Real-Time Linux Analysis Using Low-Impact Tracer

Abstract EN

Debugging real-time software presents an inherent challenge because of the nature of real-time itself.

Traditional debuggers use breakpoints to stop the execution of a program and allow the inspection of its status.

The interactive nature of a debugger is incompatible with the strict timing constraints of a real-time application.

In order to observe the execution of a real-time application, it is therefore necessary to use a low-impact instrumentation solution.

Tracing allows the collection of low-level events with minimal impact on the traced application.

These low-level events can be difficult to use without appropriate tools.

We propose an analysis framework to model real-time tasks from tracing data recovered using the LTTng tracer.

We show that this information can be used to populate views and help developers discover interesting patterns and potential problems.