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)
NOTE: To actually get the debug-print output on the console, you may
need to adjust the kernel loglevel=
, or use ignore_loglevel
. Read
about these kernel parameters in
Documentation/admin-guide/kernel-parameters.rst.
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 ::: title 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.