The uftrace tool is to trace and analyze execution of a program written in C/C++. It was heavily inspired by the ftrace framework of the Linux kernel (especially function graph tracer) and supports userspace programs. It supports various kind of commands and filters to help analysis of the program execution and performance.
- Homepage: https://github.com/namhyung/uftrace
- Tutorial: https://github.com/namhyung/uftrace/wiki/Tutorial
- Chat: https://gitter.im/uftrace/uftrace
It traces each function in the executable and shows time duration. It can also trace external library calls - but only entry and exit are supported and cannot trace internal function calls in the library call unless the library itself built with profiling enabled.
It can show detailed execution flow at function level, and report which function has the highest overhead. And it also shows various information related the execution environment.
You can setup filters to exclude or include specific functions when tracing. In addition, it can save and show function arguments and return value.
It supports multi-process and/or multi-threaded applications. With root
privilege, it can also trace kernel functions as well( with -k option)
if the system enables the function graph tracer in the kernel
(CONFIG_FUNCTION_GRAPH_TRACER=y).
The uftrace command has following subcommands:
record: runs a program and saves the trace datareplay: shows program execution in the trace datareport: shows performance statistics in the trace datalive: does record and replay in a row (default)info: shows system and program info in the trace datadump: shows low-level trace datarecv: saves the trace data from networkgraph: shows function call graph in the trace data
You can use -? or --help option to see available commands and options.
$ uftrace
Usage: uftrace [OPTION...]
[record|replay|live|report|info|dump|recv|graph] [<program>]
Try `uftrace --help' or `uftrace --usage' for more information.
If omitted, it defaults to the live command which is almost same as running
record and replay subcommand in a row (but does not record the trace info
to files).
For recording, the executable should be compiled with -pg
(or -finstrument-functions) option which generates profiling code
(calling mcount or __cyg_profile_func_enter/exit) for each function.
$ uftrace tests/t-abc
# DURATION TID FUNCTION
16.134 us [ 1892] | __monstartup();
223.736 us [ 1892] | __cxa_atexit();
[ 1892] | main() {
[ 1892] | a() {
[ 1892] | b() {
[ 1892] | c() {
2.579 us [ 1892] | getpid();
3.739 us [ 1892] | } /* c */
4.376 us [ 1892] | } /* b */
4.962 us [ 1892] | } /* a */
5.769 us [ 1892] | } /* main */
For more analysis, you'd be better recording it first so that it can run analysis commands like replay, report, graph, dump and/or info multiple times.
$ uftrace record tests/t-abc
It'll create uftrace.data directory that contains trace data files.
Other analysis commands expect the directory exists in the current directory,
but one can use another using -d option.
The replay command shows execution information like above. As you can see,
the t-abc is a very simple program merely calls a, b and c functions.
In the c function it called getpid() which is a library function implemented
in the C library (glibc) on normal systems - the same goes to __cxa_atexit().
Users can use various filter options to limit functions it records/prints.
The depth filter (-D option) is to omit functions under the given call depth.
The time filter (-t option) is to omit functions running less than the given
time. And the function filters (-F and -N options) are to show/hide functions
under the given function.
The -k option enables to trace kernel functions as well (needs root access).
With the classic hello world program, the output would look like below (Note,
I changed it to use fprintf() with stderr rather than the plain printf() to make
it invoke system call directly):
$ sudo uftrace -k hello
Hello world
# DURATION TID FUNCTION
1.365 us [21901] | __monstartup();
0.951 us [21901] | __cxa_atexit();
[21901] | main() {
[21901] | fprintf() {
3.569 us [21901] | __do_page_fault();
10.127 us [21901] | sys_write();
20.103 us [21901] | } /* fprintf */
21.286 us [21901] | } /* main */
You can see the page fault handler and the write syscall handler were called inside the fprintf() call.
Also it can record and show function arguments and return value with -A and
-R options respectively. The following example records first argument and
return value of 'fib' (fibonacci number) function.
$ uftrace record -A fib@arg1 -R fib@retval fibonacci 5
$ uftrace replay
# DURATION TID FUNCTION
2.853 us [22080] | __monstartup();
2.194 us [22080] | __cxa_atexit();
[22080] | main() {
2.706 us [22080] | atoi();
[22080] | fib(5) {
[22080] | fib(4) {
[22080] | fib(3) {
7.473 us [22080] | fib(2) = 1;
0.419 us [22080] | fib(1) = 1;
11.452 us [22080] | } = 2; /* fib */
0.460 us [22080] | fib(2) = 1;
13.823 us [22080] | } = 3; /* fib */
[22080] | fib(3) {
0.424 us [22080] | fib(2) = 1;
0.437 us [22080] | fib(1) = 1;
2.860 us [22080] | } = 2; /* fib */
19.600 us [22080] | } = 5; /* fib */
25.024 us [22080] | } /* main */
The report command lets you know which function spends the longest time
including its children (total time).
$ uftrace report
Total time Self time Calls Function
========== ========== ========== ====================================
25.024 us 2.718 us 1 main
19.600 us 19.600 us 9 fib
2.853 us 2.853 us 1 __monstartup
2.706 us 2.706 us 1 atoi
2.194 us 2.194 us 1 __cxa_atexit
The graph command shows function call graph of given function. In the above
example, function graph of function 'main' looks like below:
$ uftrace graph main
#
# function graph for 'main' (session: 8823ea321c31e531)
#
backtrace
================================
backtrace #0: hit 1, time 25.024 us
[0] main (0x40066b)
calling functions
================================
25.024 us : (1) main
2.706 us : +-(1) atoi
: |
19.600 us : +-(1) fib
16.683 us : (2) fib
12.773 us : (4) fib
7.892 us : (2) fib
The dump command shows raw output of each trace record. You can see the result
in the chrome browser, once the data is processed with uftrace dump --chrome.
Below is a trace of clang (LLVM) compiling a small C++ template metaprogram.
The info command shows system and program information when recorded.
$ uftrace info
# system information
# ==================
# program version : uftrace v0.6
# recorded on : Tue May 24 11:21:59 2016
# cmdline : uftrace record tests/t-abc
# cpu info : Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-3930K CPU @ 3.20GHz
# number of cpus : 12 / 12 (online / possible)
# memory info : 20.1 / 23.5 GB (free / total)
# system load : 0.00 / 0.06 / 0.06 (1 / 5 / 15 min)
# kernel version : Linux 4.5.4-1-ARCH
# hostname : sejong
# distro : "Arch Linux"
#
# process information
# ===================
# number of tasks : 1
# task list : 5098
# exe image : /home/namhyung/project/uftrace/tests/t-abc
# build id : a3c50d25f7dd98dab68e94ef0f215edb06e98434
# exit status : exited with code: 0
# cpu time : 0.000 / 0.003 sec (sys / user)
# context switch : 1 / 1 (voluntary / involuntary)
# max rss : 3072 KB
# page fault : 0 / 172 (major / minor)
# disk iops : 0 / 24 (read / write)
The uftrace is written in C and tried to minimize external dependencies.
Currently it requires libelf in elfutils package to build, and there're some
more optional dependencies.
Once you installed required software(s) on your system, it can be built and installed like following:
$ make
$ sudo make install
For more advanced setup, please refer INSTALL.md file.
- It can only trace a native C/C++ application compiled with -pg option.
- It cannot trace already running process.
- It cannot be used for system-wide tracing.
- It only supports x86_64 and ARM (v6,7) for now.
The uftrace program is released under GPL v2. See COPYING file for details.