summaryrefslogtreecommitdiff
path: root/Documentation/vm
diff options
context:
space:
mode:
authorLinus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>2009-04-05 11:04:19 -0700
committerLinus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>2009-04-05 11:04:19 -0700
commit714f83d5d9f7c785f622259dad1f4fad12d64664 (patch)
tree20563541ae438e11d686b4d629074eb002a481b7 /Documentation/vm
parent8901e7ffc2fa78ede7ce9826dbad68a3a25dc2dc (diff)
parent645dae969c3b8651c5bc7c54a1835ec03820f85f (diff)
downloadlinux-3.10-714f83d5d9f7c785f622259dad1f4fad12d64664.tar.gz
linux-3.10-714f83d5d9f7c785f622259dad1f4fad12d64664.tar.bz2
linux-3.10-714f83d5d9f7c785f622259dad1f4fad12d64664.zip
Merge branch 'tracing-for-linus' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/tip/linux-2.6-tip
* 'tracing-for-linus' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/tip/linux-2.6-tip: (413 commits) tracing, net: fix net tree and tracing tree merge interaction tracing, powerpc: fix powerpc tree and tracing tree interaction ring-buffer: do not remove reader page from list on ring buffer free function-graph: allow unregistering twice trace: make argument 'mem' of trace_seq_putmem() const tracing: add missing 'extern' keywords to trace_output.h tracing: provide trace_seq_reserve() blktrace: print out BLK_TN_MESSAGE properly blktrace: extract duplidate code blktrace: fix memory leak when freeing struct blk_io_trace blktrace: fix blk_probes_ref chaos blktrace: make classic output more classic blktrace: fix off-by-one bug blktrace: fix the original blktrace blktrace: fix a race when creating blk_tree_root in debugfs blktrace: fix timestamp in binary output tracing, Text Edit Lock: cleanup tracing: filter fix for TRACE_EVENT_FORMAT events ftrace: Using FTRACE_WARN_ON() to check "freed record" in ftrace_release() x86: kretprobe-booster interrupt emulation code fix ... Fix up trivial conflicts in arch/parisc/include/asm/ftrace.h include/linux/memory.h kernel/extable.c kernel/module.c
Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation/vm')
-rw-r--r--Documentation/vm/kmemtrace.txt126
1 files changed, 126 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/vm/kmemtrace.txt b/Documentation/vm/kmemtrace.txt
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..a956d9b7f94
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Documentation/vm/kmemtrace.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,126 @@
+ kmemtrace - Kernel Memory Tracer
+
+ by Eduard - Gabriel Munteanu
+ <eduard.munteanu@linux360.ro>
+
+I. Introduction
+===============
+
+kmemtrace helps kernel developers figure out two things:
+1) how different allocators (SLAB, SLUB etc.) perform
+2) how kernel code allocates memory and how much
+
+To do this, we trace every allocation and export information to the userspace
+through the relay interface. We export things such as the number of requested
+bytes, the number of bytes actually allocated (i.e. including internal
+fragmentation), whether this is a slab allocation or a plain kmalloc() and so
+on.
+
+The actual analysis is performed by a userspace tool (see section III for
+details on where to get it from). It logs the data exported by the kernel,
+processes it and (as of writing this) can provide the following information:
+- the total amount of memory allocated and fragmentation per call-site
+- the amount of memory allocated and fragmentation per allocation
+- total memory allocated and fragmentation in the collected dataset
+- number of cross-CPU allocation and frees (makes sense in NUMA environments)
+
+Moreover, it can potentially find inconsistent and erroneous behavior in
+kernel code, such as using slab free functions on kmalloc'ed memory or
+allocating less memory than requested (but not truly failed allocations).
+
+kmemtrace also makes provisions for tracing on some arch and analysing the
+data on another.
+
+II. Design and goals
+====================
+
+kmemtrace was designed to handle rather large amounts of data. Thus, it uses
+the relay interface to export whatever is logged to userspace, which then
+stores it. Analysis and reporting is done asynchronously, that is, after the
+data is collected and stored. By design, it allows one to log and analyse
+on different machines and different arches.
+
+As of writing this, the ABI is not considered stable, though it might not
+change much. However, no guarantees are made about compatibility yet. When
+deemed stable, the ABI should still allow easy extension while maintaining
+backward compatibility. This is described further in Documentation/ABI.
+
+Summary of design goals:
+ - allow logging and analysis to be done across different machines
+ - be fast and anticipate usage in high-load environments (*)
+ - be reasonably extensible
+ - make it possible for GNU/Linux distributions to have kmemtrace
+ included in their repositories
+
+(*) - one of the reasons Pekka Enberg's original userspace data analysis
+ tool's code was rewritten from Perl to C (although this is more than a
+ simple conversion)
+
+
+III. Quick usage guide
+======================
+
+1) Get a kernel that supports kmemtrace and build it accordingly (i.e. enable
+CONFIG_KMEMTRACE).
+
+2) Get the userspace tool and build it:
+$ git-clone git://repo.or.cz/kmemtrace-user.git # current repository
+$ cd kmemtrace-user/
+$ ./autogen.sh
+$ ./configure
+$ make
+
+3) Boot the kmemtrace-enabled kernel if you haven't, preferably in the
+'single' runlevel (so that relay buffers don't fill up easily), and run
+kmemtrace:
+# '$' does not mean user, but root here.
+$ mount -t debugfs none /sys/kernel/debug
+$ mount -t proc none /proc
+$ cd path/to/kmemtrace-user/
+$ ./kmemtraced
+Wait a bit, then stop it with CTRL+C.
+$ cat /sys/kernel/debug/kmemtrace/total_overruns # Check if we didn't
+ # overrun, should
+ # be zero.
+$ (Optionally) [Run kmemtrace_check separately on each cpu[0-9]*.out file to
+ check its correctness]
+$ ./kmemtrace-report
+
+Now you should have a nice and short summary of how the allocator performs.
+
+IV. FAQ and known issues
+========================
+
+Q: 'cat /sys/kernel/debug/kmemtrace/total_overruns' is non-zero, how do I fix
+this? Should I worry?
+A: If it's non-zero, this affects kmemtrace's accuracy, depending on how
+large the number is. You can fix it by supplying a higher
+'kmemtrace.subbufs=N' kernel parameter.
+---
+
+Q: kmemtrace_check reports errors, how do I fix this? Should I worry?
+A: This is a bug and should be reported. It can occur for a variety of
+reasons:
+ - possible bugs in relay code
+ - possible misuse of relay by kmemtrace
+ - timestamps being collected unorderly
+Or you may fix it yourself and send us a patch.
+---
+
+Q: kmemtrace_report shows many errors, how do I fix this? Should I worry?
+A: This is a known issue and I'm working on it. These might be true errors
+in kernel code, which may have inconsistent behavior (e.g. allocating memory
+with kmem_cache_alloc() and freeing it with kfree()). Pekka Enberg pointed
+out this behavior may work with SLAB, but may fail with other allocators.
+
+It may also be due to lack of tracing in some unusual allocator functions.
+
+We don't want bug reports regarding this issue yet.
+---
+
+V. See also
+===========
+
+Documentation/kernel-parameters.txt
+Documentation/ABI/testing/debugfs-kmemtrace
+