Move clock to bt_trace_descriptor
[babeltrace.git] / doc / API.txt
1 Babeltrace API documentation
2
3 Babeltrace provides trace read and write libraries, as well as a trace
4 converter. A plugin can be created for any trace format to allow its
5 conversion to/from another trace format.
6
7 The main format expected to be converted to/from is the Common Trace
8 Format (CTF). The latest version of the CTF specification can be found at:
9 git tree: git://git.efficios.com/ctf.git
10 gitweb: http://git.efficios.com/?p=ctf.git
11
12 This document describes the main concepts to use the libbabeltrace,
13 which exposes the Babeltrace trace reading capability.
14
15
16 TERMINOLOGY
17 ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
18
19 * A "callback" is a reference to a piece of executable code (such as a
20 function) that is passed as an argument to another piece of code
21 (like another function).
22
23 * A "context" is a structure that represents an object in which a trace
24 collection is opened.
25
26 * An "iterator" is a structure that enables the user to traverse a trace.
27
28 * A "trace handle" is a unique identifier representing a trace file.
29 It allows the user to manipulate a trace directly.
30
31 * The "declaration" of a field or an event, is the structure which contains
32 the representaion of an object as declared in the metadata. All the
33 declarations of all events and fields can be accessed as soon as the trace is
34 open, but of course they contain no trace data, just the layout.
35
36 * The "definition" of a field or an event is the structure in which the actual
37 trace data is contained. When we read an event in the trace, we access its
38 definition and we can access all the field definitions contained in all the
39 scopes of this event to the get the actual data.
40
41 * "Scopes" allow specifying the level at which the information about the
42 current event must be fetched: event header, event payload, event context,
43 stream context. Compound-type (arrays, structures, sequences and variants)
44 fields are relative scopes which contain fields.
45
46
47 USAGE
48 ¯¯¯¯¯¯
49
50 Context:
51
52 In order to use libbabeltrace to read a trace, the first step is to create a
53 context structure and to add a trace to it. This is done using the
54 bt_context_create() and bt_context_add_trace() functions. As long as this
55 context structure is allocated and the trace is valid, the trace can be
56 manipulated by the library.
57
58 The context can be destroyed by calling one more bt_context_put() than
59 bt_context_get(), functions which respectively decrement and increment the
60 refcount of the context. These functions ensures that the context won't be
61 destroyed when it is in use.
62
63 Once a trace is added to the context, it can be read and seeked using iterators
64 and callbacks.
65
66
67 Iterator:
68
69 An iterator can be created using the bt_iter_create() function. As of now, only
70 ctf iterator are supported. These are used to traverse a ctf-formatted trace.
71 Such iterators can be created with bt_ctf_iter_create().
72
73 While creating an iterator, a begin and an end position may be specified. To do
74 so, one or two struct bt_iter_pos must be passed. Such struct have two
75 attributes: type and u. "type" is the seek type, can be either:
76 BT_SEEK_TIME
77 BT_SEEK_RESTORE
78 BT_SEEK_CUR
79 BT_SEEK_BEGIN
80 BT_SEEK_END
81 and "u" is a union of the seek time (if using BT_SEEK_TIME) and the restore
82 position (if using BT_SEEK_RESTORE).
83
84 Once the iterator is created, various functions become available. We have
85 bt_ctf_iter_read_event() which returns the ctf event of the trace where the
86 iterator is set. There is also bt_ctf_iter_destroy() which frees the iterator.
87 Note that only one iterator can be created in a context at the same time. If
88 more than one iterator is being created for the same context, the second
89 creation will return NULL. The previous iterator must be destroyed before
90 creation of the new iterator. In the future, creation of multiples iterators
91 will be allowed.
92
93 The bt_ctf_iter_read_event_flags() function has the same behaviour as
94 bt_ctf_iter_read_event() but takes an additionnal flag pointer. This flag is
95 used to inform the user if a special condition occured while reading the event.
96 As of now, only the BT_ITER_LOST_EVENTS is handled, it informs the user that
97 some events were discarded by the tracer. To get the number of events lost
98 immediately prior to the last event read, the user can call the
99 bt_ctf_get_lost_events_count() function.
100
101 Finally, we have the bt_ctf_get_iter() function which returns a struct bt_iter
102 with which the iterator can be moved using one of these functions:
103 bt_iter_next(), moves the iterator to the next event
104 bt_iter_set_pos(), moves the iterator to the specified position
105
106 To get the current position (struct bt_iter_pos) of the iterator, the function
107 bt_iter_get_pos() must be used. To create an arbitrary position based on a
108 specific time, bt_iter_create_time_pos() is the function to use. The
109 bt_iter_pos structure returned by these two functions must be freed with
110 bt_iter_free_pos() after use.
111
112
113 CTF Event:
114
115 A CTF event is obtained from an iterator via the bt_ctf_iter_read_event()
116 function or via the call_data parameter of a callback. To read the data of a
117 CTF event :
118 * bt_ctf_event_name() returns the name of the event;
119 * bt_ctf_get_timestamp() returns the timestamp of the event
120 offsetted with the system clock
121 source (in ns);
122 * bt_ctf_get_cycles() returns the timestamp of the event as
123 written in the packet (in cycles).
124
125 The payload of an event is divided in various scopes depending on the type of
126 information. There are six top-level scopes (defined in the bt_ctf_scope enum)
127 which can be accessed by the bt_ctf_get_top_level_scope() function :
128 BT_TRACE_PACKET_HEADER = 0,
129 BT_STREAM_PACKET_CONTEXT = 1,
130 BT_STREAM_EVENT_HEADER = 2,
131 BT_STREAM_EVENT_CONTEXT = 3,
132 BT_EVENT_CONTEXT = 4,
133 BT_EVENT_FIELDS = 5.
134
135 In order to access a field or a field list, the user needs to pass a scope as
136 argument, this scope can be a top-level scope or a scope relative to an
137 arbitrary field in the case of compound types (array, sequence, structure or
138 variant)
139
140 For more information on each scope, see the CTF specifications.
141
142 The bt_ctf_get_field_list() function gives access to the list of fields in the
143 current event. The bt_ctf_get_field() function gives acces to of a specific
144 field of an event.
145
146 The bt_ctf_get_event_decl_list() and bt_ctf_get_decl_fields() functions give
147 respectively access to the list of the events declared in a trace and the list
148 of the fields declared in an event.
149
150 Once the field is obtained, we can obtain its name and type using the
151 bt_ctf_field_name() and bt_ctf_field_type() functions respectively. The
152 possible types are defined in the ctf_type_id enum:
153 CTF_TYPE_UNKNOWN = 0,
154 CTF_TYPE_INTEGER,
155 CTF_TYPE_FLOAT,
156 CTF_TYPE_ENUM,
157 CTF_TYPE_STRING,
158 CTF_TYPE_STRUCT,
159 CTF_TYPE_UNTAGGED_VARIANT,
160 CTF_TYPE_VARIANT,
161 CTF_TYPE_ARRAY,
162 CTF_TYPE_SEQUENCE,
163 NR_CTF_TYPES.
164
165 Depending on the field type, we can get informations about the field with the
166 following functions:
167 * bt_ctf_get_index() return the element at the index
168 position of an array of a sequence;
169
170 * bt_ctf_get_array_len() return the length of an array;
171
172 * bt_ctf_get_int_signedness() return the signedness of an integer;
173
174 * bt_ctf_get_int_base() return the base of an integer;
175
176 * bt_ctf_get_int_byte_order() return the byte order of an integer;
177
178 * bt_ctf_get_int_len() return the size in bits of an integer;
179
180 * bt_ctf_get_encoding() return the encoding of an int or a
181 string defined in the
182 ctf_string_encoding enum:
183 CTF_STRING_NONE = 0,
184 CTF_STRING_UTF8,
185 CTF_STRING_ASCII,
186 CTF_STRING_UNKNOWN.
187
188 All of these functions require a field declaration as parameter, depending on
189 the source type of data (struct definition* or struct bt_ctf_field_decl*), the
190 user might have to call bt_ctf_get_decl_from_def() or
191 bt_ctf_get_decl_from_field_decl().
192
193 The following functions give access to the value associated with a field
194 defintion:
195 * bt_ctf_get_uint64();
196 * bt_ctf_get_int64();
197 * bt_ctf_get_char_array();
198 * bt_ctf_get_string();
199 * bt_ctf_get_enum_int();
200 * bt_ctf_get_enum_str().
201
202 If the field does not exist or is not of the type requested, the value returned
203 with these four functions is undefined. To check if an error occured, use the
204 bt_ctf_field_get_error() function after accessing a field. If no error
205 occured, the function will return 0.
206
207 It is also possible to access the declaration fields, the same way as the
208 definition ones. bt_ctf_get_event_decl_list() sets a list to an array of
209 bt_ctf_event_decl pointers and bt_ctf_get_event_decl_fields() sets a list to an
210 array of bt_ctf_field_decl pointers. From the first type, the name of the
211 event can be obtained with bt_ctf_get_decl_event_name(). For the second type,
212 the field decl name is obtained with bt_ctf_get_decl_field_name().
213
214 The declaration functions allow the user to list the events, fields and
215 contexts fields enabled in the trace once it is opened, whereas the definition
216 functions apply on the current event being read.
217
218
219 Callback:
220
221 The iterator allow the user to read the trace, in order to access the events
222 and fields, the user can either call the functions listed previously on each
223 event, or register callbacks functions that are called when specific (or all)
224 events are read.
225
226 This is done with the bt_ctf_iter_add_callback() function. It requires a valid
227 ctf iterator as the first argument. Here are all arguments:
228 iter: trace collection iterator (input)
229 event: event to target. 0 for all events.
230 private_data: private data pointer to pass to the callback
231 flags: specific flags controlling the behavior of this callback
232 (or'd).
233 callback: function pointer to call
234 depends: struct bt_dependency detailing the required computation
235 results. Ends with 0.
236 weak_depends: struct bt_dependency detailing the optional computation
237 results that can be optionally consumed by this
238 callback.
239 provides: struct bt_dependency detailing the computation results
240 provided by this callback.
241 Ends with 0.
242
243 "depends", "weak_depends" and "provides" memory is handled by the babeltrace
244 library after this call succeeds or fails. These objects can still be used by
245 the caller until the babeltrace iterator is destroyed, but they belong to the
246 babeltrace library.
247
248 As of now the flags and dependencies are not used, the callbacks are
249 processed in FIFO order.
250
251 Note: once implemented, the dependency graph will be calculated when
252 bt_ctf_iter_read_event() is executed after a bt_ctf_iter_add_callback(). It is
253 valid to create/add callbacks/read/add more callbacks/read some more.
254
255 The callback function passed to bt_ctf_iter_add_callback() must return a
256 bt_cb_ret value:
257 BT_CB_OK = 0,
258 BT_CB_OK_STOP = 1,
259 BT_CB_ERROR_STOP = 2,
260 BT_CB_ERROR_CONTINUE = 3.
261
262
263 Trace handle:
264
265 When a trace is added to a context, bt_context_add_trace() returns a trace
266 handle id. This id is associated with its corresponding trace handle. With
267 that id, it is possible to manipulate directly the trace.
268
269 * bt_trace_handle_get_path()
270 -> returns the path of the trace handle (path to the trace).
271
272 * bt_trace_handle_get_timestamp_begin()
273 * bt_trace_handle_get_timestamp_end()
274 -> return the creation/destruction timestamps (in ns or cycles
275 depending on the type specified) of the buffers of a
276 trace.
277
278 * bt_ctf_event_get_handle_id()
279 -> returns the handle id associated with an event.
280
281
282 For more information on CTF, see the CTF documentation.
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