|  | ==================== | 
|  | XRay Instrumentation | 
|  | ==================== | 
|  |  | 
|  | :Version: 1 as of 2016-11-08 | 
|  |  | 
|  | .. contents:: | 
|  | :local: | 
|  |  | 
|  |  | 
|  | Introduction | 
|  | ============ | 
|  |  | 
|  | XRay is a function call tracing system which combines compiler-inserted | 
|  | instrumentation points and a runtime library that can dynamically enable and | 
|  | disable the instrumentation. | 
|  |  | 
|  | More high level information about XRay can be found in the `XRay whitepaper`_. | 
|  |  | 
|  | This document describes how to use XRay as implemented in LLVM. | 
|  |  | 
|  | XRay in LLVM | 
|  | ============ | 
|  |  | 
|  | XRay consists of three main parts: | 
|  |  | 
|  | - Compiler-inserted instrumentation points. | 
|  | - A runtime library for enabling/disabling tracing at runtime. | 
|  | - A suite of tools for analysing the traces. | 
|  |  | 
|  | **NOTE:** As of July 25, 2018 , XRay is only available for the following | 
|  | architectures running Linux: x86_64, arm7 (no thumb), aarch64, powerpc64le, | 
|  | mips, mipsel, mips64, mips64el, NetBSD: x86_64, FreeBSD: x86_64 and | 
|  | OpenBSD: x86_64. | 
|  |  | 
|  | The compiler-inserted instrumentation points come in the form of nop-sleds in | 
|  | the final generated binary, and an ELF section named ``xray_instr_map`` which | 
|  | contains entries pointing to these instrumentation points. The runtime library | 
|  | relies on being able to access the entries of the ``xray_instr_map``, and | 
|  | overwrite the instrumentation points at runtime. | 
|  |  | 
|  | Using XRay | 
|  | ========== | 
|  |  | 
|  | You can use XRay in a couple of ways: | 
|  |  | 
|  | - Instrumenting your C/C++/Objective-C/Objective-C++ application. | 
|  | - Generating LLVM IR with the correct function attributes. | 
|  |  | 
|  | The rest of this section covers these main ways and later on how to customize | 
|  | what XRay does in an XRay-instrumented binary. | 
|  |  | 
|  | Instrumenting your C/C++/Objective-C Application | 
|  | ------------------------------------------------ | 
|  |  | 
|  | The easiest way of getting XRay instrumentation for your application is by | 
|  | enabling the ``-fxray-instrument`` flag in your clang invocation. | 
|  |  | 
|  | For example: | 
|  |  | 
|  | :: | 
|  |  | 
|  | clang -fxray-instrument ... | 
|  |  | 
|  | By default, functions that have at least 200 instructions (or contain a loop) will | 
|  | get XRay instrumentation points. You can tweak that number through the | 
|  | ``-fxray-instruction-threshold=`` flag: | 
|  |  | 
|  | :: | 
|  |  | 
|  | clang -fxray-instrument -fxray-instruction-threshold=1 ... | 
|  |  | 
|  | The loop detection can be disabled with ``-fxray-ignore-loops`` to use only the | 
|  | instruction threshold. You can also specifically instrument functions in your | 
|  | binary to either always or never be instrumented using source-level attributes. | 
|  | You can do it using the GCC-style attributes or C++11-style attributes. | 
|  |  | 
|  | .. code-block:: c++ | 
|  |  | 
|  | [[clang::xray_always_instrument]] void always_instrumented(); | 
|  |  | 
|  | [[clang::xray_never_instrument]] void never_instrumented(); | 
|  |  | 
|  | void alt_always_instrumented() __attribute__((xray_always_instrument)); | 
|  |  | 
|  | void alt_never_instrumented() __attribute__((xray_never_instrument)); | 
|  |  | 
|  | When linking a binary, you can either manually link in the `XRay Runtime | 
|  | Library`_ or use ``clang`` to link it in automatically with the | 
|  | ``-fxray-instrument`` flag. Alternatively, you can statically link-in the XRay | 
|  | runtime library from compiler-rt -- those archive files will take the name of | 
|  | `libclang_rt.xray-{arch}` where `{arch}` is the mnemonic supported by clang | 
|  | (x86_64, arm7, etc.). | 
|  |  | 
|  | LLVM Function Attribute | 
|  | ----------------------- | 
|  |  | 
|  | If you're using LLVM IR directly, you can add the ``function-instrument`` | 
|  | string attribute to your functions, to get the similar effect that the | 
|  | C/C++/Objective-C source-level attributes would get: | 
|  |  | 
|  | .. code-block:: llvm | 
|  |  | 
|  | define i32 @always_instrument() uwtable "function-instrument"="xray-always" { | 
|  | ; ... | 
|  | } | 
|  |  | 
|  | define i32 @never_instrument() uwtable "function-instrument"="xray-never" { | 
|  | ; ... | 
|  | } | 
|  |  | 
|  | You can also set the ``xray-instruction-threshold`` attribute and provide a | 
|  | numeric string value for how many instructions should be in the function before | 
|  | it gets instrumented. | 
|  |  | 
|  | .. code-block:: llvm | 
|  |  | 
|  | define i32 @maybe_instrument() uwtable "xray-instruction-threshold"="2" { | 
|  | ; ... | 
|  | } | 
|  |  | 
|  | Special Case File | 
|  | ----------------- | 
|  |  | 
|  | Attributes can be imbued through the use of special case files instead of | 
|  | adding them to the original source files. You can use this to mark certain | 
|  | functions and classes to be never, always, or instrumented with first-argument | 
|  | logging from a file. The file's format is described below: | 
|  |  | 
|  | .. code-block:: bash | 
|  |  | 
|  | # Comments are supported | 
|  | [always] | 
|  | fun:always_instrument | 
|  | fun:log_arg1=arg1 # Log the first argument for the function | 
|  |  | 
|  | [never] | 
|  | fun:never_instrument | 
|  |  | 
|  | These files can be provided through the ``-fxray-attr-list=`` flag to clang. | 
|  | You may have multiple files loaded through multiple instances of the flag. | 
|  |  | 
|  | XRay Runtime Library | 
|  | -------------------- | 
|  |  | 
|  | The XRay Runtime Library is part of the compiler-rt project, which implements | 
|  | the runtime components that perform the patching and unpatching of inserted | 
|  | instrumentation points. When you use ``clang`` to link your binaries and the | 
|  | ``-fxray-instrument`` flag, it will automatically link in the XRay runtime. | 
|  |  | 
|  | The default implementation of the XRay runtime will enable XRay instrumentation | 
|  | before ``main`` starts, which works for applications that have a short | 
|  | lifetime. This implementation also records all function entry and exit events | 
|  | which may result in a lot of records in the resulting trace. | 
|  |  | 
|  | Also by default the filename of the XRay trace is ``xray-log.XXXXXX`` where the | 
|  | ``XXXXXX`` part is randomly generated. | 
|  |  | 
|  | These options can be controlled through the ``XRAY_OPTIONS`` environment | 
|  | variable, where we list down the options and their defaults below. | 
|  |  | 
|  | +-------------------+-----------------+---------------+------------------------+ | 
|  | | Option            | Type            | Default       | Description            | | 
|  | +===================+=================+===============+========================+ | 
|  | | patch_premain     | ``bool``        | ``false``     | Whether to patch       | | 
|  | |                   |                 |               | instrumentation points | | 
|  | |                   |                 |               | before main.           | | 
|  | +-------------------+-----------------+---------------+------------------------+ | 
|  | | xray_mode         | ``const char*`` | ``""``        | Default mode to        | | 
|  | |                   |                 |               | install and initialize | | 
|  | |                   |                 |               | before ``main``.       | | 
|  | +-------------------+-----------------+---------------+------------------------+ | 
|  | | xray_logfile_base | ``const char*`` | ``xray-log.`` | Filename base for the  | | 
|  | |                   |                 |               | XRay logfile.          | | 
|  | +-------------------+-----------------+---------------+------------------------+ | 
|  | | verbosity         | ``int``         | ``0``         | Runtime verbosity      | | 
|  | |                   |                 |               | level.                 | | 
|  | +-------------------+-----------------+---------------+------------------------+ | 
|  |  | 
|  |  | 
|  | If you choose to not use the default logging implementation that comes with the | 
|  | XRay runtime and/or control when/how the XRay instrumentation runs, you may use | 
|  | the XRay APIs directly for doing so. To do this, you'll need to include the | 
|  | ``xray_log_interface.h`` from the compiler-rt ``xray`` directory. The important API | 
|  | functions we list below: | 
|  |  | 
|  | - ``__xray_log_register_mode(...)``: Register a logging implementation against | 
|  | a string Mode identifier. The implementation is an instance of | 
|  | ``XRayLogImpl`` defined in ``xray/xray_log_interface.h``. | 
|  | - ``__xray_log_select_mode(...)``: Select the mode to install, associated with | 
|  | a string Mode identifier. Only implementations registered with | 
|  | ``__xray_log_register_mode(...)`` can be chosen with this function. | 
|  | - ``__xray_log_init_mode(...)``: This function allows for initializing and | 
|  | re-initializing an installed logging implementation. See | 
|  | ``xray/xray_log_interface.h`` for details, part of the XRay compiler-rt | 
|  | installation. | 
|  |  | 
|  | Once a logging implementation has been initialized, it can be "stopped" by | 
|  | finalizing the implementation through the ``__xray_log_finalize()`` function. | 
|  | The finalization routine is the opposite of the initialization. When finalized, | 
|  | an implementation's data can be cleared out through the | 
|  | ``__xray_log_flushLog()`` function. For implementations that support in-memory | 
|  | processing, these should register an iterator function to provide access to the | 
|  | data via the ``__xray_log_set_buffer_iterator(...)`` which allows code calling | 
|  | the ``__xray_log_process_buffers(...)`` function to deal with the data in | 
|  | memory. | 
|  |  | 
|  | All of this is better explained in the ``xray/xray_log_interface.h`` header. | 
|  |  | 
|  | Basic Mode | 
|  | ---------- | 
|  |  | 
|  | XRay supports a basic logging mode which will trace the application's | 
|  | execution, and periodically append to a single log. This mode can be | 
|  | installed/enabled by setting ``xray_mode=xray-basic`` in the ``XRAY_OPTIONS`` | 
|  | environment variable. Combined with ``patch_premain=true`` this can allow for | 
|  | tracing applications from start to end. | 
|  |  | 
|  | Like all the other modes installed through ``__xray_log_select_mode(...)``, the | 
|  | implementation can be configured through the ``__xray_log_init_mode(...)`` | 
|  | function, providing the mode string and the flag options. Basic-mode specific | 
|  | defaults can be provided in the ``XRAY_BASIC_OPTIONS`` environment variable. | 
|  |  | 
|  | Flight Data Recorder Mode | 
|  | ------------------------- | 
|  |  | 
|  | XRay supports a logging mode which allows the application to only capture a | 
|  | fixed amount of memory's worth of events. Flight Data Recorder (FDR) mode works | 
|  | very much like a plane's "black box" which keeps recording data to memory in a | 
|  | fixed-size circular queue of buffers, and have the data available | 
|  | programmatically until the buffers are finalized and flushed. To use FDR mode | 
|  | on your application, you may set the ``xray_mode`` variable to ``xray-fdr`` in | 
|  | the ``XRAY_OPTIONS`` environment variable. Additional options to the FDR mode | 
|  | implementation can be provided in the ``XRAY_FDR_OPTIONS`` environment | 
|  | variable. Programmatic configuration can be done by calling | 
|  | ``__xray_log_init_mode("xray-fdr", <configuration string>)`` once it has been | 
|  | selected/installed. | 
|  |  | 
|  | When the buffers are flushed to disk, the result is a binary trace format | 
|  | described by `XRay FDR format <XRayFDRFormat.html>`_ | 
|  |  | 
|  | When FDR mode is on, it will keep writing and recycling memory buffers until | 
|  | the logging implementation is finalized -- at which point it can be flushed and | 
|  | re-initialised later. To do this programmatically, we follow the workflow | 
|  | provided below: | 
|  |  | 
|  | .. code-block:: c++ | 
|  |  | 
|  | // Patch the sleds, if we haven't yet. | 
|  | auto patch_status = __xray_patch(); | 
|  |  | 
|  | // Maybe handle the patch_status errors. | 
|  |  | 
|  | // When we want to flush the log, we need to finalize it first, to give | 
|  | // threads a chance to return buffers to the queue. | 
|  | auto finalize_status = __xray_log_finalize(); | 
|  | if (finalize_status != XRAY_LOG_FINALIZED) { | 
|  | // maybe retry, or bail out. | 
|  | } | 
|  |  | 
|  | // At this point, we are sure that the log is finalized, so we may try | 
|  | // flushing the log. | 
|  | auto flush_status = __xray_log_flushLog(); | 
|  | if (flush_status != XRAY_LOG_FLUSHED) { | 
|  | // maybe retry, or bail out. | 
|  | } | 
|  |  | 
|  | The default settings for the FDR mode implementation will create logs named | 
|  | similarly to the basic log implementation, but will have a different log | 
|  | format. All the trace analysis tools (and the trace reading library) will | 
|  | support all versions of the FDR mode format as we add more functionality and | 
|  | record types in the future. | 
|  |  | 
|  | **NOTE:** We do not promise perpetual support for when we update the log | 
|  | versions we support going forward. Deprecation of the formats will be | 
|  | announced and discussed on the developers mailing list. | 
|  |  | 
|  | Trace Analysis Tools | 
|  | -------------------- | 
|  |  | 
|  | We currently have the beginnings of a trace analysis tool in LLVM, which can be | 
|  | found in the ``tools/llvm-xray`` directory. The ``llvm-xray`` tool currently | 
|  | supports the following subcommands: | 
|  |  | 
|  | - ``extract``: Extract the instrumentation map from a binary, and return it as | 
|  | YAML. | 
|  | - ``account``: Performs basic function call accounting statistics with various | 
|  | options for sorting, and output formats (supports CSV, YAML, and | 
|  | console-friendly TEXT). | 
|  | - ``convert``: Converts an XRay log file from one format to another. We can | 
|  | convert from binary XRay traces (both basic and FDR mode) to YAML, | 
|  | `flame-graph <https://github.com/brendangregg/FlameGraph>`_ friendly text | 
|  | formats, as well as `Chrome Trace Viewer (catapult) | 
|  | <https://github.com/catapult-project/catapult>` formats. | 
|  | - ``graph``: Generates a DOT graph of the function call relationships between | 
|  | functions found in an XRay trace. | 
|  | - ``stack``: Reconstructs function call stacks from a timeline of function | 
|  | calls in an XRay trace. | 
|  |  | 
|  | These subcommands use various library components found as part of the XRay | 
|  | libraries, distributed with the LLVM distribution. These are: | 
|  |  | 
|  | - ``llvm/XRay/Trace.h`` : A trace reading library for conveniently loading | 
|  | an XRay trace of supported forms, into a convenient in-memory representation. | 
|  | All the analysis tools that deal with traces use this implementation. | 
|  | - ``llvm/XRay/Graph.h`` : A semi-generic graph type used by the graph | 
|  | subcommand to conveniently represent a function call graph with statistics | 
|  | associated with edges and vertices. | 
|  | - ``llvm/XRay/InstrumentationMap.h``: A convenient tool for analyzing the | 
|  | instrumentation map in XRay-instrumented object files and binaries. The | 
|  | ``extract`` and ``stack`` subcommands uses this particular library. | 
|  |  | 
|  |  | 
|  | Minimizing Binary Size | 
|  | ---------------------- | 
|  |  | 
|  | XRay supports several different instrumentation points including ``function-entry``, | 
|  | ``function-exit``, ``custom``, and ``typed`` points. These can be enabled individually | 
|  | using the ``-fxray-instrumentation-bundle=`` flag. For example if you only wanted to | 
|  | instrument function entry and custom points you could specify: | 
|  |  | 
|  | :: | 
|  |  | 
|  | clang -fxray-instrument -fxray-instrumentation-bundle=function-entry,custom ... | 
|  |  | 
|  | This will omit the other sled types entirely, reducing the binary size. You can also | 
|  | instrument just a sampled subset of functions using instrumentation groups. | 
|  | For example, to instrument only a quarter of available functions invoke: | 
|  |  | 
|  | :: | 
|  |  | 
|  | clang -fxray-instrument -fxray-function-groups=4 | 
|  |  | 
|  | A subset will be chosen arbitrarily based on a hash of the function name. To sample a | 
|  | different subset you can specify ``-fxray-selected-function-group=`` with a group number | 
|  | in the range of 0 to ``xray-function-groups`` - 1.  Together these options could be used | 
|  | to produce multiple binaries with different instrumented subsets. If all you need is | 
|  | runtime control over which functions are being traced at any given time it is better | 
|  | to selectively patch and unpatch the individual functions you need using the XRay | 
|  | Runtime Library's ``__xray_patch_function()`` method. | 
|  |  | 
|  | Future Work | 
|  | =========== | 
|  |  | 
|  | There are a number of ongoing efforts for expanding the toolset building around | 
|  | the XRay instrumentation system. | 
|  |  | 
|  | Trace Analysis Tools | 
|  | -------------------- | 
|  |  | 
|  | - Work is in progress to integrate with or develop tools to visualize findings | 
|  | from an XRay trace. Particularly, the ``stack`` tool is being expanded to | 
|  | output formats that allow graphing and exploring the duration of time in each | 
|  | call stack. | 
|  | - With a large instrumented binary, the size of generated XRay traces can | 
|  | quickly become unwieldy. We are working on integrating pruning techniques and | 
|  | heuristics for the analysis tools to sift through the traces and surface only | 
|  | relevant information. | 
|  |  | 
|  | More Platforms | 
|  | -------------- | 
|  |  | 
|  | We're looking forward to contributions to port XRay to more architectures and | 
|  | operating systems. | 
|  |  | 
|  | .. References... | 
|  |  | 
|  | .. _`XRay whitepaper`: http://research.google.com/pubs/pub45287.html | 
|  |  |