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Donglin Pengrostedt
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tracing: Add documentation for funcgraph-retval and funcgraph-retval-hex
Add documentation for the two newly introduced options for the function_graph tracer. The funcgraph-retval option is used to control whether or not to display the return value, while the funcgraph-retval-hex option is used to control the display format of the return value. Link: https://lkml.kernel.org/r/2b5635f05146161b54c9ea6307e25efe5ccebdad.1680954589.git.pengdonglin@sangfor.com.cn Acked-by: Masami Hiramatsu (Google) <[email protected]> Signed-off-by: Donglin Peng <[email protected]> Signed-off-by: Steven Rostedt (Google) <[email protected]>
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Documentation/trace/ftrace.rst

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@@ -1359,6 +1359,19 @@ Options for function_graph tracer:
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only a closing curly bracket "}" is displayed for
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the return of a function.
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funcgraph-retval
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When set, the return value of each traced function
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will be printed after an equal sign "=". By default
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this is off.
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funcgraph-retval-hex
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When set, the return value will always be printed
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in hexadecimal format. If the option is not set and
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the return value is an error code, it will be printed
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in signed decimal format; otherwise it will also be
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printed in hexadecimal format. By default, this option
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is off.
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sleep-time
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When running function graph tracer, to include
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the time a task schedules out in its function.
@@ -2704,6 +2717,119 @@ It is default disabled.
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0) 1.757 us | } /* kmem_cache_free() */
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0) 2.861 us | } /* putname() */
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The return value of each traced function can be displayed after
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an equal sign "=". When encountering system call failures, it
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can be verfy helpful to quickly locate the function that first
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returns an error code.
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- hide: echo nofuncgraph-retval > trace_options
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- show: echo funcgraph-retval > trace_options
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Example with funcgraph-retval::
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1) | cgroup_migrate() {
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1) 0.651 us | cgroup_migrate_add_task(); /* = 0xffff93fcfd346c00 */
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1) | cgroup_migrate_execute() {
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1) | cpu_cgroup_can_attach() {
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1) | cgroup_taskset_first() {
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1) 0.732 us | cgroup_taskset_next(); /* = 0xffff93fc8fb20000 */
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1) 1.232 us | } /* cgroup_taskset_first = 0xffff93fc8fb20000 */
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1) 0.380 us | sched_rt_can_attach(); /* = 0x0 */
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1) 2.335 us | } /* cpu_cgroup_can_attach = -22 */
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1) 4.369 us | } /* cgroup_migrate_execute = -22 */
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1) 7.143 us | } /* cgroup_migrate = -22 */
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The above example shows that the function cpu_cgroup_can_attach
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returned the error code -22 firstly, then we can read the code
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of this function to get the root cause.
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When the option funcgraph-retval-hex is not set, the return value can
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be displayed in a smart way. Specifically, if it is an error code,
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it will be printed in signed decimal format, otherwise it will
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printed in hexadecimal format.
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- smart: echo nofuncgraph-retval-hex > trace_options
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- hexadecimal: echo funcgraph-retval-hex > trace_options
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Example with funcgraph-retval-hex::
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1) | cgroup_migrate() {
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1) 0.651 us | cgroup_migrate_add_task(); /* = 0xffff93fcfd346c00 */
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1) | cgroup_migrate_execute() {
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1) | cpu_cgroup_can_attach() {
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1) | cgroup_taskset_first() {
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1) 0.732 us | cgroup_taskset_next(); /* = 0xffff93fc8fb20000 */
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1) 1.232 us | } /* cgroup_taskset_first = 0xffff93fc8fb20000 */
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1) 0.380 us | sched_rt_can_attach(); /* = 0x0 */
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1) 2.335 us | } /* cpu_cgroup_can_attach = 0xffffffea */
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1) 4.369 us | } /* cgroup_migrate_execute = 0xffffffea */
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1) 7.143 us | } /* cgroup_migrate = 0xffffffea */
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At present, there are some limitations when using the funcgraph-retval
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option, and these limitations will be eliminated in the future:
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- Even if the function return type is void, a return value will still
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be printed, and you can just ignore it.
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- Even if return values are stored in multiple registers, only the
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value contained in the first register will be recorded and printed.
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To illustrate, in the x86 architecture, eax and edx are used to store
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a 64-bit return value, with the lower 32 bits saved in eax and the
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upper 32 bits saved in edx. However, only the value stored in eax
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will be recorded and printed.
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- In certain procedure call standards, such as arm64's AAPCS64, when a
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type is smaller than a GPR, it is the responsibility of the consumer
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to perform the narrowing, and the upper bits may contain UNKNOWN values.
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Therefore, it is advisable to check the code for such cases. For instance,
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when using a u8 in a 64-bit GPR, bits [63:8] may contain arbitrary values,
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especially when larger types are truncated, whether explicitly or implicitly.
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Here are some specific cases to illustrate this point:
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**Case One**::
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The function narrow_to_u8 is defined as follows::
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u8 narrow_to_u8(u64 val)
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{
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// implicitly truncated
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return val;
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}
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It may be compiled to::
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narrow_to_u8:
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< ... ftrace instrumentation ... >
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RET
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If you pass 0x123456789abcdef to this function and want to narrow it,
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it may be recorded as 0x123456789abcdef instead of 0xef.
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**Case Two**::
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The function error_if_not_4g_aligned is defined as follows::
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int error_if_not_4g_aligned(u64 val)
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{
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if (val & GENMASK(31, 0))
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return -EINVAL;
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return 0;
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}
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It could be compiled to::
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error_if_not_4g_aligned:
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CBNZ w0, .Lnot_aligned
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RET // bits [31:0] are zero, bits
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// [63:32] are UNKNOWN
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.Lnot_aligned:
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MOV x0, #-EINVAL
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RET
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When passing 0x2_0000_0000 to it, the return value may be recorded as
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0x2_0000_0000 instead of 0.
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You can put some comments on specific functions by using
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trace_printk() For example, if you want to put a comment inside
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the __might_sleep() function, you just have to include

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