diff --git a/Documentation/trace/index.rst b/Documentation/trace/index.rst index 338bc4d7cfab..036db96864d2 100644 --- a/Documentation/trace/index.rst +++ b/Documentation/trace/index.rst @@ -91,6 +91,17 @@ interactions. user_events uprobetracer +Remote Tracing +-------------- + +This section covers the framework to read compatible ring-buffers, written by +entities outside of the kernel (most likely firmware or hypervisor) + +.. toctree:: + :maxdepth: 1 + + remotes + Additional Resources -------------------- diff --git a/Documentation/trace/remotes.rst b/Documentation/trace/remotes.rst new file mode 100644 index 000000000000..1f9d764f69aa --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/trace/remotes.rst @@ -0,0 +1,66 @@ +.. SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0 + +=============== +Tracing Remotes +=============== + +:Author: Vincent Donnefort + +Overview +======== +Firmware and hypervisors are black boxes to the kernel. Having a way to see what +they are doing can be useful to debug both. This is where remote tracing buffers +come in. A remote tracing buffer is a ring buffer executed by the firmware or +hypervisor into memory that is memory mapped to the host kernel. This is similar +to how user space memory maps the kernel ring buffer but in this case the kernel +is acting like user space and the firmware or hypervisor is the "kernel" side. +With a trace remote ring buffer, the firmware and hypervisor can record events +for which the host kernel can see and expose to user space. + +Register a remote +================= +A remote must provide a set of callbacks `struct trace_remote_callbacks` whom +description can be found below. Those callbacks allows Tracefs to enable and +disable tracing and events, to load and unload a tracing buffer (a set of +ring-buffers) and to swap a reader page with the head page, which enables +consuming reading. + +.. kernel-doc:: include/linux/trace_remote.h + +Once registered, an instance will appear for this remote in the Tracefs +directory **remotes/**. Buffers can then be read using the usual Tracefs files +**trace_pipe** and **trace**. + +Declare a remote event +====================== +Macros are provided to ease the declaration of remote events, in a similar +fashion to in-kernel events. A declaration must provide an ID, a description of +the event arguments and how to print the event: + +.. code-block:: c + + REMOTE_EVENT(foo, EVENT_FOO_ID, + RE_STRUCT( + re_field(u64, bar) + ), + RE_PRINTK("bar=%lld", __entry->bar) + ); + +Then those events must be declared in a C file with the following: + +.. code-block:: c + + #define REMOTE_EVENT_INCLUDE_FILE foo_events.h + #include + +This will provide a `struct remote_event remote_event_foo` that can be given to +`trace_remote_register`. + +Registered events appear in the remote directory under **events/**. + +Simple ring-buffer +================== +A simple implementation for a ring-buffer writer can be found in +kernel/trace/simple_ring_buffer.c. + +.. kernel-doc:: include/linux/simple_ring_buffer.h