RKH
Trazer Reference Manual


Trazer is a visualization tool that works in conjuntion with the RKH framework built in trace facility. Trazer gives the possibility to display selectively the recording of all events of your system, state machines, queues, timers, etc. Trazer helps you to faster troubleshooting especially on complex problems where a debugger is not sufficient, by providing a simple consolidated, human-readable textual output. Given the RKH cross plataform portability, trace data may come from 8, 16, or 32-bits platforms. In order to that Trazer need to be configured to support this diversity of plataform and the wide range of RKH framework configurations. The following figure shows the relationship between framework RKH and host-application Trazer.

This manual includes:


Configuration

Before using Trazer you must provides the listed configurations:


Command-line parameters

 Option  Example

 Description

-h -h

Help. Prints the summary of options

-q -q

Quiet mode (no stdout output)

-v -v

Visualize Traze version and compatibility with RKH framework

-o -o trazer.txt

Produce output to the specified file

-c -c COM1 115200 8N1

COM port and baudrate selection. Not compatible with -t, -f

-t -t 6602

TCP/IP server and port number. Not compatible with -c, -f

-f -f trace.bin

File input selection. Not compatible with -c, -t


Configuration file

Trazer is designed to work with all possible target CPU, which requires a wide range of configurability. For example, for any given target CPU, Trazer must "know" the size of object pointers, event size, timestamp size and so on. You can provide this information by two ways:

  • include trazer.cfg configuration file in the same trazer.exe directory.
  • setup the target aplication to call to RKH_TR_FWK_TCFG and perform the streaming the RKH configuration at startup.

If trazer.cfg is not found, assuming default settings, any configuration streaming received overwrite settings. The following table summarizes the trazer.cfg content.

 Parameter  Valid Values  Must match RKH config (rkhcfg.h)

 Description

TRAZER_EN_SENDER 0, 1 RKH_CFG_SMA_TRC_SNDR_EN

Enable/Disable pointer to sender object insertion when posting event.

TRAZER_RUNTIME_FILTER 0, 1 RKH_CFG_TRC_RTFIL_EN

Enable/Disable runtime filter facility.

TRAZER_EN_USER_TRACE 0, 1 RKH_CFG_TRC_USER_TRACE_EN

Enable/Disable user trace facility.

TRAZER_ALL 0, 1 RKH_CFG_TRC_ALL_EN

If 1 enables all RKH trace records.

TRAZER_EN_MP 0, 1 RKH_CFG_TRC_MP_EN

If 1 enables RKH trace records related to native fixed-size memory block.

TRAZER_EN_QUE 0, 1 RKH_CFG_TRC_QUE_EN

If 1 enables RKH trace records related to native native queues.

TRAZER_EN_SMA 0, 1 RKH_CFG_TRC_SMA_EN

If 1 enables RKH trace records related to the state machine applications.

TRAZER_EN_TIM 0, 1 RKH_CFG_TRC_TMR_EN

If 1 enables RKH trace records related to the native software timer.

TRAZER_EN_SM 0, 1 RKH_CFG_TRC_SM_EN

If 1 enables RKH trace records related to the state machine (hierarchical and "flat").

TRAZER_EN_FWK 0, 1 RKH_CFG_TRC_FWK_EN

If 1 enables RKH trace records related to the nativenative event framework.

TRAZER_EN_ASSERT 0, 1 RKH_CFG_TRC_ASSERT_EN

If 1 enables RKH "assertion" trace record.

TRAZER_SIZEOF_SIG 1, 2, 4 RKH_CFG_FWK_SIZEOF_EVT

Event Signal size in bytes.

TRAZER_SIZEOF_TSTAMP 1, 2, 4 RKH_CFGPORT_TRC_SIZEOF_TSTAMP

Bytes quantity used by the trace record timestamp.

TRAZER_SIZEOF_POINTER 1, 2, 4 RKH_CFGPORT_TRC_SIZEOF_PTR

Size in bytes of void pointer.

TRAZER_SIZEOF_NTIMER 1, 2, 4 RKH_CFG_TMR_SIZEOF_NTIMER

Dynamic range of time delays measured in ticks and expresed in bytes.

TRAZER_SIZEOF_NBLOCK 1, 2, 4 RKH_CFG_MP_SIZEOF_NBLOCK

Size in bytes of number of memory block size.

TRAZER_SIZEOF_NELEM 1, 2, 4 RKH_CFG_QUE_SIZEOF_NELEM

Maximum number of elements in bytes that any queue can contain.

TRAZER_SIZEOF_ESIZE 1, 2, 4 RKH_CFG_FWK_SIZEOF_EVT_SIZE

Data type of event size, in bytes.

TRAZER_EN_NSEQ 0, 1 RKH_CFG_TRC_NSEQ_EN

Enable/Disable Number of Sequence use in trace stream.

TRAZER_EN_CHK 0, 1 RKH_CFG_TRC_CHK_EN

Enable/Disable Checksum use in trace stream.

TRAZER_EN_TSTAMP 0, 1 RKH_CFG_TRC_TSTAMP_EN

Enable/Disable Time stamp use in trace stream.

Your must ensure that Trazer configuration, match exactly with the target system under test, otherwise will be unable to parse the trace stream, and these errors would be shown:

***** Stream Checksum Error
***** May be have lost trace info, sequence are not correlatives

In the instrumented application a set of particular trace events could be used to better trace visualization, RKH_TE_FWK_OBJ, RKH_TE_FWK_AO, RKH_TE_FWK_STATE, RKH_TE_FWK_PSTATE, RKH_TE_FWK_TIMER, RKH_TE_FWK_EPOOL, RKH_TE_FWK_QUEUE and RKH_TE_FWK_SIG.


Human readable output

Trazer is a console program that converts the trace stream data in a human-readable format. Following is shown how its output looks like.
Trazer start showing version and compatibility with RKH framework, below are displayed the current Trazer configuration. For this example the trace.bin is used as trace data source.
Each identified trace show:

  • Timestamp, in CPU ticks. The number of bytes used by the timestamp is configurable by the macro TRAZER_SIZEOF_TSTAMP. See the TRAZER_EN_TSTAMP option.
  • Sequence number, the target component increments this number for every frame inserted into the stream. The sequence number allows the trazer tool to detect any data discontinuities. See the TRAZER_EN_NSEQ option.
  • System service group name.
  • Trace event alias, which is one of the predefined RKH records or an application-specific record.
  • Args, data asociated with the event.

At startup, RKH configuration is loaded from trazer.cfg file and dumped to screen.
As shown in sequence 0, if target is configurated to sent RKH configuration, when RKH_TE_FWK_TCFG trace event is received, Trazer parameters are updated.
Sequences 1 to 21 are examples of symbolic memory address association events. After, sequences 24, 30, 30 and 32, show how Trazer identify object address and signal number replacing them by its symbolic representation. In case that no symbolic representation has been defined for a particular object, the memory address of will be shown, and in same manner the numeric value for signals. Sequcence 23 is and example of RKH_TE_USER.

--- TRAZER V2.2 --- RKH trace event interpreter ---

          build date:   Jul  2 2013
          tested with:  RKH V2.4.03

Using local RKH configuration

   RKH_CFG_SMA_TRC_SNDR_EN          = 0
   RKH_CFG_TRC_RTFIL_EN             = 1
   RKH_CFG_TRC_USER_TRACE_EN        = 1
   RKH_CFG_TRC_ALL_EN               = 1
   RKH_CFG_TRC_MP_EN                = 0
   RKH_CFG_TRC_QUE_EN               = 0
   RKH_CFG_TRC_SMA_EN               = 0
   RKH_CFG_TRC_TMR_EN               = 0
   RKH_CFG_TRC_SM_EN                = 0
   RKH_CFG_TRC_FWK_EN               = 1
   RKH_CFG_TRC_ASSERT_EN            = 1
   RKH_CFG_QUE_GET_LWMARK_EN        = 0
   RKH_CFG_MP_GET_LWM_EN            = 0
   RKH_CFG_FWK_SIZEOF_EVT           = 8
   RKH_CFGPORT_TRC_SIZEOF_TSTAMP    = 32
   RKH_CFGPORT_TRC_SIZEOF_PTR       = 32
   RKH_CFG_TMR_SIZEOF_NTIMER        = 16
   RKH_CFG_MP_SIZEOF_NBLOCK         = 8
   RKH_CFG_QUE_SIZEOF_NELEM         = 8
   RKH_CFG_FWK_SIZEOF_EVT_SIZE      = 16
   RKH_CFG_TRC_NSEQ_EN              = 1
   RKH_CFG_TRC_CHK_EN               = 1
   RKH_CFG_TRC_TSTAMP_EN            = 1
   RKH_CFG_MP_SIZEOF_BSIZE          = 1
   RKH_CFG_FWK_MAX_EVT_POOL         = 4


-------- Parsing trace stream from TCP Port 6602 --------

Accepted connection from 127.0.0.1, port 61574
       121 [  0] FWK | TCFG       : Update RKH Configuration from client
                                  | RKH_VERSION                     = 2.4.03
                                  | RKH_CFG_SMA_TRC_SNDR_EN         = 1
                                  | RKH_CFG_TRC_RTFIL_EN            = 1
                                  | RKH_CFG_TRC_USER_TRACE_EN       = 1
                                  | RKH_CFG_TRC_ALL_EN              = 1
                                  | RKH_CFG_TRC_MP_EN               = 0
                                  | RKH_CFG_TRC_QUE_EN                  = 0
                                  | RKH_CFG_TRC_SMA_EN              = 0
                                  | RKH_CFG_TRC_TMR_EN              = 0
                                  | RKH_CFG_TRC_SM_EN               = 0
                                  | RKH_CFG_TRC_FWK_EN              = 1
                                  | RKH_CFG_TRC_ASSERT_EN           = 1
                                  | RKH_CFG_QUE_GET_LWMARK_EN           = 1
                                  | RKH_CFG_MP_GET_LWM_EN           = 1
                                  | RKH_CFG_FWK_SIZEOF_EVT          = 8
                                  | RKH_CFGPORT_TRC_SIZEOF_TSTAMP   = 32
                                  | RKH_CFGPORT_TRC_SIZEOF_PTR      = 32
                                  | RKH_CFG_TMR_SIZEOF_NTIMER       = 16
                                  | RKH_CFG_MP_SIZEOF_NBLOCK        = 8
                                  | RKH_CFG_QUE_SIZEOF_NELEM            = 8
                                  | RKH_CFG_FWK_SIZEOF_EVT_SIZE     = 16
                                  | RKH_CFG_TRC_NSEQ_EN             = 1
                                  | RKH_CFG_TRC_CHK_EN              = 1
                                  | RKH_CFG_TRC_TSTAMP_EN           = 1
                                  | RKH_CFG_MP_SIZEOF_BSIZE         = 1
                                  | RKH_CFG_FWK_MAX_EVT_POOL        = 4


       123 [  1] FWK | OBJ        : obj=0x00180B01, nm=l_isr_kbd
       126 [  2] FWK | OBJ        : obj=0x00180B00, nm=l_isr_tick
       129 [  3] FWK | AO         : obj=0x0018019C, nm=svr
       131 [  4] FWK | AO         : obj=0x00180008, nm=CLI0
       134 [  5] FWK | AO         : obj=0x00180058, nm=CLI1
       136 [  6] FWK | AO         : obj=0x001800A8, nm=CLI2
       138 [  7] FWK | AO         : obj=0x001800F8, nm=CLI3
       140 [  8] FWK | STATE      : ao=svr, obj=0x0017E238, nm=svr_idle
       143 [  9] FWK | STATE      : ao=svr, obj=0x0017E194, nm=svr_busy
       146 [ 10] FWK | STATE      : ao=svr, obj=0x0017E180, nm=svr_paused
       149 [ 11] FWK | STATE      : ao=CLI0, obj=0x0017DF18, nm=cli_idle
       152 [ 12] FWK | STATE      : ao=CLI0, obj=0x0017DED4, nm=cli_waiting
       155 [ 13] FWK | STATE      : ao=CLI0, obj=0x0017DEA0, nm=cli_using
       158 [ 14] FWK | STATE      : ao=CLI0, obj=0x0017DE5C, nm=cli_paused
       161 [ 15] FWK | SIG        : sig=0, nm=REQ
       162 [ 16] FWK | SIG        : sig=1, nm=START
       164 [ 17] FWK | SIG        : sig=2, nm=DONE
       166 [ 18] FWK | SIG        : sig=4, nm=TOUT_USING
       168 [ 19] FWK | SIG        : sig=3, nm=TOUT_REQ
       169 [ 20] FWK | SIG        : sig=5, nm=PAUSE
       171 [ 21] FWK | SIG        : sig=6, nm=TERM
       172 [ 22] FWK | TUSR       : ut=0, nm=MY_TRACE
       174 [ 23] USR | MY_TRACE   : User trace information
                                  | -01
                                  | 255
                                  | -001
                                  | 65535
                                  | 65535
                                  | 65535
                                  | 0xFFFF
                                  | hello
                                  | [ FF FF 00 00 ]
                                  | obj=CLI0
                                  | func=0X1712DA
                                  | event=REQ
      4167 [ 24] SMA | FIFO       : ao=CLI2, sig=TOUT_REQ, snr=l_isr_tick, pid=0, rc=0
      4167 [ 25] QUE  | FIFO       : q=0X180060, nelem=1, nmin=0
      4167 [ 26] SMA | FIFO       : ao=CLI1, sig=TOUT_REQ, snr=l_isr_tick, pid=0, rc=0
      4167 [ 27] QUE  | FIFO       : q=0X1801A4, nelem=1, nmin=0
      4167 [ 28] SMA | FIFO       : ao=svr, sig=REQ, snr=CLI1, pid=1, rc=1
      4167 [ 29] QUE  | FIFO       : q=0X180060, nelem=1, nmin=0
      4167 [ 30] SMA | FIFO       : ao=CLI1, sig=START, snr=svr, pid=1, rc=1
      4167 [ 31] MP  | PUT        : mp=0X180B80, nfree=7
      4167 [ 32] TIM | START      : t=0X180080, ao=CLI1, nt=200, per=0
      4168 [ 33] MP  | PUT        : mp=0X180B80, nfree=8
      4168 [ 34] QUE  | FIFO       : q=0X1801A4, nelem=1, nmin=0
      4168 [ 35] SMA | FIFO       : ao=svr, sig=REQ, snr=CLI2, pid=1, rc=1
      4169 [ 36] QUE  | FIFO       : q=0X180470, nelem=1, nmin=0

Sequence Diagram Generator

In order to enhancing the capacity of the system behavior analysis, Trazer can recreate a sequence diagram that shown chronologically the interaction between active objects.
To enable this capability, RKH configuration must enable to send the pointer to the sender object when posting an event (RKH_CFG_SMA_TRC_SNDR_EN = 1). If so, for each RKH_TE_SMA_FIFO / RKH_TE_SMA_LIFO trace event received, Trazer catch the arguments ao (destination), sig (event), snr (sender) to add to the diagram. Trazer generates two files types as output:

  • "YYMMDDHHMMSS.diag": require post process with seqdiag Python Package that generates sequence-diagram image file from .diag file.
    Consult http://blockdiag.com/en/seqdiag/ for detailed information.
  • "sdYYMMDDHHMMSS.html": require SVG seqdiag.js and parser.js scripts located at /seqdiag directory. Web browser supported are IE and Chrome, not yet working on Firefox.