The Linux Kernel Tracepoint API
  
   
    Jason
    Baron
    
     
      jbaron@redhat.com
     
    
   
   
    William
    Cohen
    
     
      wcohen@redhat.com
     
    
   
  
  
   
     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.
   
   
     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.
   
   
     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
   
   
     For more details see the file COPYING in the source
     distribution of Linux.
   
  
 
 
  
   Introduction
   
     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.
   
   
     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.
   
   
     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.
   
   
     The API presented has functions of the form:
     trace_tracepointname(function parameters). These are the
     tracepoints callbacks that are found throughout the code. Registering and
     unregistering probes with these callback sites is covered in the
     Documentation/trace/* directory.
   
  
  
   IRQ
!Iinclude/trace/events/irq.h
  
  
   SIGNAL
!Iinclude/trace/events/signal.h
  
  
   Block IO
!Iinclude/trace/events/block.h
  
  
   Workqueue
!Iinclude/trace/events/workqueue.h