Darryl Gove's blog

Adding dtrace probes to user code (part 3)

I've previously discussed how to add dtrace USDT probes into user code. The critical step is to run the object files through dtrace, for dtrace to record the instrumentation points and to modify the object files prior to linking. The output of this step is an object file that also needs to be linked into the executable. Here's an example:

$ cc -O -c app.c
$ cc -O -c app1.c
$ dtrace -G -32 -s probes.d app.o app1.o
$ cc -O probes.o app.o app1.o

The results from running the example code under a suitable dtrace script are:

$ sudo dtrace -s script.d -c a.out
dtrace: script 'script.d' matched 10 probes
a=1, b=2
a=1, b=2
a=1, b=2
a=2, b=3
dtrace: pid 20655 has exited

                2                3                1
                1                2                3

One question that has come up is whether it's necessary to run a single call to dtrace which instruments all the object files, or whether it's possible to use multiple calls.

The object file that dtrace produces probes.o is going to be over written with each call to dtrace, so it's no surprise that the naive approach of multiple calls to dtrace each call generating the same object file does not work:

$ dtrace -G -32 -s probes.d app.o
$ dtrace -G -32 -s probes.d app1.o
$ cc -O app.o app1.o probes.o
$ sudo dtrace -s script.d -c a.out
dtrace: script 'script.d' matched 9 probes
a=1, b=2
a=1, b=2
a=1, b=2
a=2, b=3
dtrace: pid 20725 has exited

                2                3                1
                1                2                2

The next thing to try is whether changing the generated object file works:

$ dtrace -G -32 -s probes.d -o probe0.o app.o
$ dtrace -G -32 -s probes.d -o probe1.o app1.o
$ cc -O probes.o app.o app1.o probe1.o
$ sudo dtrace -s script.d -c a.out
dtrace: script 'script.d' matched 9 probes
a=1, b=2
a=1, b=2
a=1, b=2
a=2, b=3
dtrace: pid 20673 has exited

                2                3                1
                1                2                2

And if we wanted more proof, swapping the order of the object files generates the following:

$ cc -O app.o app1.o probe1.o probe0.o
$ sudo dtrace -s script.d -c a.out
dtrace: script 'script.d' matched 1 probe
a=1, b=2
a=1, b=2
a=1, b=2
a=2, b=3
dtrace: pid 20683 has exited

                1                2                1

So the conclusion is that the only way it will work is by putting all the object files onto the commandline of a single call to dtrace.

Posted at 04:49PM Mar 25, 2008 by Darryl Gove in Sun  |