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diff --git a/Documentation/process/debugging/userspace_debugging_guide.rst b/Documentation/process/debugging/userspace_debugging_guide.rst new file mode 100644 index 000000000000..db7396261e07 --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/process/debugging/userspace_debugging_guide.rst @@ -0,0 +1,280 @@ +.. SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0 + +========================== +Userspace debugging advice +========================== + +This document provides a brief overview of common tools to debug the Linux +Kernel from userspace. +For debugging advice aimed at driver developers go :doc:`here +</process/debugging/driver_development_debugging_guide>`. +For general debugging advice, see :doc:`general advice document +</process/debugging/index>`. + +.. contents:: + :depth: 3 + +The following sections show you the available tools. + +Dynamic debug +------------- + +Mechanism to filter what ends up in the kernel log by dis-/en-abling log +messages. + +Prerequisite: ``CONFIG_DYNAMIC_DEBUG`` + +Dynamic debug is only able to target: + +- pr_debug() +- dev_dbg() +- print_hex_dump_debug() +- print_hex_dump_bytes() + +Therefore the usability of this tool is, as of now, quite limited as there is +no uniform rule for adding debug prints to the codebase, resulting in a variety +of ways these prints are implemented. + +Also, note that most debug statements are implemented as a variation of +dprintk(), which have to be activated via a parameter in respective module, +dynamic debug is unable to do that step for you. + +Here is one example, that enables all available pr_debug()'s within the file:: + + $ alias ddcmd='echo $* > /proc/dynamic_debug/control' + $ ddcmd '-p; file v4l2-h264.c +p' + $ grep =p /proc/dynamic_debug/control + drivers/media/v4l2-core/v4l2-h264.c:372 [v4l2_h264]print_ref_list_b =p + "ref_pic_list_b%u (cur_poc %u%c) %s" + drivers/media/v4l2-core/v4l2-h264.c:333 [v4l2_h264]print_ref_list_p =p + "ref_pic_list_p (cur_poc %u%c) %s\n" + +**When should you use this over Ftrace ?** + +- When the code contains one of the valid print statements (see above) or when + you have added multiple pr_debug() statements during development +- When timing is not an issue, meaning if multiple pr_debug() statements in + the code won't cause delays +- When you care more about receiving specific log messages than tracing the + pattern of how a function is called + +For the full documentation see :doc:`/admin-guide/dynamic-debug-howto` + +Ftrace +------ + +Prerequisite: ``CONFIG_DYNAMIC_FTRACE`` + +This tool uses the tracefs file system for the control files and output files. +That file system will be mounted as a ``tracing`` directory, which can be found +in either ``/sys/kernel/`` or ``/sys/debug/kernel/``. + +Some of the most important operations for debugging are: + +- You can perform a function trace by adding a function name to the + ``set_ftrace_filter`` file (which accepts any function name found within the + ``available_filter_functions`` file) or you can specifically disable certain + functions by adding their names to the ``set_ftrace_notrace`` file (more info + at: :ref:`trace/ftrace:dynamic ftrace`). +- In order to find out where calls originate from you can activate the + ``func_stack_trace`` option under ``options/func_stack_trace``. +- Tracing the children of a function call and showing the return values are + possible by adding the desired function in the ``set_graph_function`` file + (requires config ``FUNCTION_GRAPH_RETVAL``); more info at + :ref:`trace/ftrace:dynamic ftrace with the function graph tracer`. + +For the full Ftrace documentation see :doc:`/trace/ftrace` + +Or you could also trace for specific events by :ref:`using event tracing +<trace/events:2. using event tracing>`, which can be defined as described here: +:ref:`Creating a custom Ftrace tracepoint +<process/debugging/driver_development_debugging_guide:ftrace>`. + +For the full Ftrace event tracing documentation see :doc:`/trace/events` + +.. _read_ftrace_log: + +Reading the ftrace log +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +The ``trace`` file can be read just like any other file (``cat``, ``tail``, +``head``, ``vim``, etc.), the size of the file is limited by the +``buffer_size_kb`` (``echo 1000 > buffer_size_kb``). The +:ref:`trace/ftrace:trace_pipe` will behave similarly to the ``trace`` file, but +whenever you read from the file the content is consumed. + +Kernelshark +~~~~~~~~~~~ + +A GUI interface to visualize the traces as a graph and list view from the +output of the `trace-cmd +<https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/utils/trace-cmd/trace-cmd.git/>`__ application. + +For the full documentation see `<https://kernelshark.org/Documentation.html>`__ + +Perf & alternatives +------------------- + +The tools mentioned above provide ways to inspect kernel code, results, +variable values, etc. Sometimes you have to find out first where to look and +for those cases, a box of performance tracking tools can help you to frame the +issue. + +Why should you do a performance analysis? +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +A performance analysis is a good first step when among other reasons: + +- you cannot define the issue +- you do not know where it occurs +- the running system should not be interrupted or it is a remote system, where + you cannot install a new module/kernel + +How to do a simple analysis with linux tools? +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +For the start of a performance analysis, you can start with the usual tools +like: + +- ``top`` / ``htop`` / ``atop`` (*get an overview of the system load, see + spikes on specific processes*) +- ``mpstat -P ALL`` (*look at the load distribution among CPUs*) +- ``iostat -x`` (*observe input and output devices utilization and performance*) +- ``vmstat`` (*overview of memory usage on the system*) +- ``pidstat`` (*similar to* ``vmstat`` *but per process, to dial it down to the + target*) +- ``strace -tp $PID`` (*once you know the process, you can figure out how it + communicates with the Kernel*) + +These should help to narrow down the areas to look at sufficiently. + +Diving deeper with perf +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +The **perf** tool provides a series of metrics and events to further dial down +on issues. + +Prerequisite: build or install perf on your system + +Gather statistics data for finding all files starting with ``gcc`` in ``/usr``:: + + # perf stat -d find /usr -name 'gcc*' | wc -l + + Performance counter stats for 'find /usr -name gcc*': + + 1277.81 msec task-clock # 0.997 CPUs utilized + 9 context-switches # 7.043 /sec + 1 cpu-migrations # 0.783 /sec + 704 page-faults # 550.943 /sec + 766548897 cycles # 0.600 GHz (97.15%) + 798285467 instructions # 1.04 insn per cycle (97.15%) + 57582731 branches # 45.064 M/sec (2.85%) + 3842573 branch-misses # 6.67% of all branches (97.15%) + 281616097 L1-dcache-loads # 220.390 M/sec (97.15%) + 4220975 L1-dcache-load-misses # 1.50% of all L1-dcache accesses (97.15%) + <not supported> LLC-loads + <not supported> LLC-load-misses + + 1.281746009 seconds time elapsed + + 0.508796000 seconds user + 0.773209000 seconds sys + + + 52 + +The availability of events and metrics depends on the system you are running. + +For the full documentation see +`<https://perf.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/Main_Page>`__ + +Perfetto +~~~~~~~~ + +A set of tools to measure and analyze how well applications and systems perform. +You can use it to: + +* identify bottlenecks +* optimize code +* make software run faster and more efficiently. + +**What is the difference between perfetto and perf?** + +* perf is tool as part of and specialized for the Linux Kernel and has CLI user + interface. +* perfetto cross-platform performance analysis stack, has extended + functionality into userspace and provides a WEB user interface. + +For the full documentation see `<https://perfetto.dev/docs/>`__ + +Kernel panic analysis tools +--------------------------- + + To capture the crash dump please use ``Kdump`` & ``Kexec``. Below you can find + some advice for analysing the data. + + For the full documentation see the :doc:`/admin-guide/kdump/kdump` + + In order to find the corresponding line in the code you can use `faddr2line + <https://elixir.bootlin.com/linux/v6.11.6/source/scripts/faddr2line>`__; note + that you need to enable ``CONFIG_DEBUG_INFO`` for that to work. + + An alternative to using ``faddr2line`` is the use of ``objdump`` (and its + derivatives for the different platforms like ``aarch64-linux-gnu-objdump``). + Take this line as an example: + + ``[ +0.000240] rkvdec_device_run+0x50/0x138 [rockchip_vdec]``. + + We can find the corresponding line of code by executing:: + + aarch64-linux-gnu-objdump -dS drivers/staging/media/rkvdec/rockchip-vdec.ko | grep rkvdec_device_run\>: -A 40 + 0000000000000ac8 <rkvdec_device_run>: + ac8: d503201f nop + acc: d503201f nop + { + ad0: d503233f paciasp + ad4: a9bd7bfd stp x29, x30, [sp, #-48]! + ad8: 910003fd mov x29, sp + adc: a90153f3 stp x19, x20, [sp, #16] + ae0: a9025bf5 stp x21, x22, [sp, #32] + const struct rkvdec_coded_fmt_desc *desc = ctx->coded_fmt_desc; + ae4: f9411814 ldr x20, [x0, #560] + struct rkvdec_dev *rkvdec = ctx->dev; + ae8: f9418015 ldr x21, [x0, #768] + if (WARN_ON(!desc)) + aec: b4000654 cbz x20, bb4 <rkvdec_device_run+0xec> + ret = pm_runtime_resume_and_get(rkvdec->dev); + af0: f943d2b6 ldr x22, [x21, #1952] + ret = __pm_runtime_resume(dev, RPM_GET_PUT); + af4: aa0003f3 mov x19, x0 + af8: 52800081 mov w1, #0x4 // #4 + afc: aa1603e0 mov x0, x22 + b00: 94000000 bl 0 <__pm_runtime_resume> + if (ret < 0) { + b04: 37f80340 tbnz w0, #31, b6c <rkvdec_device_run+0xa4> + dev_warn(rkvdec->dev, "Not good\n"); + b08: f943d2a0 ldr x0, [x21, #1952] + b0c: 90000001 adrp x1, 0 <rkvdec_try_ctrl-0x8> + b10: 91000021 add x1, x1, #0x0 + b14: 94000000 bl 0 <_dev_warn> + *bad = 1; + b18: d2800001 mov x1, #0x0 // #0 + ... + + Meaning, in this line from the crash dump:: + + [ +0.000240] rkvdec_device_run+0x50/0x138 [rockchip_vdec] + + I can take the ``0x50`` as offset, which I have to add to the base address + of the corresponding function, which I find in this line:: + + 0000000000000ac8 <rkvdec_device_run>: + + The result of ``0xac8 + 0x50 = 0xb18`` + And when I search for that address within the function I get the + following line:: + + *bad = 1; + b18: d2800001 mov x1, #0x0 + +**Copyright** ©2024 : Collabora |