linux/Documentation/s390/s390dbf.rst
<<
>>
Prefs
   1==================
   2S390 Debug Feature
   3==================
   4
   5files:
   6      - arch/s390/kernel/debug.c
   7      - arch/s390/include/asm/debug.h
   8
   9Description:
  10------------
  11The goal of this feature is to provide a kernel debug logging API
  12where log records can be stored efficiently in memory, where each component
  13(e.g. device drivers) can have one separate debug log.
  14One purpose of this is to inspect the debug logs after a production system crash
  15in order to analyze the reason for the crash.
  16
  17If the system still runs but only a subcomponent which uses dbf fails,
  18it is possible to look at the debug logs on a live system via the Linux
  19debugfs filesystem.
  20
  21The debug feature may also very useful for kernel and driver development.
  22
  23Design:
  24-------
  25Kernel components (e.g. device drivers) can register themselves at the debug
  26feature with the function call :c:func:`debug_register()`.
  27This function initializes a
  28debug log for the caller. For each debug log exists a number of debug areas
  29where exactly one is active at one time.  Each debug area consists of contiguous
  30pages in memory. In the debug areas there are stored debug entries (log records)
  31which are written by event- and exception-calls.
  32
  33An event-call writes the specified debug entry to the active debug
  34area and updates the log pointer for the active area. If the end
  35of the active debug area is reached, a wrap around is done (ring buffer)
  36and the next debug entry will be written at the beginning of the active
  37debug area.
  38
  39An exception-call writes the specified debug entry to the log and
  40switches to the next debug area. This is done in order to be sure
  41that the records which describe the origin of the exception are not
  42overwritten when a wrap around for the current area occurs.
  43
  44The debug areas themselves are also ordered in form of a ring buffer.
  45When an exception is thrown in the last debug area, the following debug
  46entries are then written again in the very first area.
  47
  48There are four versions for the event- and exception-calls: One for
  49logging raw data, one for text, one for numbers (unsigned int and long),
  50and one for sprintf-like formatted strings.
  51
  52Each debug entry contains the following data:
  53
  54- Timestamp
  55- Cpu-Number of calling task
  56- Level of debug entry (0...6)
  57- Return Address to caller
  58- Flag, if entry is an exception or not
  59
  60The debug logs can be inspected in a live system through entries in
  61the debugfs-filesystem. Under the toplevel directory "``s390dbf``" there is
  62a directory for each registered component, which is named like the
  63corresponding component. The debugfs normally should be mounted to
  64``/sys/kernel/debug`` therefore the debug feature can be accessed under
  65``/sys/kernel/debug/s390dbf``.
  66
  67The content of the directories are files which represent different views
  68to the debug log. Each component can decide which views should be
  69used through registering them with the function :c:func:`debug_register_view()`.
  70Predefined views for hex/ascii and sprintf data are provided.
  71It is also possible to define other views. The content of
  72a view can be inspected simply by reading the corresponding debugfs file.
  73
  74All debug logs have an actual debug level (range from 0 to 6).
  75The default level is 3. Event and Exception functions have a :c:data:`level`
  76parameter. Only debug entries with a level that is lower or equal
  77than the actual level are written to the log. This means, when
  78writing events, high priority log entries should have a low level
  79value whereas low priority entries should have a high one.
  80The actual debug level can be changed with the help of the debugfs-filesystem
  81through writing a number string "x" to the ``level`` debugfs file which is
  82provided for every debug log. Debugging can be switched off completely
  83by using "-" on the ``level`` debugfs file.
  84
  85Example::
  86
  87        > echo "-" > /sys/kernel/debug/s390dbf/dasd/level
  88
  89It is also possible to deactivate the debug feature globally for every
  90debug log. You can change the behavior using  2 sysctl parameters in
  91``/proc/sys/s390dbf``:
  92
  93There are currently 2 possible triggers, which stop the debug feature
  94globally. The first possibility is to use the ``debug_active`` sysctl. If
  95set to 1 the debug feature is running. If ``debug_active`` is set to 0 the
  96debug feature is turned off.
  97
  98The second trigger which stops the debug feature is a kernel oops.
  99That prevents the debug feature from overwriting debug information that
 100happened before the oops. After an oops you can reactivate the debug feature
 101by piping 1 to ``/proc/sys/s390dbf/debug_active``. Nevertheless, it's not
 102suggested to use an oopsed kernel in a production environment.
 103
 104If you want to disallow the deactivation of the debug feature, you can use
 105the ``debug_stoppable`` sysctl. If you set ``debug_stoppable`` to 0 the debug
 106feature cannot be stopped. If the debug feature is already stopped, it
 107will stay deactivated.
 108
 109Kernel Interfaces:
 110------------------
 111
 112.. kernel-doc:: arch/s390/kernel/debug.c
 113.. kernel-doc:: arch/s390/include/asm/debug.h
 114
 115Predefined views:
 116-----------------
 117
 118.. code-block:: c
 119
 120  extern struct debug_view debug_hex_ascii_view;
 121
 122  extern struct debug_view debug_sprintf_view;
 123
 124Examples
 125--------
 126
 127.. code-block:: c
 128
 129  /*
 130   * hex_ascii-view Example
 131   */
 132
 133  #include <linux/init.h>
 134  #include <asm/debug.h>
 135
 136  static debug_info_t *debug_info;
 137
 138  static int init(void)
 139  {
 140      /* register 4 debug areas with one page each and 4 byte data field */
 141
 142      debug_info = debug_register("test", 1, 4, 4 );
 143      debug_register_view(debug_info, &debug_hex_ascii_view);
 144
 145      debug_text_event(debug_info, 4 , "one ");
 146      debug_int_exception(debug_info, 4, 4711);
 147      debug_event(debug_info, 3, &debug_info, 4);
 148
 149      return 0;
 150  }
 151
 152  static void cleanup(void)
 153  {
 154      debug_unregister(debug_info);
 155  }
 156
 157  module_init(init);
 158  module_exit(cleanup);
 159
 160.. code-block:: c
 161
 162  /*
 163   * sprintf-view Example
 164   */
 165
 166  #include <linux/init.h>
 167  #include <asm/debug.h>
 168
 169  static debug_info_t *debug_info;
 170
 171  static int init(void)
 172  {
 173      /* register 4 debug areas with one page each and data field for */
 174      /* format string pointer + 2 varargs (= 3 * sizeof(long))       */
 175
 176      debug_info = debug_register("test", 1, 4, sizeof(long) * 3);
 177      debug_register_view(debug_info, &debug_sprintf_view);
 178
 179      debug_sprintf_event(debug_info, 2 , "first event in %s:%i\n",__FILE__,__LINE__);
 180      debug_sprintf_exception(debug_info, 1, "pointer to debug info: %p\n",&debug_info);
 181
 182      return 0;
 183  }
 184
 185  static void cleanup(void)
 186  {
 187      debug_unregister(debug_info);
 188  }
 189
 190  module_init(init);
 191  module_exit(cleanup);
 192
 193Debugfs Interface
 194-----------------
 195Views to the debug logs can be investigated through reading the corresponding
 196debugfs-files:
 197
 198Example::
 199
 200  > ls /sys/kernel/debug/s390dbf/dasd
 201  flush  hex_ascii  level pages
 202  > cat /sys/kernel/debug/s390dbf/dasd/hex_ascii | sort -k2,2 -s
 203  00 00974733272:680099 2 - 02 0006ad7e  07 ea 4a 90 | ....
 204  00 00974733272:682210 2 - 02 0006ade6  46 52 45 45 | FREE
 205  00 00974733272:682213 2 - 02 0006adf6  07 ea 4a 90 | ....
 206  00 00974733272:682281 1 * 02 0006ab08  41 4c 4c 43 | EXCP
 207  01 00974733272:682284 2 - 02 0006ab16  45 43 4b 44 | ECKD
 208  01 00974733272:682287 2 - 02 0006ab28  00 00 00 04 | ....
 209  01 00974733272:682289 2 - 02 0006ab3e  00 00 00 20 | ...
 210  01 00974733272:682297 2 - 02 0006ad7e  07 ea 4a 90 | ....
 211  01 00974733272:684384 2 - 00 0006ade6  46 52 45 45 | FREE
 212  01 00974733272:684388 2 - 00 0006adf6  07 ea 4a 90 | ....
 213
 214See section about predefined views for explanation of the above output!
 215
 216Changing the debug level
 217------------------------
 218
 219Example::
 220
 221
 222  > cat /sys/kernel/debug/s390dbf/dasd/level
 223  3
 224  > echo "5" > /sys/kernel/debug/s390dbf/dasd/level
 225  > cat /sys/kernel/debug/s390dbf/dasd/level
 226  5
 227
 228Flushing debug areas
 229--------------------
 230Debug areas can be flushed with piping the number of the desired
 231area (0...n) to the debugfs file "flush". When using "-" all debug areas
 232are flushed.
 233
 234Examples:
 235
 2361. Flush debug area 0::
 237
 238     > echo "0" > /sys/kernel/debug/s390dbf/dasd/flush
 239
 2402. Flush all debug areas::
 241
 242     > echo "-" > /sys/kernel/debug/s390dbf/dasd/flush
 243
 244Changing the size of debug areas
 245------------------------------------
 246It is possible the change the size of debug areas through piping
 247the number of pages to the debugfs file "pages". The resize request will
 248also flush the debug areas.
 249
 250Example:
 251
 252Define 4 pages for the debug areas of debug feature "dasd"::
 253
 254  > echo "4" > /sys/kernel/debug/s390dbf/dasd/pages
 255
 256Stopping the debug feature
 257--------------------------
 258Example:
 259
 2601. Check if stopping is allowed::
 261
 262     > cat /proc/sys/s390dbf/debug_stoppable
 263
 2642. Stop debug feature::
 265
 266     > echo 0 > /proc/sys/s390dbf/debug_active
 267
 268crash Interface
 269----------------
 270The ``crash`` tool since v5.1.0 has a built-in command
 271``s390dbf`` to display all the debug logs or export them to the file system.
 272With this tool it is possible
 273to investigate the debug logs on a live system and with a memory dump after
 274a system crash.
 275
 276Investigating raw memory
 277------------------------
 278One last possibility to investigate the debug logs at a live
 279system and after a system crash is to look at the raw memory
 280under VM or at the Service Element.
 281It is possible to find the anchor of the debug-logs through
 282the ``debug_area_first`` symbol in the System map. Then one has
 283to follow the correct pointers of the data-structures defined
 284in debug.h and find the debug-areas in memory.
 285Normally modules which use the debug feature will also have
 286a global variable with the pointer to the debug-logs. Following
 287this pointer it will also be possible to find the debug logs in
 288memory.
 289
 290For this method it is recommended to use '16 * x + 4' byte (x = 0..n)
 291for the length of the data field in :c:func:`debug_register()` in
 292order to see the debug entries well formatted.
 293
 294
 295Predefined Views
 296----------------
 297
 298There are two predefined views: hex_ascii and sprintf.
 299The hex_ascii view shows the data field in hex and ascii representation
 300(e.g. ``45 43 4b 44 | ECKD``).
 301
 302The sprintf view formats the debug entries in the same way as the sprintf
 303function would do. The sprintf event/exception functions write to the
 304debug entry a pointer to the format string (size = sizeof(long))
 305and for each vararg a long value. So e.g. for a debug entry with a format
 306string plus two varargs one would need to allocate a (3 * sizeof(long))
 307byte data area in the debug_register() function.
 308
 309IMPORTANT:
 310  Using "%s" in sprintf event functions is dangerous. You can only
 311  use "%s" in the sprintf event functions, if the memory for the passed string
 312  is available as long as the debug feature exists. The reason behind this is
 313  that due to performance considerations only a pointer to the string is stored
 314  in  the debug feature. If you log a string that is freed afterwards, you will
 315  get an OOPS when inspecting the debug feature, because then the debug feature
 316  will access the already freed memory.
 317
 318NOTE:
 319  If using the sprintf view do NOT use other event/exception functions
 320  than the sprintf-event and -exception functions.
 321
 322The format of the hex_ascii and sprintf view is as follows:
 323
 324- Number of area
 325- Timestamp (formatted as seconds and microseconds since 00:00:00 Coordinated
 326  Universal Time (UTC), January 1, 1970)
 327- level of debug entry
 328- Exception flag (* = Exception)
 329- Cpu-Number of calling task
 330- Return Address to caller
 331- data field
 332
 333A typical line of the hex_ascii view will look like the following (first line
 334is only for explanation and will not be displayed when 'cating' the view)::
 335
 336  area  time           level exception cpu caller    data (hex + ascii)
 337  --------------------------------------------------------------------------
 338  00    00964419409:440690 1 -         00  88023fe
 339
 340
 341Defining views
 342--------------
 343
 344Views are specified with the 'debug_view' structure. There are defined
 345callback functions which are used for reading and writing the debugfs files:
 346
 347.. code-block:: c
 348
 349  struct debug_view {
 350        char name[DEBUG_MAX_PROCF_LEN];
 351        debug_prolog_proc_t* prolog_proc;
 352        debug_header_proc_t* header_proc;
 353        debug_format_proc_t* format_proc;
 354        debug_input_proc_t*  input_proc;
 355        void*                private_data;
 356  };
 357
 358where:
 359
 360.. code-block:: c
 361
 362  typedef int (debug_header_proc_t) (debug_info_t* id,
 363                                     struct debug_view* view,
 364                                     int area,
 365                                     debug_entry_t* entry,
 366                                     char* out_buf);
 367
 368  typedef int (debug_format_proc_t) (debug_info_t* id,
 369                                     struct debug_view* view, char* out_buf,
 370                                     const char* in_buf);
 371  typedef int (debug_prolog_proc_t) (debug_info_t* id,
 372                                     struct debug_view* view,
 373                                     char* out_buf);
 374  typedef int (debug_input_proc_t) (debug_info_t* id,
 375                                    struct debug_view* view,
 376                                    struct file* file, const char* user_buf,
 377                                    size_t in_buf_size, loff_t* offset);
 378
 379
 380The "private_data" member can be used as pointer to view specific data.
 381It is not used by the debug feature itself.
 382
 383The output when reading a debugfs file is structured like this::
 384
 385  "prolog_proc output"
 386
 387  "header_proc output 1"  "format_proc output 1"
 388  "header_proc output 2"  "format_proc output 2"
 389  "header_proc output 3"  "format_proc output 3"
 390  ...
 391
 392When a view is read from the debugfs, the Debug Feature calls the
 393'prolog_proc' once for writing the prolog.
 394Then 'header_proc' and 'format_proc' are called for each
 395existing debug entry.
 396
 397The input_proc can be used to implement functionality when it is written to
 398the view (e.g. like with ``echo "0" > /sys/kernel/debug/s390dbf/dasd/level``).
 399
 400For header_proc there can be used the default function
 401:c:func:`debug_dflt_header_fn()` which is defined in debug.h.
 402and which produces the same header output as the predefined views.
 403E.g::
 404
 405  00 00964419409:440761 2 - 00 88023ec
 406
 407In order to see how to use the callback functions check the implementation
 408of the default views!
 409
 410Example:
 411
 412.. code-block:: c
 413
 414  #include <asm/debug.h>
 415
 416  #define UNKNOWNSTR "data: %08x"
 417
 418  const char* messages[] =
 419  {"This error...........\n",
 420   "That error...........\n",
 421   "Problem..............\n",
 422   "Something went wrong.\n",
 423   "Everything ok........\n",
 424   NULL
 425  };
 426
 427  static int debug_test_format_fn(
 428     debug_info_t *id, struct debug_view *view,
 429     char *out_buf, const char *in_buf
 430  )
 431  {
 432    int i, rc = 0;
 433
 434    if (id->buf_size >= 4) {
 435       int msg_nr = *((int*)in_buf);
 436       if (msg_nr < sizeof(messages) / sizeof(char*) - 1)
 437          rc += sprintf(out_buf, "%s", messages[msg_nr]);
 438       else
 439          rc += sprintf(out_buf, UNKNOWNSTR, msg_nr);
 440    }
 441    return rc;
 442  }
 443
 444  struct debug_view debug_test_view = {
 445    "myview",                 /* name of view */
 446    NULL,                     /* no prolog */
 447    &debug_dflt_header_fn,    /* default header for each entry */
 448    &debug_test_format_fn,    /* our own format function */
 449    NULL,                     /* no input function */
 450    NULL                      /* no private data */
 451  };
 452
 453test:
 454=====
 455
 456.. code-block:: c
 457
 458  debug_info_t *debug_info;
 459  int i;
 460  ...
 461  debug_info = debug_register("test", 0, 4, 4);
 462  debug_register_view(debug_info, &debug_test_view);
 463  for (i = 0; i < 10; i ++)
 464    debug_int_event(debug_info, 1, i);
 465
 466::
 467
 468  > cat /sys/kernel/debug/s390dbf/test/myview
 469  00 00964419734:611402 1 - 00 88042ca   This error...........
 470  00 00964419734:611405 1 - 00 88042ca   That error...........
 471  00 00964419734:611408 1 - 00 88042ca   Problem..............
 472  00 00964419734:611411 1 - 00 88042ca   Something went wrong.
 473  00 00964419734:611414 1 - 00 88042ca   Everything ok........
 474  00 00964419734:611417 1 - 00 88042ca   data: 00000005
 475  00 00964419734:611419 1 - 00 88042ca   data: 00000006
 476  00 00964419734:611422 1 - 00 88042ca   data: 00000007
 477  00 00964419734:611425 1 - 00 88042ca   data: 00000008
 478  00 00964419734:611428 1 - 00 88042ca   data: 00000009
 479