages/fedora/RPMS
59 No RPM packages for LTTng are ready yet.
62 * Install from Deb packages on Debian :
64 You can use the ltt.polymtl.ca apt source to get LTTV for Debian :
66 Add the following two sources to your /etc/apt/sources.list :
68 deb http://ltt.polymtl.ca/packages/debian experimental main
69 deb-src http://ltt.polymtl.ca/packages/debian experimental main
72 * Install from precompiled binary packages (LTTV compiled only for i386, and
73 LTTng only for i686 smp), perform the following :
77 apt-get install lttv lttv-doc
78 apt-get install kernel-image-2.6.12-rc4-mm2-lttng-0.4.1
79 apt-get install lttng-modules-modules-2.6.12-rc4-mm2-lttng-0.4.1
80 * note : the packages are signed by myself. I am not considered a trusted
81 Debian source yet, so warnings are normal.
83 Then, follow the section "Editing the system wide configuration" in section 2.
85 * Create custom LTTV Debian packages
87 Binary packages are only available for i386. If you want to create your own LTTV
88 packages for other platforms, do :
94 dpkg-buildpackage -rfakeroot
96 You should then have your LTTV .deb files created for your architecture.
98 * Create custom LTTng packages
100 For building LTTng Debian packages :
103 apt-get install kernel-source-2.6.12-rc4-mm2-lttng-0.4.1
105 bzip2 -cd kernel-source-2.6.12-rc4-mm2-lttng-0.4.1.tar.bz2 | tar xvof -
106 cd kernel-source-2.6.12-rc4-mm2-lttng-0.4.1
107 make menuconfig (or xconfig or config) (customize your configuration)
108 make-kpkg kernel_image
110 You will then see your freshly created .deb in /usr/src. Install it with
111 dpkg -i /usr/src/(image-name).deb
113 You will also need to create a package for the lttng-modules :
117 apt-get source lttng-modules
118 cd kernel-source-2.6.12-rc4-mm2-lttng-0.4.1
119 make-kpkg --added_modules /usr/src/lttng-modules-0.3 modules_image
121 You will then see your freshly created .deb in /usr/src. Install it with
122 dpkg -i /usr/src/lttng-modules-modules-(your version).deb
125 Then, follow the section "Editing the system wide configuration" in section 2.
128 ***********************************************************
129 ** Section 2 * Installation from sources **
130 ***********************************************************
134 Tools needed to follow the package download steps :
141 You have to install the standard development librairies and programs necessary
142 to compile a kernel :
144 (from Documentation/Changes in the Linux kernel tree)
145 o Gnu C 2.95.3 # gcc --version
146 o Gnu make 3.79.1 # make --version
147 o binutils 2.12 # ld -v
148 o util-linux 2.10o # fdformat --version
149 o module-init-tools 0.9.10 # depmod -V
151 You might also want to have libncurses5 to have the text mode kernel
152 configuration menu, but there are alternatives.
154 Prerequisites for LTTV 0.6.x installation are :
156 gtk 2.4 or better development libraries (libgtk2.0, libgtk2.0-dev)
157 glib 2.4 or better development libraries (libglib2.0-0, libglib2.0-dev)
158 libpopt development libraries (libpopt0, libpopt-dev)
159 libpango development libraries (libpango1.0, libpango1.0-dev)
160 libc6 development librairies (libc6, libc6-dev)
163 * Getting the LTTng packages
168 (see http://ltt.polymtl.ca/lttng for package listing)
169 wget http://ltt.polymtl.ca/lttng/lttng-modules-0.3.tar.bz2
170 wget http://ltt.polymtl.ca/lttng/patch-2.6.12-rc4-mm2-lttng-0.4.1.bz2
171 bzip2 -cd lttng-modules-0.3.tar.bz2 | tar xvof -
174 * Getting LTTng kernel sources
178 wget http://kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.6/testing/linux-2.6.12-rc4.tar.bz2
179 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
180 bzip2 -cd linux-2.6.12-rc4.tar.bz2 | tar xvof -
182 bzip2 -cd ../2.6.12-rc4-mm2.bz2 | patch -p1
183 bzip2 -cd /usr/src/lttng/patch-2.6.12-rc4-mm2-lttng-0.4.1.bz2 | patch -p1
185 mv linux-2.6.12-rc4 linux-2.6.12-rc4-mm2-lttng-0.4.1
188 * Installing a LTTng kernel
191 cd /usr/src/linux-2.6.12-rc4-mm2-lttng-0.4.1
192 make menuconfig (or make xconfig or make config)
193 Select the < Help > button if you are not familiar with kernel
195 Items preceded by [*] means they has to be built into the kernel.
196 Items preceded by [M] means they has to be built as modules.
197 Items preceded by [ ] means they should be removed.
198 go to the "General setup" section
199 Select the following options :
200 [*] Linux Trace Toolkit Instrumentation Support
201 [M] or [*] Linux Trace Toolkit Tracer
202 It makes no difference for the rest of the procedure whether the Tracer
203 is compiled built-in or as a module.
204 do NOT activate (not ready yet) :
205 [ ] Align Linux Trace Toolkit Traces
206 [ ] Activate Linux Trace Toolkit Heartbeat Timer
207 IMPORTANT : This is enabled by default : you must disable it!
217 Select the Linux 2.6.12-rc4-mm2-lttng-0.4.1 kernel in your boot loader.
220 * Install the ltt-modules
223 cd /usr/src/lttng/lttng-modules-0.3
224 KERNELDIR=/usr/src/linux-2.6.12-rc4-mm2-lttng-0.4.1 make
225 KERNELDIR=/usr/src/linux-2.6.12-rc4-mm2-lttng-0.4.1 make modules_install
228 * Editing the system wide configuration
230 You must activate relayfs and specify a mount point. This is typically done in
231 fstab such that it happens at boot time.
233 If you have never used RelayFS before, these operation would do this for you :
236 cp /etc/fstab /etc/fstab.lttng.bkp
237 echo "relayfs /mnt/relayfs relayfs rw 0 0" >> /etc/fstab
239 then, rebooting or issuing the following command will activate relayfs :
243 You need to load the ltt-control module to be able to control tracing from user
244 space. This is done by issuing the command :
248 You can automate at boot time loading the ltt-control module by :
250 echo ltt-control >> /etc/modules
253 * Getting and installing the LTTV package
257 wget http://ltt.polymtl.ca/packages/LinuxTraceToolkitViewer-0.6.8-26092005.tar.gz
258 gzip -cd LinuxTraceToolkitViewer-0.6.8-26092005.tar.gz | tar xvof -
259 cd LinuxTraceToolkitViewer-0.6.8-26092005
260 (refer to README to see the development libraries that must be installed on you
269 ***********************************************************
270 ** Section 3 * Using LTTng and LTTV **
271 ***********************************************************
273 * Use graphical LTTV to control tracing and analyse traces
275 lttv-gui (or /usr/local/bin/lttv-gui)
276 - Spot the "Tracing Control" icon : click on it
277 (it's a traffic light icon)
278 - enter the root password
282 * You should now see a trace
284 * Use text mode LTTng to control tracing
286 The tracing can be controlled from a terminal by using the lttctl command (as
291 lttctl -n trace -d -l /mnt/relayfs/ltt -t /tmp/trace
293 Stop tracing and destroy trace channels :
297 see lttctl --help for details.
302 Fell free to look in /usr/local/lib/lttv/plugins to see all the text and
303 graphical plugins available.
305 For example, a simple trace dump in text format is available with :
307 lttv -m textDump -t /tmp/trace
309 see lttv -m textDump --help for detailed command line options of textDump.
314 ***********************************************************
315 ** Section 4 * Adding new instrumentations with genevent **
316 ***********************************************************
318 * Getting and installing genevent
322 wget http://ltt.polymtl.ca/packages/genevent-0.2.tar.gz
323 gzip -cd genevent-0.2.tar.gz | tar xvof -
329 * Add new events to the kernel with genevent
332 cd /usr/local/share/LinuxTraceToolkitViewer/facilities
333 cp process.xml yourfacility.xml
334 * edit yourfacility.xml to fit your needs.
336 /usr/local/bin/genevent /usr/local/share/LinuxTraceToolkitViewer/yourfacility.xml
337 cp ltt-facility-yourfacility.h ltt-facility-id-yourfacility.h \
338 /usr/src/linux-2.6.12-rc4-mm2-lttng-0.4.1/include/linux/ltt
339 cp ltt-facility-loader-yourfacility.c ltt-facility-loader-yourfacility.h \
340 /usr/src/linux-2.6.12-rc4-mm2-lttng-0.4.1/ltt
341 * edit the kernel file you want to instrument
342 - Add #include <linux/ltt/ltt-facility-yourfacility.h> at the beginning
344 - Add a call to the tracing functions. See their names and parameters in
345 /usr/src/linux-2.6.12-rc4-mm2-lttng-0.4.1/include/linux/ltt/ltt-facility-yourfacility.h