Search documentation of erts

# Tracing

Copy Markdown View Source

## Implementation

### Call, return, and exception tracing

Tracing is implemented by setting breakpoints in the traced functions, and sending the appropriate trace messages when they're hit.

- Call trace messages are sent immediately.
- Return tracing pushes a frame to the stack which returns to an instruction that sends a trace message when encountered.
- Exception tracing also pushes a frame to the stack, but will only send a trace message if we encounter it in stack scanning while throwing an exception.

This means that one must be careful not to use return or exception tracing on functions that never return, as each call pushes a frame that will never be removed.

Another limitation is that since the breakpoint is in the callee and not the caller, we're limited to the information we have on function ingress. This means that we can't actually tell who called us: since we're limited to inspecting the stack we can only say where we're going to return to, which is not quite the same thing.

As an illustration, when the `caller` option is enabled all trace messages from `bar/1` will say that they were called from `foo/0`, even though it went through a bunch of other functions on the way:

    foo() ->
        lots(),
        ok.

    lots() ->
        'of'().

    'of'() ->
        indirections().

    indirections() ->
        bar(10).

    bar(0) ->
        done;
    bar(N) ->
        bar(N - 1).

### Export tracing

In the interpreter, breakpoints are set inside the code trampoline for export entries, and their address vector is updated to point to them. This way, only remote calls will hit the breakpoint while local calls to the same function are left alone, but it otherwise acts the same way as local breakpoints.

Things get a bit more involved in the JIT. See `BeamAsm.md` for more details.

### Trace sessions

Since OTP 27, isolated trace session can be dynamically created. Each trace session is represented by an instance of struct `ErtsTraceSession`. The old legacy session (kept for backward compatibility) is represented by the static instance `erts_trace_session_0`.

## Setting breakpoints

### Introduction

Before OTP R16 when trace settings were changed by `erlang:trace_pattern`, all other execution in the VM were halted while the trace operation was carried out in single threaded mode. Similar to code loading, this can impose a severe problem for availability that grows with the number of cores.

Since OTP R16, breakpoints are set in the code without blocking the VM. Erlang processes may continue executing undisturbed in parallel during the entire operation. The same base technique is used as for code loading. A staging area of breakpoints is prepared and then made active with a single atomic operation.

### Breakpoints

For call tracing, breakpoints are created and inserted in the ingress of each traced Erlang function. A pointer to the allocated struct `GenericBp` is inserted that holds all the data for all types of breakpoints. A bit-flag field is used to indicate what different type of break actions that are enabled. Struct `GenericBp` is session specific. If more than one trace session affects a function, one `GenericBp` instance is created for each session. They are linked together in a singly linked list that is traversed when the breakpoint is hit.

### Similar to Code Loading but Different

Even though `trace_pattern` use the same technique as the non-blocking code loading with replicated generations of data structures and an atomic switch, the implementations are quite separate from each other. One initial idea was to use the existing mechanism of code loading to do a dummy load operation that would make a copy of the affected modules. That copy could then be instrumented with breakpoints before making it reachable with the same atomic switch as done for code loading. This approach seems straight forward but has a number of shortcomings, one being the large memory footprint when many modules are instrumented. Another problem is how execution will reach the new instrumented code. Normally loaded code can only be reached through external functions calls. Trace settings must be activated instantaneously without the need of external function calls.

The chosen solution is instead for tracing to use the technique of replication applied on the data structures for breakpoints. Two generations of breakpoints are kept and identified by index of 0 and 1. The global atomic variables `erts_active_bp_index` will determine which generation of breakpoints running code will use.

### Atomicity Without Atomic Operations

Not using the code loading generations (or any other code duplication) means that `trace_pattern` must at some point write to the active beam code in order for running processes to reach the staged breakpoints structures. This can be done with one single atomic write operation per instrumented function. The beam instruction words are however read with normal memory loads and not through the atomic API. The only guarantee we need is that the written instruction word is seen as atomic. Either fully written or not at all. This is true for word aligned write operation on all hardware architectures we use.

### Adding a new Breakpoint

This is a simplified sequence describing what `trace_pattern` goes through when adding a new breakpoint.

1. Seize exclusive code modification permission (suspend process until we get it).

2. Allocate breakpoint structure `GenericBp` including both generations. Set the active area as disabled with a zeroed flagfield. Save the original instruction word in the breakpoint.

3. Write a pointer to the breakpoint at offset `-sizeof(UWord)` from the first instruction `ErtsFuncInfo` header.

4. Set the staging area of the breakpoint as enabled with specified breakpoint data.

5. Wait for thread progress.

6. Write a `op_i_generic_breakpoint` as the first instruction for the function. This instruction will execute the breakpoint that it finds at offset `-sizeof(UWord)`.

7. Wait for thread progress.

8. Commit the breakpoint by switching `erts_active_bp_index`.

9. Wait for thread progress.

10. "Consolidate" Prepare for next call to `trace_pattern` by updating the new staging area (the old active) of the breakpoint to be identical to the new active area.

11. Release code modification permission and return from `trace_pattern`.

The code modification permission "lock" seized in step 1 is also taken by code loading. This ensures that only one process at a time can stage new trace settings, and also prevents concurrent codeloading and make sure we see a consistent view of the beam code during the entire sequence.

Between step 6 and 8, runninng processes might execute the written `op_i_generic_breakpoint` instruction. They will get the breakpoint structure written in step 3, read `erts_active_bp_index` and execute the corresponding part of the breakpoint. Before the switch in step 8 becomes visible they will however execute the disabled part of the breakpoint structure and do nothing other than executing the saved original instruction.

The consolidation in step 10 will make the new staging area identical to the new active area. This will make it simpler for the next call to `trace_pattern` that may not affect all existing breakpoints. The staging area of all unaffected breakpoints are then ready to become active without any visitation by `trace_pattern`.

### To Update and Remove Breakpoints

The above sequence did only describe adding a new breakpoint. We do basically the same sequence to update the settings of an existing breakpoint except step 2,3 and 6 can be skipped as it has already been done.

To remove a breakpoint some more steps are needed. The idea is to first stage the breakpoint as disabled, do the switch, wait for thread progress and then remove the disabled breakpoint by restoring the original beam instruction.

Here is a more complete sequence that contains both adding, updating and removing breakpoints.

1. Seize exclusive code modification permission (suspend process until we get it).

2. Allocate new breakpoint structures with a disabled active area and the original beam instruction. Write a pointer to the breakpoint in `ErtsFuncInfo` header at offset `-sizeof(UWord)`.

3. Update the staging area of all affected breakpoints. Disable breakpoints that are to be removed.

4. Wait for thread progress.

5. Write a `op_i_generic_breakpoint` as the first instruction for all functions with new breakpoints.

6. Wait for thread progress.

7. Commit all staged breakpoints by switching `erts_active_bp_index`.

8. Wait for thread progress.

9. Uninstall. Restore original beam instruction for disabled breakpoints.

10. Wait for thread progress.

11. Consolidate. Prepare for next call to `trace_pattern` by updating the new staging area (the old active) for all enabled breakpoints.

12. Deallocate disabled breakpoint structures.

13. Release code modification permission and return from `trace_pattern`.

### All that Waiting for Thread Progress

There are four rounds of waiting for thread progress in the above sequence. In the code loading sequence we sacrificed memory overhead of three generations to avoid a second round of thread progress. The latency of `trace_pattern` should not be such a big problem for however, as it is normally not called in a rapid sequence.

The waiting in step 4 is to make sure all threads will see an updated view of the breakpoint structures once they become reachable through the `op_i_generic_breakpoint` instruction written in step 5.

The waiting in step 6 is to make the activation of the new trace settings "as atomic as possible". Different cores might see the new value of `erts_active_bp_index` at different times as it is read without any memory barrier. But this is the best we can do without more expensive thread synchronization.

The waiting in step 8 is to make sure we don't restore the original bream instructions for disabled breakpoints until we know that no thread is still accessing the old enabled area of a disabled breakpoint.

The waiting in step 10 is to make sure no lingering thread is still accessing disabled breakpoint structures to be deallocated in step 12.

### Global Tracing

Call tracing with `global` option only affects external function calls. This was earlier handled by inserting a special trace instruction in export entries without the use of breakpoints. With the new non-blocking tracing we want to avoid special handling for global tracing and make use of the staging and atomic switching within the breakpoint mechanism. The solution was to create the same type of breakpoint structure for a global call trace. The difference to local tracing is that we insert the `op_i_generic_breakpoint` instruction (with its pointer at offset -4) in the export entry rather than in the code.

### call_time and call_memory tracing

For profiling, `call_time` and/or `call_memory` tracing can be set for a function. This will measure the time/memory spent by a function. The measured time/memory is kept in individual counters for every call traced process calling that function. To ensure scalability, scheduler specific hash tables (`BpTimemTrace`) are used in the breakpoint to map the calling process pid to its time/memory counters.

Function `trace:info` is used to collect stats for `call_time`, `call_memory` or both (`all`). It has to aggregate the counters from all those scheduler specific hash tables to build a list with one tuple with counters for each pid. This cannot be done safely while the hash tables may be concurrently updated by traced processes.

Since OTP 29, `trace:info` collects `call_time` and `call_memory` stats without blocking all schedulers from running. This is done by using the active and staging halves of the breakpoint. During normal operations both halves of the breakpoint refer to the same thread specific hash tables. To collect the stats safely, temporary hash tables are created to be used by traced calls happening during the call to `trace:info`. The temporary hash tables are being made active while the "real" hash tables are made inactive in the staging half. When the hash tables are inactive, they can be safely traversed. When done, the real tables are made active again. A final consolidation step is done to collect any stats from the temporary tables, delete them and make the two halves of the breakpoint identical again using the same real hash tables. Scheduling with thread progress is done between the switching to make sure the traversed hash tables are not being concurrently updated.

### Future work

We still go to single threaded mode when new code is loaded for a module that is traced, or when loading code when there is a default trace pattern set. That is not impossible to fix, but that requires much closer cooperation between tracing BIFs and the loader BIFs.

← Previous Page Thread Progress
Next Page → The beam_makeops script