Difference between revisions of "Kernel Instrumentation"

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Here is a listing of some instrumentation systems for the kernel:
 
Here is a listing of some instrumentation systems for the kernel:
  
==Existing Timing Instrumentation Systems ==
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== Existing Instrumentation Systems ==
 
=== TimePegs ===
 
=== TimePegs ===
 
Andrew Morton's system for measuring intervals between kernel events:
 
Andrew Morton's system for measuring intervals between kernel events:

Revision as of 06:40, 14 November 2008

Here is a listing of some instrumentation systems for the kernel:

Existing Instrumentation Systems

TimePegs

Andrew Morton's system for measuring intervals between kernel events:

See http://www.zipworld.com.au/~akpm/linux/timepeg.txt

Patches at:

http://www.zip.com.au/~akpm/linux/index.html#timepegs

Printk Times

Produces printk's with extra time data on them.

This is a very simple patch, which works for bootup time measurements, or other places where you can just jam in a printk or two.

See Printk Times

Kernel Function Instrumentation (KFI)

A system which uses a compiler flag to instrument most of the functions in the kernel. Timing data is recorded at each function entry and exit. The data can be extracted and displayed later with a command-line program.

The kernel portion of this is available in the CELF tree now.

Grep for CONFIG_KFI.

See the page Kernel Function Instrumentation page for some preliminary notes.

FIXTHIS - need to isolate this as a patch.

Linux Trace Toolkit

See Linux Trace Toolkit

Kernel Tracer (in IKD patch)

This is part of a general kernel tools package, maintained by Andrea Arcangeli.

See http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/people/andrea/ikd/README

The ktrace implementation is in the file kernel/debug/profiler.c It was originally written by Ingo Molnar, Richard Henderson and/or Andrea Arcangeli

It uses the compiler flag -pg to add profiling instrumentation to the kernel.

Function trace in KDB

Last year (Jan 2002) Jim Houston sent a patch to the kernel mailing list which provides support compiler-instrumented function calls.

See http://www.ussg.iu.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/0201.3/0888.html

Notes

Some random thoughts on instrumentation:

  • Most instrumentation systems need lots of memory to buffer the data produced
  • Some instrumentation systems support filters or triggers to allow for better control over the information saved
  • instrumentation systems tend to introduce overhead or otherwise interfere with the thing they are measuring
    • instrumentation systems tend to pollute the cache lines for the processor
  • There doesn't seem to be a single API to support in-kernel timing instrumentation which is supported on lots of different architectures. This is the main reason for CELF's current project to define an Instrumentation API