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tracing: add new tracepoints docbook
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Add tracepoint docbook. This will help us document and understand
what tracepoints are in the kernel. Since there are multiple
macros, and files that contain tracepoints.

[ Impact: add documentation ]

Signed-off-by: Jason Baron <jbaron@redhat.com>
Acked-by: Randy Dunlap <randy.dunlap@oracle.com>
Cc: akpm@linux-foundation.org
Cc: rostedt@goodmis.org
Cc: fweisbec@gmail.com
Cc: mathieu.desnoyers@polymtl.ca
Cc: wcohen@redhat.com
LKML-Reference: <84160b6bd94aff02455da7e12bad054d34c579a0.1241107197.git.jbaron@redhat.com>
Signed-off-by: Ingo Molnar <mingo@elte.hu>
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Jason Baron authored and Ingo Molnar committed May 1, 2009
1 parent 56afb0f commit a76f8c6
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3 changes: 2 additions & 1 deletion Documentation/DocBook/Makefile
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Expand Up @@ -13,7 +13,8 @@ DOCBOOKS := z8530book.xml mcabook.xml device-drivers.xml \
gadget.xml libata.xml mtdnand.xml librs.xml rapidio.xml \
genericirq.xml s390-drivers.xml uio-howto.xml scsi.xml \
mac80211.xml debugobjects.xml sh.xml regulator.xml \
alsa-driver-api.xml writing-an-alsa-driver.xml
alsa-driver-api.xml writing-an-alsa-driver.xml \
tracepoint.xml

###
# The build process is as follows (targets):
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84 changes: 84 additions & 0 deletions Documentation/DocBook/tracepoint.tmpl
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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE book PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.1.2//EN"
"http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.1.2/docbookx.dtd" []>

<book id="Tracepoints">
<bookinfo>
<title>The Linux Kernel Tracepoint API</title>

<authorgroup>
<author>
<firstname>Jason</firstname>
<surname>Baron</surname>
<affiliation>
<address>
<email>jbaron@redhat.com</email>
</address>
</affiliation>
</author>
</authorgroup>

<legalnotice>
<para>
This documentation is free software; you can redistribute
it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public
License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either
version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later
version.
</para>

<para>
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be
useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied
warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
See the GNU General Public License for more details.
</para>

<para>
You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public
License along with this program; if not, write to the Free
Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston,
MA 02111-1307 USA
</para>

<para>
For more details see the file COPYING in the source
distribution of Linux.
</para>
</legalnotice>
</bookinfo>

<toc></toc>
<chapter id="intro">
<title>Introduction</title>
<para>
Tracepoints are static probe points that are located in strategic points
throughout the kernel. 'Probes' register/unregister with tracepoints
via a callback mechanism. The 'probes' are strictly typed functions that
are passed a unique set of parameters defined by each tracepoint.
</para>

<para>
From this simple callback mechanism, 'probes' can be used to profile, debug,
and understand kernel behavior. There are a number of tools that provide a
framework for using 'probes'. These tools include Systemtap, ftrace, and
LTTng.
</para>

<para>
Tracepoints are defined in a number of header files via various macros. Thus,
the purpose of this document is to provide a clear accounting of the available
tracepoints. The intention is to understand not only what tracepoints are
available but also to understand where future tracepoints might be added.
</para>

<para>
The API presented has functions of the form:
<function>trace_tracepointname(function parameters)</function>. These are the
tracepoints callbacks that are found throughout the code. Registering and
unregistering probes with these callback sites is covered in the
<filename>Documentation/trace/*</filename> directory.
</para>
</chapter>

</book>

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