| perf-trace(1) | 
 | ============= | 
 |  | 
 | NAME | 
 | ---- | 
 | perf-trace - strace inspired tool | 
 |  | 
 | SYNOPSIS | 
 | -------- | 
 | [verse] | 
 | 'perf trace' | 
 | 'perf trace record' | 
 |  | 
 | DESCRIPTION | 
 | ----------- | 
 | This command will show the events associated with the target, initially | 
 | syscalls, but other system events like pagefaults, task lifetime events, | 
 | scheduling events, etc. | 
 |  | 
 | This is a live mode tool in addition to working with perf.data files like | 
 | the other perf tools. Files can be generated using the 'perf record' command | 
 | but the session needs to include the raw_syscalls events (-e 'raw_syscalls:*'). | 
 | Alternatively, 'perf trace record' can be used as a shortcut to | 
 | automatically include the raw_syscalls events when writing events to a file. | 
 |  | 
 | The following options apply to perf trace; options to perf trace record are | 
 | found in the perf record man page. | 
 |  | 
 | OPTIONS | 
 | ------- | 
 |  | 
 | -a:: | 
 | --all-cpus:: | 
 |         System-wide collection from all CPUs. | 
 |  | 
 | -e:: | 
 | --expr:: | 
 | --event:: | 
 | 	List of syscalls and other perf events (tracepoints, HW cache events, | 
 | 	etc) to show. Globbing is supported, e.g.: "epoll_*", "*msg*", etc. | 
 | 	See 'perf list' for a complete list of events. | 
 | 	Prefixing with ! shows all syscalls but the ones specified.  You may | 
 | 	need to escape it. | 
 |  | 
 | -D msecs:: | 
 | --delay msecs:: | 
 | After starting the program, wait msecs before measuring. This is useful to | 
 | filter out the startup phase of the program, which is often very different. | 
 |  | 
 | -o:: | 
 | --output=:: | 
 | 	Output file name. | 
 |  | 
 | -p:: | 
 | --pid=:: | 
 | 	Record events on existing process ID (comma separated list). | 
 |  | 
 | -t:: | 
 | --tid=:: | 
 |         Record events on existing thread ID (comma separated list). | 
 |  | 
 | -u:: | 
 | --uid=:: | 
 |         Record events in threads owned by uid. Name or number. | 
 |  | 
 | -G:: | 
 | --cgroup:: | 
 | 	Record events in threads in a cgroup. | 
 |  | 
 | 	Look for cgroups to set at the /sys/fs/cgroup/perf_event directory, then | 
 | 	remove the /sys/fs/cgroup/perf_event/ part and try: | 
 |  | 
 | 		perf trace -G A -e sched:*switch | 
 |  | 
 | 	Will set all raw_syscalls:sys_{enter,exit}, pgfault, vfs_getname, etc | 
 | 	_and_ sched:sched_switch to the 'A' cgroup, while: | 
 |  | 
 | 		perf trace -e sched:*switch -G A | 
 |  | 
 | 	will only set the sched:sched_switch event to the 'A' cgroup, all the | 
 | 	other events (raw_syscalls:sys_{enter,exit}, etc are left "without" | 
 | 	a cgroup (on the root cgroup, sys wide, etc). | 
 |  | 
 | 	Multiple cgroups: | 
 |  | 
 | 		perf trace -G A -e sched:*switch -G B | 
 |  | 
 | 	the syscall ones go to the 'A' cgroup, the sched:sched_switch goes | 
 | 	to the 'B' cgroup. | 
 |  | 
 | --filter-pids=:: | 
 | 	Filter out events for these pids and for 'trace' itself (comma separated list). | 
 |  | 
 | -v:: | 
 | --verbose=:: | 
 |         Verbosity level. | 
 |  | 
 | --no-inherit:: | 
 | 	Child tasks do not inherit counters. | 
 |  | 
 | -m:: | 
 | --mmap-pages=:: | 
 | 	Number of mmap data pages (must be a power of two) or size | 
 | 	specification with appended unit character - B/K/M/G. The | 
 | 	size is rounded up to have nearest pages power of two value. | 
 |  | 
 | -C:: | 
 | --cpu:: | 
 | Collect samples only on the list of CPUs provided. Multiple CPUs can be provided as a | 
 | comma-separated list with no space: 0,1. Ranges of CPUs are specified with -: 0-2. | 
 | In per-thread mode with inheritance mode on (default), Events are captured only when | 
 | the thread executes on the designated CPUs. Default is to monitor all CPUs. | 
 |  | 
 | --duration:: | 
 | 	Show only events that had a duration greater than N.M ms. | 
 |  | 
 | --sched:: | 
 | 	Accrue thread runtime and provide a summary at the end of the session. | 
 |  | 
 | --failure:: | 
 | 	Show only syscalls that failed, i.e. that returned < 0. | 
 |  | 
 | -i:: | 
 | --input:: | 
 | 	Process events from a given perf data file. | 
 |  | 
 | -T:: | 
 | --time:: | 
 | 	Print full timestamp rather time relative to first sample. | 
 |  | 
 | --comm:: | 
 |         Show process COMM right beside its ID, on by default, disable with --no-comm. | 
 |  | 
 | -s:: | 
 | --summary:: | 
 | 	Show only a summary of syscalls by thread with min, max, and average times | 
 |     (in msec) and relative stddev. | 
 |  | 
 | -S:: | 
 | --with-summary:: | 
 | 	Show all syscalls followed by a summary by thread with min, max, and | 
 |     average times (in msec) and relative stddev. | 
 |  | 
 | --tool_stats:: | 
 | 	Show tool stats such as number of times fd->pathname was discovered thru | 
 | 	hooking the open syscall return + vfs_getname or via reading /proc/pid/fd, etc. | 
 |  | 
 | -f:: | 
 | --force:: | 
 | 	Don't complain, do it. | 
 |  | 
 | -F=[all|min|maj]:: | 
 | --pf=[all|min|maj]:: | 
 | 	Trace pagefaults. Optionally, you can specify whether you want minor, | 
 | 	major or all pagefaults. Default value is maj. | 
 |  | 
 | --syscalls:: | 
 | 	Trace system calls. This options is enabled by default, disable with | 
 | 	--no-syscalls. | 
 |  | 
 | --call-graph [mode,type,min[,limit],order[,key][,branch]]:: | 
 |         Setup and enable call-graph (stack chain/backtrace) recording. | 
 |         See `--call-graph` section in perf-record and perf-report | 
 |         man pages for details. The ones that are most useful in 'perf trace' | 
 |         are 'dwarf' and 'lbr', where available, try: 'perf trace --call-graph dwarf'. | 
 |  | 
 |         Using this will, for the root user, bump the value of --mmap-pages to 4 | 
 |         times the maximum for non-root users, based on the kernel.perf_event_mlock_kb | 
 |         sysctl. This is done only if the user doesn't specify a --mmap-pages value. | 
 |  | 
 | --kernel-syscall-graph:: | 
 | 	 Show the kernel callchains on the syscall exit path. | 
 |  | 
 | --max-events=N:: | 
 | 	Stop after processing N events. Note that strace-like events are considered | 
 | 	only at exit time or when a syscall is interrupted, i.e. in those cases this | 
 | 	option is equivalent to the number of lines printed. | 
 |  | 
 | --max-stack:: | 
 |         Set the stack depth limit when parsing the callchain, anything | 
 |         beyond the specified depth will be ignored. Note that at this point | 
 |         this is just about the presentation part, i.e. the kernel is still | 
 |         not limiting, the overhead of callchains needs to be set via the | 
 |         knobs in --call-graph dwarf. | 
 |  | 
 |         Implies '--call-graph dwarf' when --call-graph not present on the | 
 |         command line, on systems where DWARF unwinding was built in. | 
 |  | 
 |         Default: /proc/sys/kernel/perf_event_max_stack when present for | 
 |                  live sessions (without --input/-i), 127 otherwise. | 
 |  | 
 | --min-stack:: | 
 |         Set the stack depth limit when parsing the callchain, anything | 
 |         below the specified depth will be ignored. Disabled by default. | 
 |  | 
 |         Implies '--call-graph dwarf' when --call-graph not present on the | 
 |         command line, on systems where DWARF unwinding was built in. | 
 |  | 
 | --print-sample:: | 
 | 	Print the PERF_RECORD_SAMPLE PERF_SAMPLE_ info for the | 
 | 	raw_syscalls:sys_{enter,exit} tracepoints, for debugging. | 
 |  | 
 | --proc-map-timeout:: | 
 | 	When processing pre-existing threads /proc/XXX/mmap, it may take a long time, | 
 | 	because the file may be huge. A time out is needed in such cases. | 
 | 	This option sets the time out limit. The default value is 500 ms. | 
 |  | 
 | --sort-events:: | 
 | 	Do sorting on batches of events, use when noticing out of order events that | 
 | 	may happen, for instance, when a thread gets migrated to a different CPU | 
 | 	while processing a syscall. | 
 |  | 
 |  | 
 | PAGEFAULTS | 
 | ---------- | 
 |  | 
 | When tracing pagefaults, the format of the trace is as follows: | 
 |  | 
 | <min|maj>fault [<ip.symbol>+<ip.offset>] => <addr.dso@addr.offset> (<map type><addr level>). | 
 |  | 
 | - min/maj indicates whether fault event is minor or major; | 
 | - ip.symbol shows symbol for instruction pointer (the code that generated the | 
 |   fault); if no debug symbols available, perf trace will print raw IP; | 
 | - addr.dso shows DSO for the faulted address; | 
 | - map type is either 'd' for non-executable maps or 'x' for executable maps; | 
 | - addr level is either 'k' for kernel dso or '.' for user dso. | 
 |  | 
 | For symbols resolution you may need to install debugging symbols. | 
 |  | 
 | Please be aware that duration is currently always 0 and doesn't reflect actual | 
 | time it took for fault to be handled! | 
 |  | 
 | When --verbose specified, perf trace tries to print all available information | 
 | for both IP and fault address in the form of dso@symbol+offset. | 
 |  | 
 | EXAMPLES | 
 | -------- | 
 |  | 
 | Trace only major pagefaults: | 
 |  | 
 |  $ perf trace --no-syscalls -F | 
 |  | 
 | Trace syscalls, major and minor pagefaults: | 
 |  | 
 |  $ perf trace -F all | 
 |  | 
 |   1416.547 ( 0.000 ms): python/20235 majfault [CRYPTO_push_info_+0x0] => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libcrypto.so.1.0.0@0x61be0 (x.) | 
 |  | 
 |   As you can see, there was major pagefault in python process, from | 
 |   CRYPTO_push_info_ routine which faulted somewhere in libcrypto.so. | 
 |  | 
 | Trace the first 4 open, openat or open_by_handle_at syscalls (in the future more syscalls may match here): | 
 |  | 
 |   $ perf trace -e open* --max-events 4 | 
 |   [root@jouet perf]# trace -e open* --max-events 4 | 
 |   2272.992 ( 0.037 ms): gnome-shell/1370 openat(dfd: CWD, filename: /proc/self/stat) = 31 | 
 |   2277.481 ( 0.139 ms): gnome-shell/3039 openat(dfd: CWD, filename: /proc/self/stat) = 65 | 
 |   3026.398 ( 0.076 ms): gnome-shell/3039 openat(dfd: CWD, filename: /proc/self/stat) = 65 | 
 |   4294.665 ( 0.015 ms): sed/15879 openat(dfd: CWD, filename: /etc/ld.so.cache, flags: CLOEXEC) = 3 | 
 |   $ | 
 |  | 
 | Trace the first minor page fault when running a workload: | 
 |  | 
 |   # perf trace -F min --max-stack=7 --max-events 1 sleep 1 | 
 |      0.000 ( 0.000 ms): sleep/18006 minfault [__clear_user+0x1a] => 0x5626efa56080 (?k) | 
 |                                        __clear_user ([kernel.kallsyms]) | 
 |                                        load_elf_binary ([kernel.kallsyms]) | 
 |                                        search_binary_handler ([kernel.kallsyms]) | 
 |                                        __do_execve_file.isra.33 ([kernel.kallsyms]) | 
 |                                        __x64_sys_execve ([kernel.kallsyms]) | 
 |                                        do_syscall_64 ([kernel.kallsyms]) | 
 |                                        entry_SYSCALL_64 ([kernel.kallsyms]) | 
 |   # | 
 |  | 
 | Trace the next min page page fault to take place on the first CPU: | 
 |  | 
 |   # perf trace -F min --call-graph=dwarf --max-events 1 --cpu 0 | 
 |      0.000 ( 0.000 ms): Web Content/17136 minfault [js::gc::Chunk::fetchNextDecommittedArena+0x4b] => 0x7fbe6181b000 (?.) | 
 |                                        js::gc::FreeSpan::initAsEmpty (inlined) | 
 |                                        js::gc::Arena::setAsNotAllocated (inlined) | 
 |                                        js::gc::Chunk::fetchNextDecommittedArena (/usr/lib64/firefox/libxul.so) | 
 |                                        js::gc::Chunk::allocateArena (/usr/lib64/firefox/libxul.so) | 
 |                                        js::gc::GCRuntime::allocateArena (/usr/lib64/firefox/libxul.so) | 
 |                                        js::gc::ArenaLists::allocateFromArena (/usr/lib64/firefox/libxul.so) | 
 |                                        js::gc::GCRuntime::tryNewTenuredThing<JSString, (js::AllowGC)1> (inlined) | 
 |                                        js::AllocateString<JSString, (js::AllowGC)1> (/usr/lib64/firefox/libxul.so) | 
 |                                        js::Allocate<JSThinInlineString, (js::AllowGC)1> (inlined) | 
 |                                        JSThinInlineString::new_<(js::AllowGC)1> (inlined) | 
 |                                        AllocateInlineString<(js::AllowGC)1, unsigned char> (inlined) | 
 |                                        js::ConcatStrings<(js::AllowGC)1> (/usr/lib64/firefox/libxul.so) | 
 |                                        [0x18b26e6bc2bd] (/tmp/perf-17136.map) | 
 |   # | 
 |  | 
 | Trace the next two sched:sched_switch events, four block:*_plug events, the | 
 | next block:*_unplug and the next three net:*dev_queue events, this last one | 
 | with a backtrace of at most 16 entries, system wide: | 
 |  | 
 |   # perf trace -e sched:*switch/nr=2/,block:*_plug/nr=4/,block:*_unplug/nr=1/,net:*dev_queue/nr=3,max-stack=16/ | 
 |      0.000 :0/0 sched:sched_switch:swapper/2:0 [120] S ==> rcu_sched:10 [120] | 
 |      0.015 rcu_sched/10 sched:sched_switch:rcu_sched:10 [120] R ==> swapper/2:0 [120] | 
 |    254.198 irq/50-iwlwifi/680 net:net_dev_queue:dev=wlp3s0 skbaddr=0xffff93498051f600 len=66 | 
 |                                        __dev_queue_xmit ([kernel.kallsyms]) | 
 |    273.977 :0/0 net:net_dev_queue:dev=wlp3s0 skbaddr=0xffff93498051f600 len=78 | 
 |                                        __dev_queue_xmit ([kernel.kallsyms]) | 
 |    274.007 :0/0 net:net_dev_queue:dev=wlp3s0 skbaddr=0xffff93498051ff00 len=78 | 
 |                                        __dev_queue_xmit ([kernel.kallsyms]) | 
 |   2930.140 kworker/u16:58/2722 block:block_plug:[kworker/u16:58] | 
 |   2930.162 kworker/u16:58/2722 block:block_unplug:[kworker/u16:58] 1 | 
 |   4466.094 jbd2/dm-2-8/748 block:block_plug:[jbd2/dm-2-8] | 
 |   8050.123 kworker/u16:30/2694 block:block_plug:[kworker/u16:30] | 
 |   8050.271 kworker/u16:30/2694 block:block_plug:[kworker/u16:30] | 
 |   # | 
 |  | 
 | SEE ALSO | 
 | -------- | 
 | linkperf:perf-record[1], linkperf:perf-script[1] |