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+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
+<!DOCTYPE book PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.1.2//EN"
+ "http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.1.2/docbookx.dtd" []>
+
+<book id="Tracepoints">
+ <bookinfo>
+ <title>The Linux Kernel Tracepoint API</title>
+
+ <authorgroup>
+ <author>
+ <firstname>Jason</firstname>
+ <surname>Baron</surname>
+ <affiliation>
+ <address>
+ <email>jbaron@redhat.com</email>
+ </address>
+ </affiliation>
+ </author>
+ </authorgroup>
+
+ <legalnotice>
+ <para>
+ This documentation is free software; you can redistribute
+ it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public
+ License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either
+ version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later
+ version.
+ </para>
+
+ <para>
+ This program is distributed in the hope that it will be
+ useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied
+ warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
+ See the GNU General Public License for more details.
+ </para>
+
+ <para>
+ You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public
+ License along with this program; if not, write to the Free
+ Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston,
+ MA 02111-1307 USA
+ </para>
+
+ <para>
+ For more details see the file COPYING in the source
+ distribution of Linux.
+ </para>
+ </legalnotice>
+ </bookinfo>
+
+ <toc></toc>
+ <chapter id="intro">
+ <title>Introduction</title>
+ <para>
+ Tracepoints are static probe points that are located in strategic points
+ throughout the kernel. 'Probes' register/unregister with tracepoints
+ via a callback mechanism. The 'probes' are strictly typed functions that
+ are passed a unique set of parameters defined by each tracepoint.
+ </para>
+
+ <para>
+ From this simple callback mechanism, 'probes' can be used to profile, debug,
+ and understand kernel behavior. There are a number of tools that provide a
+ framework for using 'probes'. These tools include Systemtap, ftrace, and
+ LTTng.
+ </para>
+
+ <para>
+ Tracepoints are defined in a number of header files via various macros. Thus,
+ the purpose of this document is to provide a clear accounting of the available
+ tracepoints. The intention is to understand not only what tracepoints are
+ available but also to understand where future tracepoints might be added.
+ </para>
+
+ <para>
+ The API presented has functions of the form:
+ <function>trace_tracepointname(function parameters)</function>. These are the
+ tracepoints callbacks that are found throughout the code. Registering and
+ unregistering probes with these callback sites is covered in the
+ <filename>Documentation/trace/*</filename> directory.
+ </para>
+ </chapter>
+
+</book>