This patchset introduces a new tracing backend "ftrace". Currently, QEMU tracing backends do not support userspace tracing with ftrace. Collecting QEMU trace data and kernel trace data simultaneouly is useful for latency analysis and debugging especially when using KVM.
With ftrace backend, you can easily collect QEMU-kernel merged trace data using existing ftrace event-based tracer. If you use KVM, you can effectively compare VM_EXIT and QEMU userspace handler. To try it out, compile QEMU with tracing backend ftrace, then enable KVM events in ftrace: # echo 1 > /sys/kernel/debug/tracing/events/kvm/enable After running qemu by root user, you can get the trace: # cat /sys/kernel/debug/tracing/trace Example: # tracer: nop # # entries-in-buffer/entries-written: 8434/345512 #P:4 # # _-----=> irqs-off # / _----=> need-resched # | / _---=> hardirq/softirq # || / _--=> preempt-depth # ||| / delay # TASK-PID CPU# |||| TIMESTAMP FUNCTION # | | | |||| | | <snip> qemu-system-x86-31930 [000] d... 23580.595951: kvm_exit: reason IO_INSTRUCTION rip 0xc45d info 710048 0 qemu-system-x86-31930 [000] .... 23580.595954: kvm_emulate_insn: f0000:c45d:e4 71 (real) qemu-system-x86-31930 [000] .... 23580.595955: kvm_pio: pio_read at 0x71 size 1 count 1 qemu-system-x86-31930 [000] .... 23580.595956: kvm_userspace_exit: reason KVM_EXIT_IO (2) qemu-system-x86-31930 [000] ...1 23580.595959: tracing_mark_write: cpu_set_apic_base 00000000fee00900 qemu-system-x86-31930 [000] ...1 23580.595961: tracing_mark_write: cpu_in addr 0x71 value 0 qemu-system-x86-31930 [000] d... 23580.595964: kvm_entry: vcpu 0 <snip> "tracing_mark_write: cpu_set_apic_base 00000000fee00900" and "tracing_mark_write: cpu_in addr 0x71 value 0" are QEMU trace data. Others are Kernel trace data. Furthermore, the ftrace backend overhead is smaller than uprobe-based event tracer or SystemTap. My microbenchmark shows that ftrace tracing backend overhead is about 0.8us per tracepoint, whereas uprobe-based event tracer or SystemTap overhead is about 2.0us. Changes in v2: * fix Stefan's mail address. * use snprintf return value not to waste trace buffer. Eiichi Tsukata (2): trace: Add ftrace tracing backend trace: document ftrace backend configure | 8 +++ docs/tracing.txt | 16 ++++++ scripts/tracetool/backend/ftrace.py | 54 +++++++++++++++++++ trace/Makefile.objs | 1 + trace/ftrace.c | 102 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ trace/ftrace.h | 10 ++++ 6 files changed, 191 insertions(+) create mode 100644 scripts/tracetool/backend/ftrace.py create mode 100644 trace/ftrace.c create mode 100644 trace/ftrace.h -- 1.8.1.4