Using the kernel function tracing system

Recent versions of the Linux kernel contain a set of tracers that, by instrumenting the kernel, allow you to analyze different areas like:

  • Interrupt latency
  • Preemption latency
  • Scheduling latency
  • Process context switches
  • Event tracing
  • Syscalls
  • Maximum stack
  • Block layer
  • Functions

The tracers have no performance overhead when not enabled.

Getting ready...

The tracing system can be used in a wide variety of debugging scenarios, but one of the most common tracers used is the function tracer. It instruments every kernel function with a NOP call that is replaced and used to trace the kernel functions when a trace point is enabled.

To enable the function tracer in the kernel, use the CONFIG_FUNCTION_TRACER and CONFIG_FUNCTION_GRAPH_TRACER ...

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