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+<html>
+<head>
+ <title>Linux Trace Toolkit Quickstart</title>
+</head>
+ <body>
+
+<h1>Linux Trace Toolkit Quickstart</h1>
+
+
+Author : Mathieu Desnoyers, September 2005<br>
+Last update : January 9th, 2009<br>
+
+<p>
+This document is made of four parts : the first one explains how to install
+LTTng and LTTV from Debian and RPM binary packages, the second one explains how
+to install LTTng and LTTV from sources and the third one describes the steps
+to follow to trace a system and view it. The fourth and last part explains
+briefly how to add a new trace point to the kernel and to user space
+applications.
+
+<p>
+What you will typically want is to read sections 2 and 3 : install LTTng from
+sources and use it.
+
+<p>
+These operations are made for installing the LTTng 0.74 tracer on a linux 2.6.X
+kernel. You will also find instructions for installation of LTTV 0.12.x : the
+Linux Trace Toolkit Viewer.
+
+<p>
+To see the list of compatibilities between LTTng, ltt-control, LTTV and
+markers-userspace, please refer to :
+<a
+href="http://ltt.polymtl.ca/svn/trunk/lttv/doc/developer/lttng-lttv-compatibility.html">LTTng+LTTV versions compatibility</a>
+
+
+<p>
+The following lttng patch is necessary to have the tracing hooks in the kernel.
+The following ltt-control module controls the tracing.
+
+<p>
+Required programs and libraries are assumed to be automatically installed in an
+installation with Debian or RPM packages. In the case of an installation from
+sources, the dependencies are listed.
+
+
+** Current development status **<br>
+<br>
+LTTng :<br>
+Supported architectures :
+<li> x86 32/64 bits
+<li> PowerPC 32 and 64 bits
+<li> ARM (with limited timestamping precision, e.g. 1HZ. Need
+architecture-specific support for better precision)
+<li> MIPS
+<br>
+LTTV :<br>
+supported architectures :<br>
+<li> Intel 32/64 bits
+<li> PowerPC 32 and 64 bits
+<li> Possibly others. Takes care of endianness and type size difference between
+the LTTng traces and the LTTV analysis tool.
+
+***********************************************************
+** Section 1 * Installation from Debian or RPM packages **
+***********************************************************
+
+* Create custom LTTV Debian packages
+
+Use : dpkg-buildpackage -rfakeroot
+
+You should then have your LTTV .deb files created for your architecture.
+
+* Create custom LTTng packages
+
+For building LTTng Debian packages :
+
+Get the build tree with patches applies as explained in section 2.
+
+make menuconfig (or xconfig or config) (customize your configuration)
+make-kpkg kernel_image
+
+You will then see your freshly created .deb in /usr/src. Install it with
+dpkg -i /usr/src/(image-name).deb
+
+Then, follow the section "Editing the system wide configuration" in section 2.
+
+
+***********************************************************
+** Section 2 * Installation from sources **
+***********************************************************
+
+* Prerequisites
+
+Tools needed to follow the package download steps :
+
+o wget
+o bzip2
+o gzip
+o tar
+
+You have to install the standard development libraries and programs necessary
+to compile a kernel :
+
+(from Documentation/Changes in the Linux kernel tree)
+o Gnu C 2.95.3 # gcc --version
+o Gnu make 3.79.1 # make --version
+o binutils 2.12 # ld -v
+o util-linux 2.10o # fdformat --version
+o module-init-tools 0.9.10 # depmod -V
+
+You might also want to have libncurses5 to have the text mode kernel
+configuration menu, but there are alternatives.
+
+Prerequisites for LTTV 0.x.x installation are :
+
+gcc 3.2 or better
+gtk 2.4 or better development libraries
+ (Debian : libgtk2.0, libgtk2.0-dev)
+ (Fedora : gtk2, gtk2-devel)
+ note : For Fedora users : this might require at least core 3 from Fedora,
+ or you might have to compile your own GTK2 library.
+glib 2.4 or better development libraries
+ (Debian : libglib2.0-0, libglib2.0-dev)
+ (Fedora : glib2, glib2-devel)
+libpopt development libraries
+ (Debian : libpopt0, libpopt-dev)
+ (Fedora : popt)
+libpango development libraries
+ (Debian : libpango1.0, libpango1.0-dev)
+ (Fedora : pango, pango-devel)
+libc6 development librairies
+ (Debian : libc6, libc6-dev)
+ (Fedora : glibc, glibc)
+
+* Reminder
+
+See the list of compatibilities between LTTng, ltt-control, LTTV and
+markers-userspace at :
+http://ltt.polymtl.ca > LTTng+LTTV versions compatibility
+
+
+
+* Getting the LTTng packages
+
+su -
+mkdir /usr/src/lttng
+cd /usr/src/lttng
+(see http://ltt.polymtl.ca/lttng for package listing)
+wget http://ltt.polymtl.ca/lttng/patch-2.6.X-lttng-0.x.xx.tar.bz2
+bzip2 -cd patch-2.6.X-lttng-0.x.xx.tar.bz2 | tar xvof -
+
+
+* Getting LTTng kernel sources
+
+su -
+cd /usr/src
+wget http://kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.6/linux-2.6.X.tar.bz2
+bzip2 -cd linux-2.6.X.tar.bz2 | tar xvof -
+cd linux-2.6.X
+- For LTTng 0.9.4- cat /usr/src/lttng/patch*-2.6.X-lttng-0.x.xx* | patch -p1
+- For LTTng 0.9.5+ apply the patches in the order specified in the series file,
+ or use quilt
+cd ..
+mv linux-2.6.X linux-2.6.X-lttng-0.x.xx
+
+
+* Installing a LTTng kernel
+
+su -
+cd /usr/src/linux-2.6.X-lttng-0.x.xx
+make menuconfig (or make xconfig or make config)
+ Select the < Help > button if you are not familiar with kernel
+ configuration.
+ Items preceded by [*] means they has to be built into the kernel.
+ Items preceded by [M] means they has to be built as modules.
+ Items preceded by [ ] means they should be removed.
+ go to the "General setup" section
+ Select the following options :
+ [*] Prompt for development and/or incomplete code/drivers
+ [*] Activate markers
+ [*] Activate userspace markers ABI (experimental, optional)
+ [*] Immediate value optimization (optional)
+ [*] Linux Trace Toolkit Next Generation (LTTng) --->
+ <M> or <*> Compile lttng tracing probes
+ <M> or <*> Linux Trace Toolkit High-speed Lockless Data Relay
+ <M> or <*> Linux Trace Toolkit Lock-Protected Data Relay
+ <M> or <*> Linux Trace Toolkit Serializer
+ <M> or <*> Linux Trace Toolkit Marker Control
+ <M> or <*> Linux Trace Toolkit Tracer
+ [*] Align Linux Trace Toolkit Traces
+ <M> or <*> Support logging events from userspace
+ [*] Support trace extraction from crash dump
+ <M> or <*> Linux Trace Toolkit Trace Controller
+ <M> or <*> Linux Trace Toolkit State Dump
+ Select <Exit>
+ Select <Exit>
+ Select <Yes>
+make
+make modules_install
+(if necessary, create a initrd with mkinitrd or your preferate alternative)
+(mkinitrd -o /boot/initrd.img-2.6.X-lttng-0.x.xx 2.6.X-lttng-0.x.xx)
+
+-- on X86, X86_64
+make install
+reboot
+Select the Linux 2.6.X-lttng-0.x.xx kernel in your boot loader.
+
+-- on PowerPC
+cp vmlinux.strip /boot/vmlinux-2.6.X-lttng-0.x.xx
+cp System.map /boot/System.map-2.6.X-lttng-0.x.xx
+cp .config /boot/config-2.6.X-lttng-0.x.xx
+depmod -ae -F /boot/System.map-2.6.X-lttng-0.x.xx 2.6.X-lttng-0.x.xx
+mkinitrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.X-lttng-0.x.xx 2.6.X-lttng-0.x.xx
+(edit /etc/yaboot.conf to add a new entry pointing to your kernel : the entry
+that comes first is the default kernel)
+ybin
+select the right entry at the yaboot prompt (see choices : tab, select : type
+the kernel name followed by enter)
+Select the Linux 2.6.X-lttng-0.x.xx kernel in your boot loader.
+--
+
+
+
+* Editing the system wide configuration
+
+You must activate debugfs and specify a mount point. This is typically done in
+fstab such that it happens at boot time.
+
+If you have never used DebugFS before, these operation would do this for you :
+
+mkdir /mnt/debugfs
+cp /etc/fstab /etc/fstab.lttng.bkp
+echo "debugfs /mnt/debugfs debugfs rw 0 0" >> /etc/fstab
+
+then, rebooting or issuing the following command will activate debugfs :
+
+mount /mnt/debugfs
+
+You need to load the LTT modules to be able to control tracing from user
+space. This is done by issuing the following commands. Note however
+these commands load all LTT modules. Depending on what options you chose to
+compile statically, you may not need to issue all these commands.
+
+modprobe ltt-trace-control
+modprobe ltt-marker-control
+modprobe ltt-tracer
+modprobe ltt-serialize
+modprobe ltt-relay
+modprobe ipc-trace
+modprobe kernel-trace
+modprobe mm-trace
+modprobe net-trace
+modprobe fs-trace
+modprobe jbd2-trace
+modprobe ext4-trace
+modprobe syscall-trace
+modprobe trap-trace
+#if locking tracing is wanted, uncomment the following
+#modprobe lockdep-trace
+
+If you want to have complete information about the kernel state (including all
+the process names), you need to load the ltt-statedump module. This is done by
+issuing the command :
+
+modprobe ltt-statedump
+
+You can automate at boot time loading the ltt-control module by :
+
+cp /etc/modules /etc/modules.bkp
+echo ltt-trace-control >> /etc/modules
+echo ltt-marker-control >> /etc/modules
+echo ltt-tracer >> /etc/modules
+echo ltt-serialize >> /etc/modules
+echo ltt-relay >> /etc/modules
+echo ipc-trace >> /etc/modules
+echo kernel-trace >> /etc/modules
+echo mm-trace >> /etc/modules
+echo net-trace >> /etc/modules
+echo fs-trace >> /etc/modules
+echo jbd2-trace >> /etc/modules
+echo ext4-trace >> /etc/modules
+echo syscall-trace >> /etc/modules
+echo trap-trace >> /etc/modules
+#if locking tracing is wanted, uncomment the following
+#echo lockdep-trace >> /etc/modules
+
+
+* Getting and installing the ltt-control package (on the traced machine)
+(note : the ltt-control package contains lttd and lttctl. Although it has the
+same name as the ltt-control kernel module, they are *not* the same thing.)
+su -
+cd /usr/src
+wget http://ltt.polymtl.ca/lttng/ltt-control-0.x-xxxx2006.tar.gz
+gzip -cd ltt-control-0.x-xxxx2008.tar.gz | tar xvof -
+cd ltt-control-0.x-xxxx2006
+(refer to README to see the development libraries that must be installed on you
+system)
+./configure
+make
+make install
+
+
+* Userspace tracing
+
+Make sure you selected the kernel menuconfig option :
+ <M> or <*> Support logging events from userspace
+And that the ltt-userspace-event kernel module is loaded if selected as a
+module.
+
+Simple userspace tracing is available through
+echo "some text to record" > /mnt/debugfs/ltt/write_event
+
+It will appear in the trace under event :
+channel : userspace
+event name : event
+
+
+* Getting and installing the LTTV package (on the visualisation machine, same or
+ different from the visualisation machine)
+
+su -
+cd /usr/src
+wget http://ltt.polymtl.ca/packages/lttv-0.x.xx-xxxx2008.tar.gz
+gzip -cd lttv-0.x.xx-xxxx2008.tar.gz | tar xvof -
+cd lttv-0.x.xx-xxxx2008
+(refer to README to see the development libraries that must be installed on your
+system)
+./configure
+make
+make install
+
+
+* Getting and installing the markers-userspace package for user space tracing
+(experimental)
+See http://ltt.polymtl.ca/packages/markers-userspace-0.5.tar.bz2 or more recent.
+
+
+
+***********************************************************
+** Section 3 * Using LTTng and LTTV **
+***********************************************************
+
+* IMPORTANT : Arm Linux Kernel Markers after each boot
+
+ltt-armall
+
+* Use graphical LTTV to control tracing and analyse traces
+
+lttv-gui (or /usr/local/bin/lttv-gui)
+ - Spot the "Tracing Control" icon : click on it
+ (it's a traffic light icon)
+ - enter the root password
+ - click "start"
+ - click "stop"
+ - Yes
+ * You should now see a trace
+
+* Use text mode LTTng to control tracing
+
+The tracing can be controlled from a terminal by using the lttctl command (as
+root).
+
+Start tracing :
+
+lttctl -C -w /tmp/trace1 trace1
+
+Stop tracing and destroy trace channels :
+
+lttctl -D trace1
+
+see lttctl --help for details.
+
+(note : to see if the buffers has been filled, look at the dmesg output after
+lttctl -R or after stopping tracing from the GUI, it will show an event lost
+count. If it is the case, try using larger buffers. See lttctl --help to learn
+how. lttv now also shows event lost messages in the console when loading a trace
+with missing events or lost subbuffers.)
+
+* Use text mode LTTV
+
+Feel free to look in /usr/local/lib/lttv/plugins to see all the text and
+graphical plugins available.
+
+For example, a simple trace dump in text format is available with :
+
+lttv -m textDump -t /tmp/trace
+
+see lttv -m textDump --help for detailed command line options of textDump.
+
+It is, in the current state of the project, very useful to use "grep" on the
+text output to filter by specific event fields. You can later copy the timestamp
+of the events to the clipboard and paste them in the GUI by clicking on the
+bottom right label "Current time". Support for this type of filtering should
+be added to the filter module soon.
+
+* Hybrid mode
+
+Starting from LTTng 0.5.105 and ltt-control 0.20, a new mode can be used :
+hybrid. It can be especially useful when studying big workloads on a long period
+of time.
+
+When using this mode, the most important, low rate control information will be
+recorded during all the trace by lttd (i.e. process creation/exit). The high
+rate information (i.e. interrupt/traps/syscall entry/exit) will be kept in a
+flight recorder buffer (now named flight-channelname_X).
+
+The following lttctl commands take an hybrid trace :
+
+Create trace channel, start lttd on normal channels, start tracing:
+lttctl -C -w /tmp/trace2 -o channel.kernel.overwrite=1 trace2
+
+Stop tracing, start lttd on flight recorder channels, destroy trace channels :
+lttctl -D -w /tmp/trace2 trace2
+
+Each "overwrite" channel is flight recorder channel.
+
+* Flight recorder mode
+
+The flight recorder mode writes data into overwritten buffers for all channels,
+including control channels, except for the facilities tracefiles. It consists of
+setting all channels to "overwrite".
+
+The following lttctl commands take a flight recorder trace :
+
+lttctl -C -w /tmp/trace3 -o channel.all.overwrite=1 trace3
+...
+lttctl -D -w /tmp/trace3 trace3
+
+
+**************************************************************
+** Section 4 * Adding new instrumentations with the markers **
+**************************************************************
+
+See Documentation/markers.txt and Documentation/tracepoints.txt in your kernel
+tree.
+
+* Add new events to userspace programs with userspace markers
+http://ltt.polymtl.ca/packages/
+
+Get the latest markers-userspace-*.tar.bz2 and see the Makefile and examples. It
+allows inserting markers in executables and libraries, currently only on x86_32
+and x86_64.
+
+ </body>
+</html>
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