lttng-sessiond(8)

Usage

lttng-sessiond [{--background | --daemonize}] [--sig-parent] [--config=PATH] [--group=GROUP] [--load=PATH] [--agent-tcp-port=PORT] [--apps-sock=PATH] [--client-sock=PATH] [{--no-kernel | [--kmod-probes=PROBE [,PROBE] ...] [--extra-kmod-probes=PROBE [,PROBE] ...] [--kconsumerd-err-sock=PATH] [--kconsumerd-cmd-sock=PATH]}] [--ustconsumerd32-err-sock=PATH] [--ustconsumerd64-err-sock=PATH] [--ustconsumerd32-cmd-sock=PATH] [--ustconsumerd64-cmd-sock=PATH] [--consumerd32-path=PATH] [--consumerd32-libdir=PATH] [--consumerd64-path=PATH] [--consumerd64-libdir=PATH] [--event-notifier-error-buffer-size-kernel=SLOTS] [--event-notifier-error-buffer-size-userspace=SLOTS] [{--quiet | [--verbose] ... [--verbose-consumer]}]

Overview

The Linux Trace Toolkit: next generation <https://lttng.org/> is an open-source software package used for correlated tracing of the Linux kernel, user applications, and user libraries.

LTTng consists of Linux kernel modules (for Linux kernel tracing) and dynamically loaded libraries (for user application and library tracing).

An LTTng session daemon, lttng-sessiond, is a program which:

• Manages recording sessions (see lttng-concepts(7) to learn more about recording sessions).

• Controls the various components (like tracers and consumer daemons) of LTTng.

• Sends asynchronous notifications to user applications.

A session daemon receives commands from the lttng(1) command-line tool, as well as from any user application linked with the LTTng control library (liblttng-ctl).

Each Unix user may have its own independent running session daemon. However, the lttng(1) tool must connect to the session daemon of the root user (the root session daemon) to control Linux kernel tracing.

When you start lttng-sessiond as the root Unix user, a non-root Unix user can connect to it if it’s part of the Unix tracing group. By default, the name of the tracing group is tracing. Override the tracing group name with the --group option.

See the “Session daemon connection” section of lttng(1) to learn how a user application connects to a session daemon.

A session daemon manages trace data consumer daemons, spawning them when necessary. You do NOT need to manage the consumer daemons yourself.

By default, lttng-sessiond doesn’t start as a daemon. Make it a daemon with the --daemonize or --background option. With those options, lttng-sessiond ensures the daemon is ready to receive client commands before it exits.

Note

The LTTng project recommends that you start the session daemon at boot time for stable and long-term tracing.

Note

For an unprivileged Unix user running lttng-sessiond, the maximum number of file descriptors per process is usually 1024. This limits the number of traceable applications, since, for each instrumented application, there are two file descriptors per CPU as well as one socket for bidirectional communication.

For the root user, the limit is usually 65,535.

Daemon configuration

When you run lttng-sessiond, it configures itself from, in this order:

1. The INI configuration file /etc/lttng/lttng.conf, if any.

2. The INI configuration file $LTTNG_HOME/.lttng/lttng.conf, if any.

$LTTNG_HOME defaults to $HOME.

3. With the --config=PATH option: the INI configuration file PATH.

4. The command-line options.

Each step can override a previous configuration property.

In INI configuration files, the session daemon only reads the properties under the sessiond INI section. Each INI property is:

Key

The long name of a command-line option to set (see the “OPTIONS” section below).

Value

The selected command-line option accepts an argument

Option argument (string).

The selected command-line option is a switch

true, yes, on

Enable the option.

false, no, off

Disable the option.

INI configuration file example:

[sessiond]
daemonize=yes
extra-kmod-probes=my-driver,other-module

Recording session configuration loading

When the session daemon starts, it loads recording session configurations from:

Without the --load option

In this order:

1. All the files in $LTTNG_HOME/.lttng/sessions/auto.

$LTTNG_HOME defaults to $HOME.

2. All the files in /etc/lttng/sessions/auto.

lttng-sessiond only loads recording session configuration files from the directories above if its UID and their UID are the same.

With the --load=PATH option

PATH is a directory

All the files in PATH.

PATH is a file

The file PATH.

Options

General daemon configuration

-b, --background

Start as a Unix daemon, but keep file descriptors (console) open.

With this option, lttng-sessiond ensures the daemon is ready to receive client commands before it exits.

Use the --daemonize option instead to close the file descriptors.

-f PATH, --config=PATH

Configure the daemon using the INI configuration file PATH in addition to the default configuration files and the command-line options.

See the “Daemon configuration” section above.

-d, --daemonize

Start as a Unix daemon and close file descriptors (console).

With this option, lttng-sessiond ensures the daemon is ready to receive client commands before it exits.

Use the --background option instead to keep the file descriptors open.

-g GROUP, --group=GROUP

Set the Unix tracing group to GROUP instead of tracing.

This option is only meaningful when the root Unix user starts lttng-sessiond.

Members of the Unix tracing group may connect to the root session daemon and, therefore, control LTTng kernel tracing.

-l PATH, --load=PATH

Load recording session configurations from PATH, either a directory or a file, instead of loading them from the default search directories.

See the “Recording session configuration loading” section above.

-S, --sig-parent

Send the USR1 signal to the parent process to notify readiness.

You can also use the --daemonize or --background option, in which case lttng-sessiond ensures the daemon is ready to receive client commands before it exits.

Linux kernel tracing

At most one of:

--extra-kmod-probes=PROBE[,PROBE]...

For each PROBE argument, load the LTTng kernel probe module named lttng-probe-PROBE.ko, in addition to loading the default LTTng kernel probe modules.

See also the LTTNG_EXTRA_KMOD_PROBES environment variable.

--kmod-probes=PROBE[,PROBE]...

Only load, for each PROBE argument, the LTTng kernel probe module named lttng-probe-PROBE.ko, instead of loading the default LTTng kernel probe modules.

See also the LTTNG_KMOD_PROBES environment variable.

--no-kernel: Disable Linux kernel tracing.

Paths and ports

--agent-tcp-port=PORT: Listen on TCP port PORT for agent application registration instead of a port within the range [5345, 5354]).

-a PATH, --apps-sock=PATH: Set the application Unix socket path to PATH.

-c PATH, --client-sock=PATH: Set the client Unix socket path to PATH.

--consumerd32-libdir=PATH

Set the 32-bit consumer daemon library directory to PATH.

See also the LTTNG_CONSUMERD32_LIBDIR environment variable.

--consumerd32-path=PATH

Set the 32-bit consumer daemon binary path to PATH.

See also the LTTNG_CONSUMERD32_BIN environment variable.

--consumerd64-libdir=PATH

Set the 64-bit consumer daemon library directory to PATH.

See also the LTTNG_CONSUMERD64_LIBDIR environment variable.

--consumerd64-path=PATH

Set the 64-bit consumer daemon binary path to PATH.

See also the LTTNG_CONSUMERD32_BIN environment variable.

--kconsumerd-cmd-sock=PATH: Set the command Unix socket path of the Linux kernel consumer daemon to PATH.

--kconsumerd-err-sock=PATH: Set the error Unix socket path of the Linux kernel consumer daemon to PATH.

--ustconsumerd32-cmd-sock=PATH: Set the Unix socket path of the 32-bit consumer daemon command to PATH.

--ustconsumerd64-cmd-sock=PATH: Set the Unix socket path of the 64-bit consumer daemon command to PATH.

--ustconsumerd32-err-sock=PATH: Set the Unix socket path of the 32-bit consumer daemon error to PATH.

--ustconsumerd64-err-sock=PATH: Set the Unix socket path of the 64-bit consumer daemon error to PATH.

Buffer size of event notifier error counters

--event-notifier-error-buffer-size-kernel=SLOTS: Set the size of the kernel event notifier error counter buffers to SLOTS slots.

--event-notifier-error-buffer-size-userspace=SLOTS: Set the size of the user space event notifier error counter buffers to SLOTS slots.

As of LTTng 2.13.15, a slot is a 32-bit counter, but this may change in the future.

Verbosity

-q, --quiet

Suppress all messages, including warnings and errors.

You may NOT use this option with the --verbose and --verbose-consumer options.

-v, --verbose

Increase verbosity.

Specify this option up to three times to get more levels of verbosity.

You may NOT use this option with the --quiet option.

--verbose-consumer

Increase the verbosity of the consumer daemons which this session daemon spawns.

You may NOT use this option with the --quiet option.

Program information

-h, --help

Show help.

This option attempts to launch /usr/bin/man to view this manual page. Override the manual pager path with the LTTNG_MAN_BIN_PATH environment variable.

--list-options: List available command options and quit.

-V, --version: Show version and quit.

Exit status

0

Success

1

Error

3

Fatal error

Environment

LTTNG_ABORT_ON_ERROR

Set to 1 to abort the process after the first error is encountered.

LTTNG_APP_SOCKET_TIMEOUT

Timeout (in seconds) of the application socket when sending/receiving commands.

After this period of time, lttng-sessiond unregisters the application.

Set to 0 or -1 to set an infinite timeout.

Default: 5.

LTTNG_CONSUMERD32_BIN

32-bit consumer daemon binary path.

The --consumerd32-path option overrides this environment variable.

LTTNG_CONSUMERD32_LIBDIR

32-bit consumer daemon library directory path.

The --consumerd32-libdir option overrides this environment variable.

LTTNG_CONSUMERD64_BIN

64-bit consumer daemon binary path.

The --consumerd64-path option overrides this environment variable.

LTTNG_CONSUMERD64_LIBDIR

64-bit consumer daemon library directory path.

The --consumerd64-libdir option overrides this environment variable.

LTTNG_DEBUG_NOCLONE

Set to 1 to disable the use of clone(2)/fork(2).

Setting this environment variable is considered insecure, but it’s required to allow debuggers to work with lttng-sessiond on some operating systems.

LTTNG_EXTRA_KMOD_PROBES

Extra LTTng kernel probe modules to load.

See the --extra-kmod-probes option which overrides this environment variable.

LTTNG_KMOD_PROBES

Exclusive LTTng kernel probe modules to load.

See the --kmod-probes option which overrides this environment variable.

LTTNG_NETWORK_SOCKET_TIMEOUT

Socket connection, receive, and send timeout (milliseconds).

Set to 0 or -1 to use the timeout of the operating system (default).

LTTNG_SESSION_CONFIG_XSD_PATH

Recording session configuration XML schema definition (XSD) path.

Files

$LTTNG_HOME/.lttng

Unix user’s LTTng runtime and configuration directory.

$LTTNG_HOME/lttng-traces

Default output directory of LTTng traces in local and snapshot modes.

Override this path with the --output option of the lttng-create(1) command.

$LTTNG_HOME/.lttng/sessions/auto

Directory from which lttng-sessiond loads Unix user recording session configurations when starting.

See the “Recording session configuration loading” section above to learn more.

/etc/lttng/sessions/auto

Directory from which lttng-sessiond loads system-wide recording session configurations when starting.

See the “Recording session configuration loading” section above to learn more.

$LTTNG_HOME/.lttng/lttng.conf

Unix user’s LTTng daemon INI configuration file.

See the “Daemon configuration” section above to learn more.

/etc/lttng/lttng.conf

System-wide LTTng daemon INI configuration file.

See the “Daemon configuration” section above to learn more.

Note

$LTTNG_HOME defaults to $HOME.

Resources

• LTTng project website <https://lttng.org>

• LTTng documentation <https://lttng.org/docs>

• LTTng bug tracker <https://bugs.lttng.org>

• Git repositories <https://git.lttng.org>

• GitHub organization <https://github.com/lttng>

• Continuous integration <https://ci.lttng.org/>

• Mailing list <https://lists.lttng.org/> for support and development: [email protected]

• IRC channel <irc://irc.oftc.net/lttng>: #lttng on irc.oftc.net

Thanks

Special thanks to Michel Dagenais and the DORSAL laboratory <http://www.dorsal.polymtl.ca/> at École Polytechnique de Montréal for the LTTng journey.

Also thanks to the Ericsson teams working on tracing which helped us greatly with detailed bug reports and unusual test cases.

Releases

6 releases since Debian 8 (Jessie); the text changed 5 times.

8
9
10
11
12
13

--agent-tcp-port since Debian 9 (Stretch); --config since Debian 9 (Stretch); --event-notifier-error-buffer-size-kernel since Debian 12 (Bookworm); --event-notifier-error-buffer-size-userspace since Debian 12 (Bookworm); --extra-kmod-probes since Debian 9 (Stretch); --kmod-probes since Debian 9 (Stretch); --list-options since Debian 12 (Bookworm); -f since Debian 9 (Stretch).

--jul-tcp-port until Debian 8 (Jessie).

Referred to by

Usage

Overview

Daemon configuration

Recording session configuration loading

Options

General daemon configuration

Linux kernel tracing

Paths and ports

Buffer size of event notifier error counters

Verbosity

Program information

Exit status

Environment

Files

Resources

Thanks

Releases

See also

Mentioned on this page

Referred to by