|
NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | OPTIONS | LIMITATIONS | ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES | FILES | EXIT STATUS | BUGS | RESOURCES | COPYRIGHTS | THANKS | AUTHORS | SEE ALSO | COLOPHON |
LTTNG-ENABLE-CHANN(1) LTTng Manual LTTNG-ENABLE-CHANN(1)
lttng-enable-channel - Create or enable LTTng channels
Create a Linux kernel channel:
lttng [GENERAL OPTIONS] enable-channel --kernel
[--overwrite] [--output=(mmap | splice)]
[--subbuf-size=SIZE] [--num-subbuf=COUNT]
[--switch-timer=PERIODUS] [--read-timer=PERIODUS]
[--tracefile-size=SIZE] [--tracefile-count=COUNT]
[--session=SESSION] CHANNEL
Create a user space channel:
lttng [GENERAL OPTIONS] enable-channel --userspace
[--overwrite] [--buffers-pid]
[--subbuf-size=SIZE] [--num-subbuf=COUNT]
[--switch-timer=PERIODUS] [--read-timer=PERIODUS]
[--tracefile-size=SIZE] [--tracefile-count=COUNT]
[--session=SESSION] CHANNEL
Enable existing channel(s):
lttng [GENERAL OPTIONS] enable-channel (--userspace | --kernel)
[--session=SESSION] CHANNEL[,CHANNEL]...
The lttng enable-channel command can create a new channel, or enable
one or more existing and disabled ones.
A channel is the owner of sub-buffers holding recorded events. Event,
rules, when created using lttng-enable-event(1), are always assigned
to a channel. When creating a new channel, many parameters related to
those sub-buffers can be fine-tuned. They are described in the
subsections below.
When CHANNEL does not name an existing channel, a channel named
CHANNEL is created. Otherwise, the disabled channel named CHANNEL is
enabled.
Note that the lttng-enable-event(1) command can automatically create
default channels when no channel exist.
A channel is always contained in a tracing session (see
lttng-create(1) for creating a tracing session). The session in which
a channel is created using lttng enable-channel can be specified
using the --session option. If the --session option is omitted, the
current tracing session is targeted.
Existing enabled channels can be disabled using
lttng-disable-channel(1). Channels of a given session can be listed
using lttng-list(1).
See the LIMITATIONS section below for a list of limitations of this
command to consider.
Event loss modes
LTTng tracers are non-blocking: when no empty sub-buffer exists,
losing events is acceptable when the alternative would be to cause
substantial delays in the instrumented application’s execution.
LTTng privileges performance over integrity, aiming at perturbing the
traced system as little as possible in order to make tracing of
subtle race conditions and rare interrupt cascades possible.
When it comes to losing events because no empty sub-buffer is
available, the channel’s event loss mode, specified by one of the
--discard and --overwrite options, determines what to do amongst:
Discard
Drop the newest events until a sub-buffer is released.
Overwrite
Clear the sub-buffer containing the oldest recorded events and
start recording the newest events there. This mode is sometimes
called flight recorder mode because it behaves like a flight
recorder: always keep a fixed amount of the latest data.
Which mechanism to choose depends on the context: prioritize the
newest or the oldest events in the ring buffer?
Beware that, in overwrite mode (--overwrite option), a whole
sub-buffer is abandoned as soon as a new event doesn’t find an empty
sub-buffer, whereas in discard mode (--discard option), only the
event that doesn’t fit is discarded.
Also note that a count of lost events is incremented and saved in the
trace itself when an event is lost in discard mode, whereas no
information is kept when a sub-buffer gets overwritten before being
committed.
The probability of losing events, if it is experience in a given
context, can be reduced by fine-tuning the sub-buffers count and size
(see next subsection).
Sub-buffers count and size
The --num-subbuf and --subbuf-size options respectively set the
number of sub-buffers and their individual size when creating a new
channel.
Note that there is a noticeable tracer’s CPU overhead introduced when
switching sub-buffers (marking a full one as consumable and switching
to an empty one for the following events to be recorded). Knowing
this, the following list presents a few practical situations along
with how to configure sub-buffers for them when creating a channel in
overwrite mode (--overwrite option):
High event throughput
In general, prefer bigger sub-buffers to lower the risk of losing
events. Having bigger sub-buffers also ensures a lower sub-buffer
switching frequency. The number of sub-buffers is only meaningful
if the channel is enabled in overwrite mode: in this case, if a
sub-buffer overwrite happens, the other sub-buffers are left
unaltered.
Low event throughput
In general, prefer smaller sub-buffers since the risk of losing
events is already low. Since events happen less frequently, the
sub-buffer switching frequency should remain low and thus the
tracer’s overhead should not be a problem.
Low memory system
If the target system has a low memory limit, prefer fewer first,
then smaller sub-buffers. Even if the system is limited in
memory, it is recommended to keep the sub-buffers as big as
possible to avoid a high sub-buffer switching frequency.
In discard mode (--discard option), the sub-buffers count parameter
is pointless: using two sub-buffers and setting their size according
to the requirements of the context is fine.
Switch and read timers
When a channel’s switch timer fires, a sub-buffer switch happens.
This timer may be used to ensure that event data is consumed and
committed to trace files periodically in case of a low event
throughput.
It’s also convenient when big sub-buffers are used to cope with
sporadic high event throughput, even if the throughput is normally
lower.
By default, a notification mechanism is used to signal a full
sub-buffer so that it can be consumed. When such notifications must
be avoided, for example in real-time applications, the channel’s read
timer can be used instead. When the read timer fires, sub-buffers are
checked for consumption when they are full.
Buffering scheme
In the user space tracing domain, two buffering schemes are available
when creating a channel:
Per-process buffering (--buffers-pid option)
Keep one ring buffer per process.
Per-user buffering (--buffers-uid option)
Keep one ring buffer for all the processes of a single user.
The per-process buffering scheme consumes more memory than the
per-user option if more than one process is instrumented for
LTTng-UST. However, per-process buffering ensures that one process
having a high event throughput won’t fill all the shared sub-buffers,
only its own.
The Linux kernel tracing domain only has one available buffering
scheme which is to use a single ring buffer for the whole system
(--buffers-global option).
Trace files limit and size
By default, trace files can grow as large as needed. The maximum size
of each trace file written by a channel can be set on creation using
the --tracefile-size option. When such a trace file’s size reaches
the channel’s fixed maximum size, another trace file is created to
hold the next recorded events. A file count is appended to each trace
file name in this case.
If the --tracefile-size option is used, the maximum number of created
trace files is unlimited. To limit them, the --tracefile-count option
can be used. This option is always used in conjunction with the
--tracefile-size option.
For example, consider this command:
lttng enable-channel --kernel --tracefile-size=4096 \
--tracefile-count=32 my-channel
Here, for each stream, the maximum size of each trace file is 4 kiB
and there can be a maximum of 32 different files. When there is no
space left in the last file, trace file rotation happens: the first
file is cleared and new sub-buffers containing events are written
there.
General options are described in lttng(1).
Domain
One of:
-k, --kernel
Enable channel in the Linux kernel domain.
-u, --userspace
Enable channel in the user space domain.
Target
-s SESSION, --session=SESSION
Create or enable channel in the tracing session named SESSION
instead of the current tracing session.
Event loss mode
One of:
--discard
Discard events when sub-buffers are full (default).
--overwrite
Flight recorder mode: always keep a fixed amount of the latest
data.
Sub-buffers
--num-subbuf=COUNT
Use COUNT sub-buffers. Rounded up to the next power of two.
Default values:
· --userspace and --buffers-uid options: 4
· --userspace and --buffers-pid options: 4
· --kernel option: 4
· metadata channel: 2
--subbuf-size=SIZE
Set the individual size of sub-buffers to SIZE bytes. The k
(kiB), M (MiB), and G (GiB) suffixes are supported. Rounded up to
the next power of two.
The minimum sub-buffer size, for each tracer, is the maximum
value between the default below and the system’s page size. The
following command shows the current system’s page size: getconf
PAGE_SIZE.
Default values:
· --userspace and --buffers-uid options: 131072
· --userspace and --buffers-pid options: 4096
· --kernel option: 262144
· metadata channel: 4096
--output=TYPE
Set channel’s output type to TYPE.
Available types: mmap (always available) and splice (only
available with the --kernel option).
Default values:
· --userspace and --buffers-uid options: mmap
· --userspace and --buffers-pid options: mmap
· --kernel option: splice
· metadata channel: mmap
Buffering scheme
One of:
--buffers-global
Use shared sub-buffers for the whole system (only available with
the --kernel option).
--buffers-pid
Use different sub-buffers for each traced process (only available
with the the --userspace option). This is the default buffering
scheme for user space channels.
--buffers-uid
Use shared sub-buffers for all the processes of the user running
the command (only available with the --userspace option).
Trace files
--tracefile-count=COUNT
Limit the number of trace files created by this channel to COUNT.
0 means unlimited. Default: 0.
Use this option in conjunction with the --tracefile-size option.
The file count within a stream is appended to each created trace
file. If COUNT files are created and more events need to be
recorded, the first trace file of the stream is cleared and used
again.
--tracefile-size=SIZE
Set the maximum size of each trace file written by this channel
within a stream to SIZE bytes. 0 means unlimited. Default: 0.
Note: traces generated with this option may inaccurately report
discarded events as of CTF 1.8.
Timers
--read-timer
Set the channel’s read timer’s period to PERIODUS µs. 0 means a
disabled read timer.
Default values:
· --userspace and --buffers-uid options: 0
· --userspace and --buffers-pid options: 0
· --kernel option: 200000
· metadata channel: 0
--switch-timer=PERIODUS
Set the channel’s switch timer’s period to PERIODUS µs. 0 means a
disabled switch timer.
Default values:
· --userspace and --buffers-uid options: 0
· --userspace and --buffers-pid options: 0
· --kernel option: 0
· metadata channel: 0
Program information
-h, --help
Show command help.
This option, like lttng-help(1), attempts to launch /usr/bin/man
to view the command’s man page. The path to the man pager can be
overridden by the LTTNG_MAN_BIN_PATH environment variable.
--list-options
List available command options.
As of this version of LTTng, it is not possible to perform the
following actions with the lttng enable-channel command:
· Reconfigure a channel once it is created.
· Re-enable a disabled channel once its tracing session has been
active at least once.
· Create a channel once its tracing session has been active at
least once.
· Create a user space channel with a given buffering scheme
(--buffers-uid or --buffers-pid options) and create a second user
space channel with a different buffering scheme in the same
tracing session.
LTTNG_ABORT_ON_ERROR
Set to 1 to abort the process after the first error is
encountered.
LTTNG_HOME
Overrides the $HOME environment variable. Useful when the user
running the commands has a non-writable home directory.
LTTNG_MAN_BIN_PATH
Absolute path to the man pager to use for viewing help
information about LTTng commands (using lttng-help(1) or lttng
COMMAND --help).
LTTNG_SESSION_CONFIG_XSD_PATH
Path in which the session.xsd session configuration XML schema
may be found.
LTTNG_SESSIOND_PATH
Full session daemon binary path.
The --sessiond-path option has precedence over this environment
variable.
Note that the lttng-create(1) command can spawn an LTTng session
daemon automatically if none is running. See lttng-sessiond(8) for
the environment variables influencing the execution of the session
daemon.
$LTTNG_HOME/.lttngrc
User LTTng runtime configuration.
This is where the per-user current tracing session is stored
between executions of lttng(1). The current tracing session can
be set with lttng-set-session(1). See lttng-create(1) for more
information about tracing sessions.
$LTTNG_HOME/lttng-traces
Default output directory of LTTng traces. This can be overridden
with the --output option of the lttng-create(1) command.
$LTTNG_HOME/.lttng
User LTTng runtime and configuration directory.
$LTTNG_HOME/.lttng/sessions
Default location of saved user tracing sessions (see
lttng-save(1) and lttng-load(1)).
/usr/local/etc/lttng/sessions
System-wide location of saved tracing sessions (see lttng-save(1)
and lttng-load(1)).
Note
$LTTNG_HOME defaults to $HOME when not explicitly set.
0
Success
1
Command error
2
Undefined command
3
Fatal error
4
Command warning (something went wrong during the command)
If you encounter any issue or usability problem, please report it on
the LTTng bug tracker <https://bugs.lttng.org/projects/lttng-tools>.
· LTTng project website <http://lttng.org>
· LTTng documentation <http://lttng.org/docs>
· Git repositories <http://git.lttng.org>
· GitHub organization <http://github.com/lttng>
· Continuous integration <http://ci.lttng.org/>
· Mailing list <http://lists.lttng.org> for support and
development: lttng-dev@lists.lttng.org
· IRC channel <irc://irc.oftc.net/lttng>: #lttng on irc.oftc.net
This program is part of the LTTng-tools project.
LTTng-tools is distributed under the GNU General Public License
version 2 <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/gpl-2.0.en.html>.
See the LICENSE <https://github.com/lttng/lttng-
tools/blob/master/LICENSE> file for details.
Special thanks to Michel Dagenais and the DORSAL laboratory
<http://www.dorsal.polymtl.ca/> at École Polytechnique de Montréal
for the LTTng journey.
Also thanks to the Ericsson teams working on tracing which helped us
greatly with detailed bug reports and unusual test cases.
LTTng-tools was originally written by Mathieu Desnoyers, Julien
Desfossez, and David Goulet. More people have since contributed to
it.
LTTng-tools is currently maintained by Jérémie Galarneau
<mailto:jeremie.galarneau@efficios.com>.
lttng-disable-channel(1), lttng(1)
This page is part of the LTTng-Tools ( LTTng tools) project.
Information about the project can be found at ⟨http://lttng.org/⟩.
It is not known how to report bugs for this man page; if you know,
please send a mail to man-pages@man7.org. This page was obtained
from the project's upstream Git repository
⟨git://git.lttng.org/lttng-tools.git⟩ on 2017-07-05. If you discover
any rendering problems in this HTML version of the page, or you
believe there is a better or more up-to-date source for the page, or
you have corrections or improvements to the information in this
COLOPHON (which is not part of the original manual page), send a mail
to man-pages@man7.org
LTTng 2.10.0-pre 05/03/2017 LTTNG-ENABLE-CHANN(1)
Pages that refer to this page: lttng(1), lttng-add-context(1), lttng-create(1), lttng-disable-channel(1), lttng-metadata(1), lttng-regenerate(1)