prex(1) User Commands prex(1)NAMEprex - control tracing and manipulate probe points in a process or the
kernel
SYNOPSISprex [-o trace_file_name] [-l libraries] [-s kbytes_size] cmd
[cmd-args]...
prex [-o trace_file_name] [-l libraries] [-s kbytes_size] -p pid
prex-k [-s kbytes_size]
DESCRIPTION
The prex command is the part of the Solaris tracing architecture that
controls probes in a process or the kernel. See tracing(3TNF) for an
overview of this tracing architecture, including example source code
using it.
prex is the application used for external control of probes. It auto‐
matically preloads the libtnfprobe library. prex locates all the probes
in a target executable or the kernel and provides an interface for the
user to manipulate them. It allows a probe to be turned on for tracing,
debugging, or both. Tracing generates a TNF (Trace Normal Form) trace
file that can be converted to ASCII by tnfdump(1) and used for perfor‐
mance analysis. Debugging generates a line to standard error whenever
the probe is hit at run time.
prex does not work on static executables. It only works on dynamic exe‐
cutables.
Invoking prex
There are three ways to invoke prex:
1. Use prex to start the target application cmd. In this case,
the target application need not be built with a dependency
on libtnfprobe. See TNF_PROBE(3TNF). prex sets the environ‐
ment variable LD_PRELOAD to load libtnfprobe into the target
process. See ld(1). prex then uses the environment variable
PATH to find the target application.
2. Attach prex to a running application. In this case, the run‐
ning target application should have libtnfprobe already
linked in. Alternatively, the user may manually set
LD_PRELOAD to include libtnfprobe.so.1 prior to invoking the
target.
3. Use prex with the -k option to set prex to kernel mode. prex
can then be used to control probes in the Solaris kernel. In
kernel mode, additional commands are defined, and some com‐
mands that are valid in other modes are invalid. See Kernel
Mode below.
Control File Format and Command Language
In a future release of prex, the command language may be moved to a
syntax that is supported by an existing scripting language like ksh(1).
In the meantime, the interface to prex is uncommitted.
o Commands should be in ASCII.
o Each command is terminated with the NEWLINE character.
o A command can be continued onto the next line by ending the
previous line with the backslash ("\") character.
o Tokens in a command must be separated by whitespace (one or
more spaces or tabs).
o The "#" character implies that the rest of the line is a
comment.
Basic prex Commands
Command Result
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
% prex a.out Attaches prex to your pro‐
gram and starts prex.
prex> enable $all Enables all the probes.
prex> quit resume Quits prex and resumes exe‐
cution of program.
Control File Search Path
There are two different methods of communicating with prex:
o By specifications in a control file. During start-up, prex
searches for a file named .prexrc in the directories speci‐
fied below. prex does not stop at the first one it finds.
This way a user can override any defaults that are set up.
The search order is:
$HOME/
./
o By typing commands at the prex prompt.
The command language for both methods is the same and is specified in
USAGE. The commands that return output will not make sense in a control
file. The output will go to standard output.
When using prex on a target process, the target will be in one of two
states, running or stopped. This can be detected by the presence or
absence of the prex> prompt. If the prompt is absent, it means that the
target process is running. Typing Control-C will stop the target pr
ocess and return the user to the prompt. There is no guarantee that
Control-C will return to a prex prompt immediately. For example, if the
target process is stopped on a job control stop (SIGSTOP), then Con‐
trol-C in prex will wait until the target has been continued (SIGCONT).
See Signals to Target Program below for more information on signals and
the target process.
OPTIONS
The following options are supported:
-k kernel mode: prex is used to control probes in
the Solaris kernel. In kernel mode, additional
commands are defined, and some commands valid in
other modes are invalid. See Kernel Mode below.
-l libraries The libraries mentioned are linked in to the tar‐
get application using LD_PRELOAD (see ld(1)).
This option cannot be used when attaching to a
running process. The argument to the -l option
should be a space-separated string enclosed in
double quotes. Each token in the string is a
library name. It follows the LD_PRELOAD rules on
how libraries should be specified and where they
will be found.
-o trace_file_name File to be used for the trace output.
trace_file_name is assumed to be relative to the
current working directory of prex (that is, the
directory that the user was in when prex was
started).
If prex attaches to a process that is already
tracing, the new trace_file_name (if provided)
will not be used. If no trace_file_name is speci‐
fied, the default is /$TMPDIR/trace-pid where pid
is the process id of the target program. If
TMPDIR is not set, /tmp is used.
-s kbytes_size Maximum size of the output trace file in Kbytes.
The default size of the trace kbytes_size is 4096
(2^10) bytes or 4 Mbytes for normal usage, and
384 or 384 kbytes in kernel mode. The minimum
size that can be specified is 128 Kbytes. The
trace file can be thought of as a least recently
used circular buffer. Once the file has been
filled, newer events will overwrite the older
ones.
USAGE
This section describes the usage of the prex utility.
Grammar
Probes are specified by a list of space-separated selectors. Selectors
are of the form:
attribute=value
(See TNF_PROBE(3TNF)). The "attribute=" is optional. If it is not spec‐
ified, it defaults to "keys=".
The attribute or value (generically called "spec") can be any of the
following:
IDENT Any sequence of letters, digits, _, \, ., % not beginning
with a digit. IDENT implies an exact match.
QUOTED_STR Usually used to escape reserved words (any commands in
the command language). QUOTED_STR implies an exact match
and has to be enclosed in single quotes (' ').
REGEXP An ed(1) regular expression pattern match. REGEXP has to
be enclosed in slashes (/ /), A / can be included in a
REGEXP by escaping it with a backslash \.
The following grammar explains the syntax.
selector_list ::= | /* empty */
selector_list selector
selector ::= spec=spec | /* whitespace around `=' opt */
spec
spec ::= IDENT |
QUOTED_STR |
REGEXP
The terminals in the above grammar are:
IDENT = [a-zA-Z_\.%]{[a-zA-Z0-9_\.%]}+
QUOTED_STR = '[^\n']*' /* any string in single quotes */
REGEXP = /[^\n/]*/ /* regexp's have to be in / / */
This is a list of the remaining grammar that is needed to understand
the syntax of the command language (defined in next subsection):
filename ::= QUOTED_STR /* QUOTED_STR defined above */
spec_list ::= /* empty */ |
spec_list spec /* spec defined above */
fcn_handle ::= &IDENT /* IDENT defined above */
set_name ::= $IDENT /* IDENT defined above */
Command Language
1. Set Creation and Set Listing
create $set_name selector_list
list sets # list the defined sets
create can be used to define a set which contains probes
that match the selector_list. The set $all is pre-defined as
/.*/ and it matches all the probes.
2. Function Listing
list fcns # list the available fcn_handle
The user can list the different functions that can be con‐
nected to probe points. Currently, only the debug function
called &debug is available.
3. Commands to Connect and Disconnect Probe Functions
connect &fcn_handle $set_name
connect &fcn_handle selector_list
clear $set_name
clear selector_list
The connect command is used to connect probe functions
(which must be prefixed by `&') to probes. The probes are
specified either as a single set (with a `$'), or by explic‐
itly listing the probe selectors in the command. The probe
function has to be one that is listed by the list fcns com‐
mand. This command does not enable the probes.
The clear command is used to disconnect all connected probe
functions from the specified probes.
4. Commands to Toggle the Tracing Mode
trace $set_name
trace selector_list
untrace $set_name
untrace selector_list
The trace and untrace commands are used to toggle the trac‐
ing action of a probe point (that is, whether a probe will
emit a trace record or not if it is hit). This command does
not enable the probes specified. Probes have tracing on by
default. The most efficient way to turn off tracing is by
using the disable command. untrace is useful if you want
debug output but no tracing. If so, set the state of the
probe to enabled, untraced, and the debug function con‐
nected.
5. Commands to Enable and Disable Probes
enable $set_name
enable selector_list
disable $set_name
disable selector_list
The enable and disable commands are used to control whether
the probes perform the action that they have been set up
for. To trace a probe, it has to be both enabled and traced
(using the trace command). Probes are disabled by default.
The list history command is used to list the probe control
commands issued: connect, clear, trace, untrace, enable, and
disable. These are the commands that are executed whenever a
new shared object is brought in to the target program by
dlopen(3C). See the subsection, dlopen'ed Libraries, below
for more information.
The following table shows the actions that result from spe‐
cific combinations of tracing, enabling, and connecting:
Enabled or Tracing State Debug State Results
Disabled (On/Off) (Connected/Cleared) In
------------------------------------------------------------
Enabled On Connected Tracing and
Debugging
Enabled On Cleared Tracing only
Enabled Off Connected Debugging only
Enabled Off Cleared Nothing
Disabled On Connected Nothing
Disabled On Cleared Nothing
Disabled Off Connected Nothing
Disabled Off Cleared Nothing
6. List History
list history # lists probe control command history
The list history command displays a list of the probe con‐
trol commands previously issued in the tracing session, for
example, connect, clear, trace, disable. Commands in the
history list are executed wherever a new shared object is
brought into the target program by dlopen(3C).
7. Commands to List Probes, List Values, or List Trace File
Name
list spec_list probes $set_name # list probes $all
list spec_list probes selector_list # list name probes file=test.c
list values spec_list # list values keys given in spec_list
list tracefile # list tracefile
The first two commands list the selected attributes and val‐
ues of the specified probes. They can be used to check the
state of a probe. The third command lists the various values
associated with the selected attributes. The fourth command
lists the current tracefile.
8. Help Command
help topic
To get a list of the help topics that are available, invoke
the help command with no arguments. If a topic argument is
specified, help is printed for that topic.
9. Source a File
source filename
The source command can be used to source a file of prex com‐
mands. source can be nested (that is, a file can source
another file). filename is a quoted string.
10. Process Control
continue # resumes the target process
quit kill # quit prex, kill target
quit resume # quit prex, continue target
quit suspend # quit prex, leave target suspended
quit # quit prex (continue or kill target)
The default quit will continue the target process if prex
attached to it. Instead, if prex had started the target pro‐
gram, quit will kill the target process.
dlopen'ed Libraries
Probes in shared objects that are brought in by dlopen(3C) are automat‐
ically set up according to the command history of prex. When a shared
object is removed by a dlclose(3C), prex again needs to refresh its
understanding of the probes in the target program. This implies that
there is more work to do for dlopen(3C) and dlclose(3C) —so they will
take slightly longer. If a user is not interested in this feature and
doesn't want to interfere with dlopen(3C) and dlclose(3C), detach prex
from the target to inhibit this feature.
Signals to Target Program
prex does not interfere with signals that are delivered directly to the
target program. However, prex receives all signals normally generated
from the terminal, for example, Control-C (SIGINT), and Control-Z
(SIGSTOP), and does not forward them to the target program. To signal
the target program, use the kill(1) command from a shell.
Interactions with Other Applications
Process managing applications like dbx, truss(1), and prex cannot oper‐
ate on the same target program simultaneously. prex will not be able to
attach to a target which is being controlled by another application. A
user can trace and debug a program serially by the following method:
first attach prex to target (or start target through prex), set up the
probes using the command language, and then type quit suspend. The user
can then attach dbx to the suspended process and debug it. A user can
also suspend the target by sending it a SIGSTOP signal, and then by
typing quit resume to prex. In this case, the user should also send a
SIGCONT signal after invoking dbx on the stopped process (else dbx will
be hung).
Failure of Event Writing Operations
There are a few failure points that are possible when writing out
events to a trace file, for example, system call failures. These fail‐
ures result in a failure code being set in the target process. The tar‐
get process continues normally, but no trace records are written. When‐
ever a user enters Control-C to prex to get to a prex prompt, prex will
check the failure code in the target and inform the user if there was a
tracing failure.
Target Executing a Fork or exec
If the target program does a fork(2), any probes that the child encoun‐
ters will cause events to be logged to the same trace file. Events are
annotated with a process id, so it will be possible to determine which
process a particular event came from. In multi-threaded programs, there
is a race condition with a thread doing a fork while the other threads
are still running. For the trace file not to get corrupted, the user
should either use fork1(2), or make sure that all other threads are
quiescent when doing a fork(2),
If the target program itself (not any children it may fork(2)) does an
exec(2), prex detaches from the target and exits. The user can recon‐
nect prex with prex-p pid.
A vfork(2) is generally followed quickly by an exec(2) in the child,
and in the interim, the child borrows the parent's process while the
parent waits for the exec(2). Any events logged by the child from the
parent process will appear to have been logged by the parent.
Kernel Mode
Invoking prex with the -k flag causes prex to run in kernel mode. In
kernel mode, prex controls probes in the Solaris kernel. See tnf_ker‐
nel_probes(4) for a list of available probes in the Solaris kernel. A
few prex commands are unavailable in kernel mode; many other commands
are valid in kernel mode only.
The -l, -o, and -p command-line options are not valid in kernel mode
(that is, they may not be combined with the -k flag).
The rest of this section describes the differences in the prex command
language when running prex in kernel mode.
1. prex will not stop the kernel
When prex attaches to a running user program, it stops the
user program. Obviously, it cannot do this when attaching to
the kernel. Instead, prex provides a ``tracing master
switch'': no probes will have any effect unless the tracing
master switch is on. This allows the user to iteratively
select probes to enable, then enable them all at once by
turning on the master switch.
The command
ktrace [ on | off ]
is used to inspect and set the value of the master switch.
Without an argument, prex reports the current state of the
master switch.
Since prex will not stop or kill the kernel, the
quit resume
and
quit kill
commands are not valid in kernel mode.
2. No functions may be attached to probes in the kernel
In particular, the debug function is unavailable in kernel
mode.
3. Trace output is written to an in-core buffer
In kernel mode, a trace output file is not generated
directly, in order to allow probes to be placed in time-
critical code. Instead, trace output is written to an in-
core buffer, and copied out by a separate program, tnfx‐
tract(1).
The in-core buffer is not automatically created. The follow‐
ing prex command controls buffer allocation and dealloca‐
tion:
buffer [ alloc [ size ] | dealloc ]
Without an argument, the buffer command reports the size of
the currently allocated buffer, if any. With an argument of
alloc [size], prex allocates a buffer of the given size.
size is in bytes, with an optional suffix of 'k' or 'm'
specifying a multiplier of 1024 or 1048576, respectively. If
no size is specified, the size specified on the command
line with the -s option is used as a default. If the -s com‐
mand line option was not used, the ``default default'' is
384 kilobytes.
With an argument of dealloc, prex deallocates the trace buf‐
fer in the kernel.
prex will reject attempts to turn the tracing master switch
on when no buffer is allocated, and to deallocate the buffer
when the tracing master switch is on. prex will refuse to
allocate a buffer when one is already allocated; use buffer
dealloc first.
prex will not allocate a buffer larger than one-half of a
machine's physical memory.
4. prex supports per-process probe enabling in the kernel
In kernel mode, it is possible to select a set of processes
for which probes are enabled. No trace output will be writ‐
ten when other processes traverse these probe points. This
is called "process filter mode". By default, process filter
mode is off, and all processes cause the generation of trace
records when they hit an enabled probe.
Some kernel events such as interrupts cannot be associated
with a particular user process. By convention, these events
are considered to be generated by process id 0.
prex provides commands to turn process filter mode on and
off, to get the current status of the process filter mode
switch, to add and delete processes (by process id) from the
process filter set, and to list the current process filter
set.
The process filter set is maintained even when process fil‐
ter mode is off, but has no effect unless process filter
mode is on.
When a process in the process filter set exits, its process
id is automatically deleted from the process filter set.
The command:
pfilter [ on | off | add pidlist | delete pidlist ]
controls the process filter switch, and process filter set
membership. With no arguments, pfilter prints the current
process filter set and the state of the process filter mode
switch:
on or off set the state of the process filter mode switch.
add pidlist add or delete processes from the process filter
delete pidlist set. pidlist is a comma-separated list of one or
more process ids.
EXAMPLES
See tracing(3TNF) for complete examples showing, among other things,
the use of prex to do simple probe control.
When either the process or kernel is started, all probes are disabled.
Example 1 Set creation and set listing
create $out name=/out/ # $out = probes with "out" in
# value of "name" attribute
create $foo /page/ name=biodone # $foo = union of
# probes with "page" in value of keys attribute
# probes with "biodone" as value of "name" attribute
list sets # list the defined sets
list fcns # list the defined probe fcns
Example 2 Commands to trace and connect probe functions
trace foobar='on' # exact match on foobar attribute
trace $all # trace all probes (predefined set $all)
connect &debug $foo # connect debug func to probes in $foo
Example 3 Commands to enable and disable probes
enable $all # enable all probes
enable /vm/ name=alloc # enable the specified probes
disable $foo # disable probes in set $foo
list history # list probe control commands issued
Example 4 Process control
continue # resumes the target process
^C # stop target; give control to prex
quit resume # exit prex, leave process running
# and resume execution of program
Example 5 Kernel mode
buffer alloc 2m # allocate a 2 Megabyte buffer
enable $all # enable all probes
trace $all # trace all probes
ktrace on # turn tracing on
ktrace off # turn tracing back off
pfilter on # turn process filter mode on
pfilter add 1379 # add pid 1379 to process filter
ktrace on # turn tracing on
# (only pid 1379 will be traced)
FILES
.prexrc local prex initialization file
~/.prexrc user's prex initialization file
/proc/nnnnn process files
ATTRIBUTES
See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:
┌─────────────────────────────┬─────────────────────────────┐
│ ATTRIBUTE TYPE │ ATTRIBUTE VALUE │
├─────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────┤
│Availability │system/tnf │
└─────────────────────────────┴─────────────────────────────┘
SEE ALSOed(1), kill(1), ksh(1), ld(1), tnfdump(1), tnfxtract(1), truss(1),
exec(2), fork(2), fork1(2), vfork(2), TNF_DECLARE_RECORD(3TNF),
TNF_PROBE(3TNF), dlclose(3C), dlopen(3C), gethrtime(3C), libtn‐
fctl(3TNF), tnf_process_disable(3TNF), tracing(3TNF), tnf_ker‐
nel_probes(4), attributes(5)NOTES
Currently, the only probe function that is available is the &debug
function. When this function is executed, it prints out the arguments
sent in to the probe as well as the value associated with the
sunw%debug attribute in the detail field (if any) to stderr.
For example, for the following probe point:
TNF_PROBE_2(input_values, "testapp main",
"sunw%debug 'have read input values successfully'",
tnf_long, int_input, x,
tnf_string, string_input, input);
If x was 100 and input was the string "success", then the output of the
debug probe function would be:
probe input_values; sunw%debug "have read input values successfully";
int_input=100; string_input="success";
Some non-SPARC hardware lacks a true high-resolution timer, causing
gethrtime() to return the same value multiple times in succession. This
can lead to problems in how some tools interpret the trace file. This
situation can be improved by interposing a version of gethrtime(),
which causes these successive values to be artificially incremented by
one nanosecond:
hrtime_t
gethrtime()
{
static mutex_t lock;
static hrtime_t (*real_gethrtime)(void) = NULL;
static hrtime_t last_time = 0;
hrtime_t this_time;
if (real_gethrtime == NULL) {
real_gethrtime =
(hrtime_t (*)(void)) dlsym(RTLD_NEXT, "gethrtime");
}
this_time = real_gethrtime();
mutex_lock(&lock);
if (this_time <= last_time)
this_time = ++last_time;
else
last_time = this_time;
mutex_unlock(&lock);
return (this_time);
}
Of course, this does not increase the resolution of the timer, so time‐
stamps for individual events are still relatively inaccurate. But this
technique maintains ordering, so that if event A causes event B, B
never appears to happen before or at the same time as A.
dbx is available with the Sun Workshop Products.
BUGSprex should issue a notification when a process id has been automati‐
cally deleted from the filter set.
There is a known bug in prex which can result in this message:
Tracing shut down in target program due to an internal
error - Please restart prex and target
When prex runs as root, and the target process is not root, and the
tracefile is placed in a directory where it cannot be removed and re-
created (a directory with the sticky bit on, like /tmp),mm then the
target process will not be able to open the tracefile when it needs to.
This results in tracing being disabled.
Changing any of the circumstances listed above should fix the problem.
Either don't run prex as root, or run the target process as root, or
specify the tracefile in a directory other than /tmp.
SunOS 5.11 1 Mar 2004 prex(1)
