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authorSteven Rostedt (VMware) <rostedt@goodmis.org>2019-02-11 15:00:48 -0500
committerSteven Rostedt (VMware) <rostedt@goodmis.org>2019-02-15 13:10:09 -0500
commitf79b3f338564e7674dbe6375bcf685c2ba483efe (patch)
tree481aa4a5340b5c1f3d9a167f06fce036ba08fbc7 /Documentation
parent85acbb21b9310043692cf18b1fd14067b5a25ccd (diff)
ftrace: Allow enabling of filters via index of available_filter_functions
Enabling of large number of functions by echoing in a large subset of the functions in available_filter_functions can take a very long time. The process requires testing all functions registered by the function tracer (which is in the 10s of thousands), and doing a kallsyms lookup to convert the ip address into a name, then comparing that name with the string passed in. When a function causes the function tracer to crash the system, a binary bisect of the available_filter_functions can be done to find the culprit. But this requires passing in half of the functions in available_filter_functions over and over again, which makes it basically a O(n^2) operation. With 40,000 functions, that ends up bing 1,600,000,000 opertions! And enabling this can take over 20 minutes. As a quick speed up, if a number is passed into one of the filter files, instead of doing a search, it just enables the function at the corresponding line of the available_filter_functions file. That is: # echo 50 > set_ftrace_filter # cat set_ftrace_filter x86_pmu_commit_txn # head -50 available_filter_functions | tail -1 x86_pmu_commit_txn This allows setting of half the available_filter_functions to take place in less than a second! # time seq 20000 > set_ftrace_filter real 0m0.042s user 0m0.005s sys 0m0.015s # wc -l set_ftrace_filter 20000 set_ftrace_filter Signed-off-by: Steven Rostedt (VMware) <rostedt@goodmis.org>
Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation')
-rw-r--r--Documentation/trace/ftrace.rst38
1 files changed, 38 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/trace/ftrace.rst b/Documentation/trace/ftrace.rst
index 6ce2763a2a3e..7c5e6d6ab5d1 100644
--- a/Documentation/trace/ftrace.rst
+++ b/Documentation/trace/ftrace.rst
@@ -233,6 +233,12 @@ of ftrace. Here is a list of some of the key files:
This interface also allows for commands to be used. See the
"Filter commands" section for more details.
+ As a speed up, since processing strings can't be quite expensive
+ and requires a check of all functions registered to tracing, instead
+ an index can be written into this file. A number (starting with "1")
+ written will instead select the same corresponding at the line position
+ of the "available_filter_functions" file.
+
set_ftrace_notrace:
This has an effect opposite to that of
@@ -2835,6 +2841,38 @@ Produces::
We can see that there's no more lock or preempt tracing.
+Selecting function filters via index
+------------------------------------
+
+Because processing of strings is expensive (the address of the function
+needs to be looked up before comparing to the string being passed in),
+an index can be used as well to enable functions. This is useful in the
+case of setting thousands of specific functions at a time. By passing
+in a list of numbers, no string processing will occur. Instead, the function
+at the specific location in the internal array (which corresponds to the
+functions in the "available_filter_functions" file), is selected.
+
+::
+
+ # echo 1 > set_ftrace_filter
+
+Will select the first function listed in "available_filter_functions"
+
+::
+
+ # head -1 available_filter_functions
+ trace_initcall_finish_cb
+
+ # cat set_ftrace_filter
+ trace_initcall_finish_cb
+
+ # head -50 available_filter_functions | tail -1
+ x86_pmu_commit_txn
+
+ # echo 1 50 > set_ftrace_filter
+ # cat set_ftrace_filter
+ trace_initcall_finish_cb
+ x86_pmu_commit_txn
Dynamic ftrace with the function graph tracer
---------------------------------------------