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 0.4.2 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
61 LTTng kernel and lttng-modules RPM are available for some architectures (i586,
62 i686). Feel free to help fix the spec files to have correct lttng-modules RPM
66 * Install from Deb packages on Debian :
68 You can use the ltt.polymtl.ca apt source to get LTTV for Debian :
70 Add the following two sources to your /etc/apt/sources.list :
72 deb http://ltt.polymtl.ca/packages/debian experimental main
73 deb-src http://ltt.polymtl.ca/packages/debian experimental main
76 * Install from precompiled binary packages (LTTV compiled only for i386, and
77 LTTng only for i686 smp), perform the following :
81 apt-get install lttv lttv-doc
82 apt-get install kernel-image-2.6.12-rc4-mm2-lttng-0.4.2
83 apt-get install lttng-modules-modules-2.6.12-rc4-mm2-lttng-0.4.2
84 * note : the packages are signed by myself. I am not considered a trusted
85 Debian source yet, so warnings are normal.
87 Then, follow the section "Editing the system wide configuration" in section 2.
89 * Create custom LTTV Debian packages
91 Binary packages are only available for i386. If you want to create your own LTTV
92 packages for other platforms, do :
98 dpkg-buildpackage -rfakeroot
100 You should then have your LTTV .deb files created for your architecture.
102 * Create custom LTTng packages
104 For building LTTng Debian packages :
107 apt-get install kernel-source-2.6.12-rc4-mm2-lttng-0.4.2
109 bzip2 -cd kernel-source-2.6.12-rc4-mm2-lttng-0.4.2.tar.bz2 | tar xvof -
110 cd kernel-source-2.6.12-rc4-mm2-lttng-0.4.2
111 make menuconfig (or xconfig or config) (customize your configuration)
112 make-kpkg kernel_image
114 You will then see your freshly created .deb in /usr/src. Install it with
115 dpkg -i /usr/src/(image-name).deb
117 You will also need to create a package for the lttng-modules :
121 apt-get source lttng-modules
122 cd kernel-source-2.6.12-rc4-mm2-lttng-0.4.2
123 make-kpkg --added_modules /usr/src/lttng-modules-0.3 modules_image
125 You will then see your freshly created .deb in /usr/src. Install it with
126 dpkg -i /usr/src/lttng-modules-modules-(your version).deb
129 Then, follow the section "Editing the system wide configuration" in section 2.
132 ***********************************************************
133 ** Section 2 * Installation from sources **
134 ***********************************************************
138 Tools needed to follow the package download steps :
145 You have to install the standard development librairies and programs necessary
146 to compile a kernel :
148 (from Documentation/Changes in the Linux kernel tree)
149 o Gnu C 2.95.3 # gcc --version
150 o Gnu make 3.79.1 # make --version
151 o binutils 2.12 # ld -v
152 o util-linux 2.10o # fdformat --version
153 o module-init-tools 0.9.10 # depmod -V
155 You might also want to have libncurses5 to have the text mode kernel
156 configuration menu, but there are alternatives.
158 Prerequisites for LTTV 0.6.x installation are :
161 gtk 2.4 or better development libraries
162 (Debian : libgtk2.0, libgtk2.0-dev)
163 (Fedora : gtk2, gtk2-devel)
164 note : For Fedora users : this might require at least core 3 from Fedora,
165 or you might have to compile your own GTK2 library.
166 glib 2.4 or better development libraries
167 (Debian : libglib2.0-0, libglib2.0-dev)
168 (Fedora : glib2, glib2-devel)
169 libpopt development libraries
170 (Debian : libpopt0, libpopt-dev)
172 libpango development libraries
173 (Debian : libpango1.0, libpango1.0-dev)
174 (Fedora : pango, pango-devel)
175 libc6 development librairies
176 (Debian : libc6, libc6-dev)
177 (Fedora : glibc, glibc)
180 * Getting the LTTng packages
185 (see http://ltt.polymtl.ca/lttng for package listing)
186 wget http://ltt.polymtl.ca/lttng/lttng-modules-0.3.tar.bz2
187 wget http://ltt.polymtl.ca/lttng/patch-2.6.12-rc4-mm2-lttng-0.4.2.tar.bz2
188 bzip2 -cd lttng-modules-0.3.tar.bz2 | tar xvof -
189 bzip2 -cd patch-2.6.12-rc4-mm2-lttng-0.4.2.tar.bz2 | tar xvof -
192 * Getting LTTng kernel sources
196 wget http://kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.6/testing/linux-2.6.12-rc4.tar.bz2
197 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
198 bzip2 -cd linux-2.6.12-rc4.tar.bz2 | tar xvof -
200 bzip2 -cd ../2.6.12-rc4-mm2.bz2 | patch -p1
201 cat /usr/src/lttng/patch-2.6.12-rc4-mm2-lttng-0.4.2-* | patch -p1
203 mv linux-2.6.12-rc4 linux-2.6.12-rc4-mm2-lttng-0.4.2
206 * Installing a LTTng kernel
209 cd /usr/src/linux-2.6.12-rc4-mm2-lttng-0.4.2
210 make menuconfig (or make xconfig or make config)
211 Select the < Help > button if you are not familiar with kernel
213 Items preceded by [*] means they has to be built into the kernel.
214 Items preceded by [M] means they has to be built as modules.
215 Items preceded by [ ] means they should be removed.
216 go to the "General setup" section
217 Select the following options :
218 [*] Linux Trace Toolkit Instrumentation Support
219 [M] or [*] Linux Trace Toolkit Tracer
220 It makes no difference for the rest of the procedure whether the Tracer
221 is compiled built-in or as a module.
222 do NOT activate (not ready yet) :
223 [ ] Align Linux Trace Toolkit Traces
224 [ ] Activate Linux Trace Toolkit Heartbeat Timer
225 IMPORTANT : This is enabled by default : you must disable it!
235 Select the Linux 2.6.12-rc4-mm2-lttng-0.4.2 kernel in your boot loader.
238 * Install the ltt-modules
241 cd /usr/src/lttng/lttng-modules-0.3
242 KERNELDIR=/usr/src/linux-2.6.12-rc4-mm2-lttng-0.4.2 make
243 KERNELDIR=/usr/src/linux-2.6.12-rc4-mm2-lttng-0.4.2 make modules_install
246 * Editing the system wide configuration
248 You must activate relayfs and specify a mount point. This is typically done in
249 fstab such that it happens at boot time.
251 If you have never used RelayFS before, these operation would do this for you :
254 cp /etc/fstab /etc/fstab.lttng.bkp
255 echo "relayfs /mnt/relayfs relayfs rw 0 0" >> /etc/fstab
257 then, rebooting or issuing the following command will activate relayfs :
261 You need to load the ltt-control module to be able to control tracing from user
262 space. This is done by issuing the command :
266 You can automate at boot time loading the ltt-control module by :
268 echo ltt-control >> /etc/modules
271 * Getting and installing the LTTV package
275 wget http://ltt.polymtl.ca/packages/LinuxTraceToolkitViewer-0.6.9-10102005.tar.gz
276 gzip -cd LinuxTraceToolkitViewer-0.6.9-10102005.tar.gz | tar xvof -
277 cd LinuxTraceToolkitViewer-0.6.9-10102005
278 (refer to README to see the development libraries that must be installed on you
287 ***********************************************************
288 ** Section 3 * Using LTTng and LTTV **
289 ***********************************************************
291 * Use graphical LTTV to control tracing and analyse traces
293 lttv-gui (or /usr/local/bin/lttv-gui)
294 - Spot the "Tracing Control" icon : click on it
295 (it's a traffic light icon)
296 - enter the root password
300 * You should now see a trace
302 * Use text mode LTTng to control tracing
304 The tracing can be controlled from a terminal by using the lttctl command (as
309 lttctl -n trace -d -l /mnt/relayfs/ltt -t /tmp/trace
311 Stop tracing and destroy trace channels :
315 see lttctl --help for details.
320 Fell free to look in /usr/local/lib/lttv/plugins to see all the text and
321 graphical plugins available.
323 For example, a simple trace dump in text format is available with :
325 lttv -m textDump -t /tmp/trace
327 see lttv -m textDump --help for detailed command line options of textDump.
332 ***********************************************************
333 ** Section 4 * Adding new instrumentations with genevent **
334 ***********************************************************
336 * Getting and installing genevent
340 wget http://ltt.polymtl.ca/packages/genevent-0.2.tar.gz
341 gzip -cd genevent-0.2.tar.gz | tar xvof -
347 * Add new events to the kernel with genevent
350 cd /usr/local/share/LinuxTraceToolkitViewer/facilities
351 cp process.xml yourfacility.xml
352 * edit yourfacility.xml to fit your needs.
354 /usr/local/bin/genevent /usr/local/share/LinuxTraceToolkitViewer/yourfacility.xml
355 cp ltt-facility-yourfacility.h ltt-facility-id-yourfacility.h \
356 /usr/src/linux-2.6.12-rc4-mm2-lttng-0.4.2/include/linux/ltt
357 cp ltt-facility-loader-yourfacility.c ltt-facility-loader-yourfacility.h \
358 /usr/src/linux-2.6.12-rc4-mm2-lttng-0.4.2/ltt
359 * edit the kernel file you want to instrument
360 - Add #include <linux/ltt/ltt-facility-yourfacility.h> at the beginning
362 - Add a call to the tracing functions. See their names and parameters in
363 /usr/src/linux-2.6.12-rc4-mm2-lttng-0.4.2/include/linux/ltt/ltt-facility-yourfacility.h