Dynamic debug¶

Introduction¶

Dynamic debug allows you to dynamically enable/disable kernel debug-print code to obtain additional kernel information.

If /proc/dynamic_debug/control exists, your kernel has dynamic debug. You’ll need root access (sudo su) to use this.

Dynamic debug provides:

a Catalog of all prdbgs in your kernel. cat /proc/dynamic_debug/control to see them.

a Simple query/command language to alter prdbgs by selecting on any combination of 0 or 1 of:

source filename

function name

line number (including ranges of line numbers)

module name

format string

class name (as known/declared by each module)

Viewing Dynamic Debug Behaviour¶

You can view the currently configured behaviour in the prdbg catalog:

:#> head -n7 /proc/dynamic_debug/control
# filename:lineno [module]function flags format
init/main.c:1179 [main]initcall_blacklist =_ "blacklisting initcall %s\012
init/main.c:1218 [main]initcall_blacklisted =_ "initcall %s blacklisted\012"
init/main.c:1424 [main]run_init_process =_ "  with arguments:\012"
init/main.c:1426 [main]run_init_process =_ "    %s\012"
init/main.c:1427 [main]run_init_process =_ "  with environment:\012"
init/main.c:1429 [main]run_init_process =_ "    %s\012"

The 3rd space-delimited column shows the current flags, preceded by a = for easy use with grep/cut. =p shows enabled callsites.

Controlling dynamic debug Behaviour¶

The behaviour of prdbg sites are controlled by writing query/commands to the control file. Example:

# grease the interface
:#> alias ddcmd='echo $* > /proc/dynamic_debug/control'

:#> ddcmd '-p; module main func run* +p'
:#> grep =p /proc/dynamic_debug/control
init/main.c:1424 [main]run_init_process =p "  with arguments:\012"
init/main.c:1426 [main]run_init_process =p "    %s\012"
init/main.c:1427 [main]run_init_process =p "  with environment:\012"
init/main.c:1429 [main]run_init_process =p "    %s\012"

Error messages go to console/syslog:

:#> ddcmd mode foo +p
dyndbg: unknown keyword "mode"
dyndbg: query parse failed
bash: echo: write error: Invalid argument

If debugfs is also enabled and mounted, dynamic_debug/control is also under the mount-dir, typically /sys/kernel/debug/.

Command Language Reference¶

At the basic lexical level, a command is a sequence of words separated by spaces or tabs. So these are all equivalent:

:#> ddcmd file svcsock.c line 1603 +p
:#> ddcmd "file svcsock.c line 1603 +p"
:#> ddcmd '  file   svcsock.c     line  1603 +p  '

Command submissions are bounded by a write() system call. Multiple commands can be written together, separated by ; or \n:

:#> ddcmd "func pnpacpi_get_resources +p; func pnp_assign_mem +p"
:#> ddcmd <<"EOC"
func pnpacpi_get_resources +p
func pnp_assign_mem +p
EOC
:#> cat query-batch-file > /proc/dynamic_debug/control

You can also use wildcards in each query term. The match rule supports * (matches zero or more characters) and ? (matches exactly one character). For example, you can match all usb drivers:

:#> ddcmd file "drivers/usb/*" +p     # "" to suppress shell expansion

Syntactically, a command is pairs of keyword values, followed by a flags change or setting:

command ::= match-spec* flags-spec

The match-spec’s select prdbgs from the catalog, upon which to apply the flags-spec, all constraints are ANDed together. An absent keyword is the same as keyword “*”.

A match specification is a keyword, which selects the attribute of the callsite to be compared, and a value to compare against. Possible keywords are::

match-spec ::= 'func' string |
               'file' string |
               'module' string |
               'format' string |
               'class' string |
               'line' line-range

line-range ::= lineno |
               '-'lineno |
               lineno'-' |
               lineno'-'lineno

lineno ::= unsigned-int

Note

line-range cannot contain space, e.g. “1-30” is valid range but “1 - 30” is not.

The meanings of each keyword are:

func

The given string is compared against the function name of each callsite. Example:

func svc_tcp_accept
func *recv*             # in rfcomm, bluetooth, ping, tcp

file

The given string is compared against either the src-root relative pathname, or the basename of the source file of each callsite. Examples:

file svcsock.c
file kernel/freezer.c   # ie column 1 of control file
file drivers/usb/*      # all callsites under it
file inode.c:start_*    # parse :tail as a func (above)
file inode.c:1-100      # parse :tail as a line-range (above)

module

The given string is compared against the module name of each callsite. The module name is the string as seen in lsmod, i.e. without the directory or the .ko suffix and with - changed to _. Examples:

module sunrpc
module nfsd
module drm*     # both drm, drm_kms_helper

format

The given string is searched for in the dynamic debug format string. Note that the string does not need to match the entire format, only some part. Whitespace and other special characters can be escaped using C octal character escape \ooo notation, e.g. the space character is \040. Alternatively, the string can be enclosed in double quote characters (") or single quote characters ('). Examples:

format svcrdma:         // many of the NFS/RDMA server pr_debugs
format readahead        // some pr_debugs in the readahead cache
format nfsd:\040SETATTR // one way to match a format with whitespace
format "nfsd: SETATTR"  // a neater way to match a format with whitespace
format 'nfsd: SETATTR'  // yet another way to match a format with whitespace

class

The given class_name is validated against each module, which may have declared a list of known class_names. If the class_name is found for a module, callsite & class matching and adjustment proceeds. Examples:

class DRM_UT_KMS        # a DRM.debug category
class JUNK              # silent non-match
// class TLD_*          # NOTICE: no wildcard in class names

line

The given line number or range of line numbers is compared against the line number of each pr_debug() callsite. A single line number matches the callsite line number exactly. A range of line numbers matches any callsite between the first and last line number inclusive. An empty first number means the first line in the file, an empty last line number means the last line number in the file. Examples:

line 1603           // exactly line 1603
line 1600-1605      // the six lines from line 1600 to line 1605
line -1605          // the 1605 lines from line 1 to line 1605
line 1600-          // all lines from line 1600 to the end of the file

The flags specification comprises a change operation followed by one or more flag characters. The change operation is one of the characters:

-    remove the given flags
+    add the given flags
=    set the flags to the given flags

The flags are:

p    enables the pr_debug() callsite.
_    enables no flags.

Decorator flags add to the message-prefix, in order:
t    Include thread ID, or <intr>
m    Include module name
f    Include the function name
s    Include the source file name
l    Include line number

For print_hex_dump_debug() and print_hex_dump_bytes(), only the p flag has meaning, other flags are ignored.

Note the regexp ^[-+=][fslmpt_]+$ matches a flags specification. To clear all flags at once, use =_ or -fslmpt.

Debug messages during Boot Process¶

To activate debug messages for core code and built-in modules during the boot process, even before userspace and debugfs exists, use dyndbg="QUERY" or module.dyndbg="QUERY". QUERY follows the syntax described above, but must not exceed 1023 characters. Your bootloader may impose lower limits.

These dyndbg params are processed just after the ddebug tables are processed, as part of the early_initcall. Thus you can enable debug messages in all code run after this early_initcall via this boot parameter.

On an x86 system for example ACPI enablement is a subsys_initcall and:

dyndbg="file ec.c +p"

will show early Embedded Controller transactions during ACPI setup if your machine (typically a laptop) has an Embedded Controller. PCI (or other devices) initialization also is a hot candidate for using this boot parameter for debugging purposes.

If foo module is not built-in, foo.dyndbg will still be processed at boot time, without effect, but will be reprocessed when module is loaded later. Bare dyndbg= is only processed at boot.

Debug Messages at Module Initialization Time¶

When modprobe foo is called, modprobe scans /proc/cmdline for foo.params, strips foo., and passes them to the kernel along with params given in modprobe args or /etc/modprobe.d/*.conf files, in the following order:

parameters given via /etc/modprobe.d/*.conf:

options foo dyndbg=+pt
options foo dyndbg # defaults to +p

foo.dyndbg as given in boot args, foo. is stripped and passed:
```
foo.dyndbg=" func bar +p; func buz +mp"
```

args to modprobe:

modprobe foo dyndbg==pmf # override previous settings

These dyndbg queries are applied in order, with last having final say. This allows boot args to override or modify those from /etc/modprobe.d (sensible, since 1 is system wide, 2 is kernel or boot specific), and modprobe args to override both.

In the foo.dyndbg="QUERY" form, the query must exclude module foo. foo is extracted from the param-name, and applied to each query in QUERY, and only 1 match-spec of each type is allowed.

The dyndbg option is a “fake” module parameter, which means:

modules do not need to define it explicitly
every module gets it tacitly, whether they use pr_debug or not
it doesn’t appear in /sys/module/$module/parameters/ To see it, grep the control file, or inspect /proc/cmdline.

For CONFIG_DYNAMIC_DEBUG kernels, any settings given at boot-time (or enabled by -DDEBUG flag during compilation) can be disabled later via the debugfs interface if the debug messages are no longer needed:

echo "module module_name -p" > /proc/dynamic_debug/control

Examples¶

// enable the message at line 1603 of file svcsock.c
:#> ddcmd 'file svcsock.c line 1603 +p'

// enable all the messages in file svcsock.c
:#> ddcmd 'file svcsock.c +p'

// enable all the messages in the NFS server module
:#> ddcmd 'module nfsd +p'

// enable all 12 messages in the function svc_process()
:#> ddcmd 'func svc_process +p'

// disable all 12 messages in the function svc_process()
:#> ddcmd 'func svc_process -p'

// enable messages for NFS calls READ, READLINK, READDIR and READDIR+.
:#> ddcmd 'format "nfsd: READ" +p'

// enable messages in files of which the paths include string "usb"
:#> ddcmd 'file *usb* +p'

// enable all messages
:#> ddcmd '+p'

// add module, function to all enabled messages
:#> ddcmd '+mf'

// boot-args example, with newlines and comments for readability
Kernel command line: ...
  // see what's going on in dyndbg=value processing
  dynamic_debug.verbose=3
  // enable pr_debugs in the btrfs module (can be builtin or loadable)
  btrfs.dyndbg="+p"
  // enable pr_debugs in all files under init/
  // and the function parse_one, #cmt is stripped
  dyndbg="file init/* +p #cmt ; func parse_one +p"
  // enable pr_debugs in 2 functions in a module loaded later
  pc87360.dyndbg="func pc87360_init_device +p; func pc87360_find +p"

Kernel Configuration¶

Dynamic Debug is enabled via kernel config items:

CONFIG_DYNAMIC_DEBUG=y        # build catalog, enables CORE
CONFIG_DYNAMIC_DEBUG_CORE=y   # enable mechanics only, skip catalog

If you do not want to enable dynamic debug globally (i.e. in some embedded system), you may set CONFIG_DYNAMIC_DEBUG_CORE as basic support of dynamic debug and add ccflags := -DDYNAMIC_DEBUG_MODULE into the Makefile of any modules which you’d like to dynamically debug later.

Kernel prdbg API¶

The following functions are cataloged and controllable when dynamic debug is enabled:

pr_debug()
dev_dbg()
print_hex_dump_debug()
print_hex_dump_bytes()

Otherwise, they are off by default; ccflags += -DDEBUG or #define DEBUG in a source file will enable them appropriately.

If CONFIG_DYNAMIC_DEBUG is not set, print_hex_dump_debug() is just a shortcut for print_hex_dump(KERN_DEBUG).

For print_hex_dump_debug()/print_hex_dump_bytes(), format string is its prefix_str argument, if it is constant string; or hexdump in case prefix_str is built dynamically.

The Linux Kernel

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