User-space Process Tracing
libuptev | fix: use project source dir instead of cmake source dir | 2020-08-27 09:46:56 |
---|---|---|
libuptpl | implement "ninja install" | 2020-07-31 18:09:23 |
python3 | add option to show processes as list in GUI | 2020-11-08 14:28:26 |
tests | align file location in build dir with install dir | 2020-07-31 18:03:55 |
upt-tool | implement "ninja install" | 2020-07-31 18:09:23 |
upt-trace | implement "ninja install" | 2020-07-31 18:09:23 |
.gitignore | begin of upt-gui: processes tree view | 2020-05-23 20:45:22 |
CMakeLists.txt | upt-gui -> upt-tool gui | 2020-05-24 13:56:01 |
LICENSE | add copyright headers and license (LGPL) | 2020-05-24 15:59:07 |
README.md | implement double click on process | 2020-10-18 15:23:44 |
exports | add ZSH support to "exports" | 2020-08-10 17:59:07 |
uproctrace.proto | add more fields from getrusage to proc_end | 2020-08-16 11:04:25 |
UProcTrace traces process executions and process ends on Linux systems.
On process starts, UProcTrace records the time, the entire command line, working directory and environment. On process end, it logs the CPU time used by the process (split by user and kernel time) and the peak memory usage.
UProcTrace is implemented in user-space, so does not reuire any special kernel
modules. This means it can also be used in containers (e.g. docker) without
any changes the to conteiner host. The implementation is based on the
LD_PRELOAD
mechanism. A shared library is injected into each process
started. This libarary records trace events at begin of the process (when the
preload library is initialized) and at the end of the process (when the library
is de-initiazlied).
UProcTrace is developed on Debian Linux 10 "buster".
Install the dependencies:
apt-get install -y build-essential cmake gcc \
libprotobuf-c-dev libprotobuf-dev \
ninja-build \
protobuf-c-compiler protobuf-compiler \
pylint3 python3 python3-protobuf python3-tabulate
For the graphical user interface, install the additional dependencies:
apt-get install -y glade libglib2.0-dev libgtk-3-dev python3-gi
Change to the directory of this REAMDE.md
file.
Configure a build directory:
mkdir build
cd build
cmake -G Ninja -D CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release ..
Build:
ninja
Run tests:
ctest
Set up for direct usage from build directory (to be done in each shell):
source exports
To trace an application, prefix the command with upt-trace
and the
file name for the trace. For example, to trace the command
/usr/bin/printf "trace me"
run the following command:
upt-trace mytrace.upt /usr/bin/printf "trace me"
To show the recorded events, run:
upt-tool mytrace.upt dump
To explore a trace in the graphical user interface (GUI), run:
upt-tool mytrace.upt gui
The left half of the GUI shows the process tree with a few selected details about each process. The right half shows further details of the process selected on the left side.
By double-clicking on the entries in the right tree view, their content can be copied to the clipboard. If a row with subordinate rows is double-clicked, the contents of all the subordinate entries are copied to the clipboard, using proper shell-escaping of the individual entries. If a process row on the left side is double-clicked, a shell command for repeating the execution of the process (including working directory, environment variables and command line) is copied to the clipboard.
To show the capabilities of the UProcTrace, a process that calls several child processes is required. In this example, the build of UProcTrace is used for this purpose.
Change to the build directory.
Start a new shell to be traced:
upt-trace mytrace.upt bash
Configure another build directory for this tracing example and run the build:
mkdir example_trace_build
cd example_trace_build
cmake -G Ninja -D CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release ../..
ninja
Stop tracing by ending the shell:
exit
Show traced information:
upt-tool mytrace.upt dump
To explore the trace in the graphical user interface, run:
upt-tool mytrace.upt gui