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KTRACE(2)		      System Calls Manual		     KTRACE(2)

NAME
       ktrace -- process tracing

LIBRARY
       Standard	C Library (libc, -lc)

SYNOPSIS
       #include	<sys/param.h>
       #include	<sys/time.h>
       #include	<sys/uio.h>
       #include	<sys/ktrace.h>

       int
       ktrace(const char *tracefile, int ops, int trpoints, int	pid);

DESCRIPTION
       The  ktrace()  system  call  enables or disables	tracing	of one or more
       processes.  Users may only trace	their own processes.  Only the	super-
       user can	trace setuid or	setgid programs.

       The  tracefile  argument	 gives the pathname of the file	to be used for
       tracing.	 The file must exist and be a regular  file  writable  by  the
       calling process.	 All trace records are always appended to the file, so
       the  file  must	be  truncated to zero length to	discard	previous trace
       data.  If tracing points	are being disabled  (see  KTROP_CLEAR  below),
       tracefile may be	NULL.

       The ops argument	specifies the requested	ktrace operation.  The defined
       operations are:

	     KTROP_SET		   Enable trace	points specified in trpoints.
	     KTROP_CLEAR	   Disable trace points	specified in trpoints.
	     KTROP_CLEARFILE	   Stop	all tracing.
	     KTRFLAG_DESCEND	   The	tracing	 change	 should	 apply	to the
				   specified process and all its current chil-
				   dren.

       The trpoints argument specifies the trace points	of interest.  The  de-
       fined trace points are:

	     KTRFAC_SYSCALL	   Trace system	calls.
	     KTRFAC_SYSRET	   Trace return	values from system calls.
	     KTRFAC_NAMEI	   Trace name lookup operations.
	     KTRFAC_GENIO	   Trace  all  I/O  (note that this option can
				   generate much output).
	     KTRFAC_PSIG	   Trace posted	signals.
	     KTRFAC_CSW		   Trace context switch	points.
	     KTRFAC_USER	   Trace application-specific events.
	     KTRFAC_STRUCT	   Trace certain data structures.
	     KTRFAC_SYSCTL	   Trace sysctls.
	     KTRFAC_PROCCTOR	   Trace process construction.
	     KTRFAC_PROCDTOR	   Trace process destruction.
	     KTRFAC_CAPFAIL	   Trace capability failures.
	     KTRFAC_FAULT	   Trace page faults.
	     KTRFAC_FAULTEND	   Trace the end of page faults.
	     KTRFAC_STRUCT_ARRAY   Trace arrays	of certain data	structures.
	     KTRFAC_INHERIT	   Inherit tracing to future children.

       Each tracing event outputs a record composed of a generic  header  fol-
       lowed by	a trace	point specific structure.  The generic header is:

       struct ktr_header {
	       int	       ktr_len;		       /* length of buf	*/
	       short	       ktr_type;	       /* trace	record type */
	       pid_t	       ktr_pid;		       /* process id */
	       char	       ktr_comm[MAXCOMLEN+1];  /* command name */
	       struct timeval  ktr_time;	       /* timestamp */
	       long	       ktr_tid;		       /* thread id */
       };

       The  ktr_len  field specifies the length	of the ktr_type	data that fol-
       lows this header.  The ktr_pid and ktr_comm fields specify the  process
       and  command  generating	the record.  The ktr_time field	gives the time
       (with microsecond resolution)  that  the	 record	 was  generated.   The
       ktr_tid field holds a thread id.

       The  generic  header is followed	by ktr_len bytes of a ktr_type record.
       The type	specific records are defined  in  the  <sys/ktrace.h>  include
       file.

SYSCTL TUNABLES
       The following sysctl(8) tunables	influence the behaviour	of ktrace():

       kern.ktrace.genio_size
	       bounds  the amount of data a traced I/O request will log	to the
	       trace file.

       kern.ktrace.request_pool
	       bounds the number of trace events being logged at a time.

       Sysctl tunables that control process debuggability  (as	determined  by
       p_candebug(9)) also affect the operation	of ktrace().

RETURN VALUES
       The  ktrace() function returns the value	0 if successful; otherwise the
       value -1	is returned and	the global variable errno is set  to  indicate
       the error.

ERRORS
       The ktrace() system call	will fail if:

       [ENOTDIR]	  A component of the path prefix is not	a directory.

       [ENAMETOOLONG]	  A  component	of a pathname exceeded 255 characters,
			  or an	entire path name exceeded 1023 characters.

       [ENOENT]		  The named tracefile does not exist.

       [EACCES]		  Search permission is denied for a component  of  the
			  path prefix.

       [ELOOP]		  Too  many  symbolic links were encountered in	trans-
			  lating the pathname.

       [EIO]		  An I/O error occurred	while reading from or  writing
			  to the file system.

       [EINTEGRITY]	  Corrupted  data  was detected	while reading from the
			  file system.

       [ENOSYS]		  The kernel was not compiled with ktrace support.

       A thread	may be unable to log one or more tracing events	due to a  tem-
       porary shortage of resources.  This condition is	remembered by the ker-
       nel,  and  the  next  tracing  request that succeeds will have the flag
       KTR_DROP	set in its ktr_type field.

SEE ALSO
       kdump(1), ktrace(1), utrace(2), sysctl(8), p_candebug(9)

HISTORY
       The ktrace() system call	first appeared in 4.4BSD.

FreeBSD	13.2		       November	2, 2022			     KTRACE(2)

NAME | LIBRARY | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | SYSCTL TUNABLES | RETURN VALUES | ERRORS | SEE ALSO | HISTORY

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