path: root/system_cmds/trace.tproj/trace.1

.\" Copyright (c) 2010, Apple Inc.  All rights reserved.
.\"
.Dd April 3, 2015
.Dt TRACE 1
.Os "Mac OS X"
.Sh NAME
.Nm trace
.Nd configure, record, and display kernel trace events
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.Bl -hang -compact -width "trace -"
.\"
.It Nm Fl d
.Op Fl a Ar pid | Fl x Ar pid
.\"
.It Nm Fl e
.Op Fl c Ar class Oo Fl p Ar end-class Oc Oo Fl s Ar subclass Oc
.Op Fl a Ar pid | Fl x Ar pid
.Op Fl k Ar code
.Op Fl P
.Op Fl T Ar filter-file
.\"
.It Nm Fl E
.Op Fl c Ar class Oo Fl p Ar end-class Oc Oo Fl s Ar subclass Oc
.Op Fl a Ar pid | Fl x Ar pid
.Op Fl k Ar code
.Op Fl P
.Op Fl T Ar tracefilter
.Ar command
.Op Ar argument ...
.\"
.It Nm Fl h
.\"
.It Nm Fl i
.Op Fl b Ar num-events
.\"
.It Nm Fl g
.\"
.It Nm Fl l Ar rawfile
.\"
.It Nm Fl L Ar rawfile
.Op Fl S Ar secs
.\"
.It Nm Fl n
.\"
.It Nm Fl r
.\"
.It Nm Fl R Ar rawfile
.Op Fl X
.Op Fl F Ar frequency
.Op Fl o Ar outfile
.Op Fl N
.Op Ar codesfile ...
.\"
.It Nm Fl t
.Op Fl o Ar outfile
.Op Fl N
.Op Ar codesfile ...
.El
.Sh DESCRIPTION
.Nm
initializes and configures the kernel trace subsystem.  Trace events can
be recorded to an in-memory buffer or logged directly to a file, and
optionally converted to a human-readable, plain-text format.
.Pp
.Nm
operates according to the command flag specified.
.Pp
NOTE:
.Nm
is obsolete.   The command you probably want is
.Xr ktrace 1
.Sh COMMANDS
.Bl -tag -width Ds
.It Fl h
Print a succinct help message to
.Xr stdout 4 .
.\"
.\"     ## trace -i ##
.It Fl i Op Fl b Ar num-events
.Pp
Initialize the kernel trace buffer.  This command is required before
tracing.
.Bl -tag -width Ds
.It Fl b Ar num-events
Set the number of events that can be stored in the kernel trace buffer.
.Ar num-events
is a decimal number of events.  The default (and minimum) value is 8192
event records per logical CPU.  No more than half of available
memory may be used by trace buffers, though running with a buffer this
large is not recommended.
.El
.\"
.\"     ## trace -g ##
.It Fl g
Print the current kernel trace buffer settings to
.Xr stdout 4 .
.\"
.\"     ## trace -d ##
.It Fl d Op Fl a Ar pid | Fl x Ar pid
.Pp
By default, disable collection of events.  This command does not remove
the kernel trace buffer.
.Bl -tag -width Ds
.It Fl a Ar pid
Disable event collection for the process identified by
.Ar pid .
.It Fl x Ar pid
Stop excluding
.Ar pid
from the trace.
This reenables event collection of events for.
.Ar pid .
.El
.\"
.\"     ## trace -r ##
.It Fl r
Remove the kernel trace buffer.
.\"
.\"     ## trace -n ##
.It Fl n
Disable ring buffer mode.  When set, the trace buffer will fill to capacity
and then stop collecting events.  Ring buffer mode is sometimes called
"head," "stop," or "no-wrap" mode.  By default, the trace buffer will
wrap around, overwriting previous events.  The default behavior is
sometimes called windowed or wrap-around mode.
.\"
.\"     ## trace -e ##
.Bk -words
.It Xo Fl e
.Op Fl c Ar class Oo Fl p Ar end-class Oc Oo Fl s Ar subclass Oc
.Op Fl a Ar pid | Fl x Ar pid
.Op Fl k Ar code ...
.Op Fl P
.Op Fl T Ar filter-file
.Ek
.Xc
.Pp
Enable collection of events.  By default, all events are collected.
.Pp
Options can be used to restrict collection to specific classes, class
ranges, subclasses, and codes.  Classes and subclasses can be specified
any number of times, but only 4 codes can be filtered at once.  Values
can be specified in hex (0x...), decimal, or octal (0...).
.Bl -tag -width " "
.It Fl c Ar class
Restrict collection to the events with the specified
.Ar class .
This option can be specified any number of times to collect events from
more classes.
.Bl -tag -width " "
.It Fl p Ar end-class
Provide an ending class to restrict collection to events in an inclusive
range of classes between
.Ar class
and
.Ar end-class .
.It Fl s Ar subclass
Restrict collection to the events with the specified
.Ar subclass .
.El
.It Fl a Ar pid
Restrict collection to to those events emitted by the process identified
by
.Ar pid .
.It Fl x Ar pid
Exclude events emitted by the process identified by
.Ar pid .
.It Fl k Ar code
Restrict collection to events with the specified
.Ar code .
This option can be specified up to 4 times, and applies to all classes
being collected.
.It Fl T Ar filter-file
Restrict collection to events specified in the provided
.Ar filter-file .
See
.Sx TRACEFILTER FORMAT
for details.
.It Xo Fl P
Restrict collection to PPT events.  This special collection of trace
events provides insight into system performance.
.Xc
.El
.\"
.\"     ## trace -E ##
.Bk -words
.It Xo Fl E
.Op Fl c Ar class Oo Fl p Ar end-class Oc Oo Fl s Ar subclass Oc
.Op Fl a Ar pid | Fl x Ar pid
.Op Fl k Ar code ...
.Op Fl P
.Op Fl T Ar filter-file
.Ar command Op args ...
.Ek
.Xc
.Pp
Execute
.Ar command
with trace collection enabled for events emitted by the process.  See
.Fl e
for more information.
.\"
.\"     ## trace -t ##
.It Fl t Oo Fl o Ar outfile Oc Oo Fl N Oc Oo Ar codesfile ... Oc
.Pp
Extract events from the kernel trace buffer and print them in a formatted,
plain-text representation.  Additional code files can be specified to
help
.Nm
find the names of unknown events.  For more information on the formatting
process, see
.Sx TRACE CODES FORMAT .
.Bl -tag -width Ds
.It Fl o Ar outfile
Output the plain-text events to
.Ar outfile .
.It Fl N
Ignore the system-wide trace codes file when getting names of events.
Additional trace codes files specified will still be used.
.El
.\"
.\"     ## trace -l ##
.It Fl l Ar rawfile
.Pp
Empty the current kernel trace buffer into
.Ar rawfile
in a binary format.  If
.Ar rawfile
is
.Li - ,
the file will be written to
.Xr stdout 4 .
.\"
.\"     ## trace -L ##
.It Fl L Ar rawfile Fl S Ar seconds
.Pp
Copy the current trace buffer to
.Ar rawfile
and send all future trace events to
.Ar rawfile .
.Bl -tag -width Ds
.It Fl S Ar seconds
After 
.Ar seconds
have elapsed, stop recording and exit.  If
.Ar rawfile
is
.Li - ,
the file will be written to
.Xr stdout 4 .
.El
.\"
.\"     ## trace -R ##
.It Fl R Ar rawfile Oo Fl o Ar outfile Oc Oo Fl N Oc Oo Fl F Ar frequency Oc Oo Fl X Oc Op Ar codesfile ...
.Pp
Read events from
.Ar rawfile
and print them in a human-readable format.
.Bl -tag -width " "
.It Fl F Ar frequency
If
.Ar rawfile
does not contain clock frequency information, it can be specified with
.Fl F .
.It Fl X
Force the binary format to be interpreted as 32-bit, as opposed to
matching the width of the system running
.Nm .
.El
.Pp
See
.Fl t
for additional options.
.El
.Sh TRACE CODES FORMAT
Event classes, subclasses, and codes are matched to names using a trace
codes file.  Any events that cannot be matched will be referred to by
their debugid in hex.
.Pp
The system-wide trace codes file is located at
.Pa /usr/share/misc/trace.codes .
Additional files are typically stored in
.Pa /usr/local/share/misc .
.Pp
A code file consists of a list of tracepoints, one per line, with the
tracepoint's debugid (component, subclass, and code) in hex, followed by
a tab, followed by the tracepoint's name.
.Pp
For instance, the MSC_mach_msg_trap tracepoint is defined by
.Pp
.Dl 0x010c007c MSC_mach_msg_trap
.Pp
This describes the tracepoint with the following info:
.Pp
.Bl -column -offset indent "Subclass" "MSC_mach_msg_trap"
.\" is this right?  We should refer to the shifting and kdebug.h
.It Sy Name Ta MSC_mach_msg_trap
.It Sy Class Ta 0x01 Ta (Mach events)
.It Sy Subclass Ta 0x0c Ta (Mach system calls)
.It Sy Code Ta 0x007c Ta (msg_trap)
.El
.Pp
See
.\" this absolute path no longer exists thanks to SDKs. :P
.Pa /usr/include/sys/kdebug.h
for class and subclass values.
.Sh TRACEFILTER FORMAT
A tracefilter description file consists of a list of class and subclass
filters in hex, one per line, which are applied as if they were passed
with
.Fl c
and
.Fl s .
Pass
.Fl v
to see what classes and subclasses are being set.
.Pp
Comment lines start with
.Ql # ,
class filter lines start with
.Ql C ,
and subclass filter lines start with
.Ql S
and include the class they apply to.
.Pp
For example, to trace Mach events (class 1):
.Pp
.Dl C 0x01
.Pp
And to trace Mach system calls (class 1, subclass 13):
.Pp
.Dl S 0x010C
.Pp
.Sh EXAMPLES
.Nm
usually requires multiple invocations in order to set up the trace
buffers, enable the correct events, and collect the events.  A typical
session with trace is:
.Pp
.Dl trace -i
.Dl trace -e -c 1 -s 31
.Dl sleep 1
.Dl trace -d
.Dl trace -t
.Pp
This initializes the trace buffers to their default values, enables the
mach_msg_trap subclass of the MACH_SysCall class, waits for one second,
then disables tracing and prints it to
.Xr stdout 4 .
This is useful for investigating isolated issues or gaining some
understanding about a kernel subsystem.  If a specific execuable should
be traced, with the events saved for later analysis, the sequence of
commands would be:
.Pp
.Dl trace -i
.Dl trace -E -c 0x4 ./my_prog
.Dl trace -d
.Dl trace -l tracefile
.Dl trace -R tracefile
.Pp
This initializes the trace buffers, enables all events in the BSC_SysCall class and runs
.Li my_prog ,
disables tracing, collects events into
.Li tracefile ,
and finally prints those events out in a human-readable form.
.Sh CAVEATS
Almost all
.Nm
command flags require superuser (root) privileges.
.Pp
After failures, the trace buffers usually need to be re-initialized.
.Pp
.Sh DIAGNOSTICS
.Ex -std
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr trace 4 ,
.Xr fs_usage 1 ,
.Xr sc_usage 1 ,
.Xr latency 1 ,
.Xr top 1