[dpdk-dev] [RFC 0/8] eal: dynamic logs

[Wiles, Keith]

> On Feb 6, 2017, at 9:27 AM, Olivier Matz <olivier.matz at 6wind.com> wrote:
> 
> On Mon, 6 Feb 2017 15:01:30 +0000, "Wiles, Keith"
> <keith.wiles at intel.com> wrote:
>>> On Feb 6, 2017, at 8:10 AM, Olivier Matz <olivier.matz at 6wind.com>
>>> wrote:
>>> 
>>> Hi Bruce,
>>> 
>>> On Mon, 6 Feb 2017 13:49:03 +0000, Bruce Richardson
>>> <bruce.richardson at intel.com> wrote:  
>>>> On Mon, Feb 06, 2017 at 02:29:08PM +0100, Olivier Matz wrote:  
>>>>> The objective of this RFC patchset is to introduce a framework to
>>>>> support dynamic log types in EAL. It also provides one example of
>>>>> use (in i40e).
>>>>> 
>>>>> Features:
>>>>> - log types are identified by a string
>>>>> - at registration, a uniq identifier is associated to a log type
>>>>> - each log type can have its level changed dynamically
>>>>> - extend command line parameters to set the log level of a
>>>>> specific type, or logs matching a regular expression
>>>>> - keep compat with other legacy types (eal, malloc, ring, user*,
>>>>> etc... keep their hardcoded log type value)
>>>>> 
>>>>> At the end, when, we can expect that all non-dataplane logs are
>>>>> moved to be dynamic, so we can enable/disable them at runtime,
>>>>> without recompiling. Many debug options can probably be removed
>>>>> from configuration:
>>>>> $ git grep DEBUG config/common_base | wc -l
>>>>> 89
>>>>> 
>>>>> Comments are welcome!
>>>>> 
>>>> Initial scan through the patches this looks pretty good. However,
>>>> rather than continuing with our own logging system, have you
>>>> investigated what other tracing and logging systems might be out
>>>> there that we could possibly re-use? Could LTTng be a good fit for
>>>> DPDK, perhaps?  
>>> 
>>> I did not investigate much about existing logging system. I agree
>>> that could be a good alternative too.
>>> 
>>> On the other hand, I'm not really confident in adding a dependency
>>> to an external lib for a core component like eal. What if we deicide
>>> tomorrow to port dpdk to windows or any baremetal env?
>>> 
>>> Also, as far as I remember, the components that depend on external
>>> libraries are disabled today because we don't know how to properly
>>> manage the dependency (ex: pmd-pcap, vhost-numa, pmd-mlx, …).  
>> 
>> In a previous project I worked in we did not use log levels per say
>> for debugging code. We did have a couple general logging for misc
>> type logging.
>> 
>> When debugging you normally only need a couple files or functions
>> that need to produce logging output. In that case we defined logging
>> using the file and function as the key to determine if the dynamic
>> log messages are output. We use a string in the format of
>> "filename:function” we allowed for a wildcard to enable all functions
>> in a file or you can select a single function.
>> 
>> Using this type of logging for debugging a system is the most useful
>> if you just want general logging then we define something similar to
>> what we have today.
> 
> I think the "filename:function" is not adequate if you are not the
> developer of that code. Example: you have a problem with a PMD, you
> just enable all logs for this PMD (or even all PMDs), you can check it
> and if you don't find the problem, you can send them on the ML for help.
> I think you don't care where the code is located.

I do not understand your concern the design allows you to enable a single file, which means all functions within a file “filename:*". In the case of the all PMDs it not the best way to debug as you get a lot of output that may not be even related to the problem you are trying to solve. The design does allow you to enable one or more PMDs if say you are debugging say two PMDs. The output would be more readable and less cluttered with output that is not germane to the problem.

If I was debugging the TAP driver I would like to just enable “rte_eth_tap_pmd.c:*” or maybe we can define a something registered other then file name e.g. rte_log_register(“tap_pmd”); “tap_pmd:*” or “tap_pmd:pmd_rx_burst” or “tap_pmd:rte_tap_pmd_probe”. We could for the PMDs just use the PMD name we define at registration.

Maybe the register option brings us closer to the same goal, but add the function or selecting a specific set functions. The design does require a more active lookup at run time for dynamic debugging and we would have to make sure if enabled it does not effect performance. We used a hash table to locate the enabled debug log output.

The design allowed us to use the command line or CLI to enable/disable logging output.

> 
> Regards,
> Olivier

Regards,
Keith