esp-idf/docs/api-guides/app_trace.rst

Application Level Tracing library
=================================

Overview
--------

IDF provides useful feature for program behaviour analysis: application level tracing. It is implemented in the corresponding library and can be enabled via menuconfig. This feature allows to transfer arbitrary data between host and ESP32 via JTAG interface with small overhead on program execution.
Developers can use this library to send application specific state of execution to the host and receive commands or other type of info in the opposite direction at runtime. The main use cases of this library are:

1. System behaviour analysis. See `System Behaviour Analysis with SEGGER SystemView`_.
2. Lightweight logging to the host. See `Logging to Host`_.
3. Collecting application specific data. See `Application Specific Tracing`_.

Tracing components when working over JTAG interface are shown in the figure below.

.. figure:: ../_static/app_trace/overview.png
    :align: center
    :alt: Tracing Components when Working Over JTAG
    :figclass: align-center

    Tracing Components when Working Over JTAG

.. note::

    Currently only JTAG interface is supported as transport.

Modes of operation
------------------

The library supports two modes of operation:

 - **Post-mortem mode.** This is the default mode. The mode does not need interaction from the host side. In this mode tracing module does not check whether host has read all the data from *HW UP BUFFER* buffer and overwrites old data with the new ones. This mode is useful when only the latest trace data are interesting to the user, e.g. for analyzing program's behaviour just before the crash. Host can read the data later on upon user request, e.g. via special OpenOCD command in case of working via JTAG interface.
 - **Streaming mode.** Tracing module enters this mode when host connects to ESP32. In this mode before writing new data to *HW UP BUFFER* tracing module checks that there is enough space in it and if necessary waits for the host to read data and free enough memory. Maximum waiting time is controled via timeout values passed by users to corresponding API routines. So when application tries to write data to trace buffer using finite value of the maximum waiting time it is possible situation that this data will be dropped. Especially this is true for tracing from time critical code (ISRs, OS scheduler code etc.) when infinite timeouts can lead to system malfunction. In order to avoid loss of such critical data developers can enable additional data buffering via menuconfig option ``CONFIG_ESP32_APPTRACE_PENDING_DATA_SIZE_MAX``. This macro specifies the size of data which can be buffered in above conditions. The option can also help to overcome situation when data transfer to the host is temporarily slowed down, e.g due to USB bus congestions etc. But it will not help when average bitrate of trace data stream exceeds HW interface capabilities.

Config Options and Dependencies
-------------------------------

Using of this feature depends on two components:

1. **Host side:** Application tracing is done over JTAG, so it needs OpenOCD to be set up and running on host machine. For instructions how to set it up, please, see :doc:`Debugging <../api-guides/openocd>` for details.
2. **Target side:** Application tracing functionality can be enabled by ``CONFIG_ESP32_APPTRACE_ENABLE`` macro via menuconfig. This option enables the module and makes tracing API available for users. Actually there is menu which allows selecting destination for the trace data (HW interface for transport). So choosing one of the destinations automatically enables ``CONFIG_ESP32_APPTRACE_ENABLE`` option.

.. note::

    In order to achieve higher data rates and minimize number of dropped packets it is recommended to modify JTAG adapter working frequency in OpenOCD config file ``$IDF_PATH/docs/esp32.cfg``. Maximum tested stable speed on ESP-WROVER-KIT board is 26MHz, so for this board you need to have the following statement in your configuration file ``adapter_khz 26000`` instead of the default ``adapter_khz 200``. Actually maximum stable JTAG frequency can depend on the host system configuration. In general JTAG clock shuld not exceed APB clock / 4.

There are two additional menuconfig options not mentioned above:

1. ``CONFIG_ESP32_APPTRACE_POSTMORTEM_FLUSH_TRAX_THRESH``. This option is necessary due to the nature of working over JTAG. In that mode trace data are exposed to the host in 16KB blocks. In post-mortem mode when one block is filled it is exposed to the host and the previous one becomes unavailable. In other words trace data are overwritten in 16KB granularity. On panic the latest data from the current input block are exposed to host and host can read them for post-analysis. It can happen that system panic occurs when there are very small amount of data which are not exposed to the host yet. In this case the previous 16KB of collected data will be lost and host will see the latest, but very small piece of the trace. It can be insufficient to diagnose the problem. This menuconfig option allows avoiding such situations. It controls the threshold for flushing data in case of panic. For example user can decide that it needs not less then 512 bytes of the recent trace data, so if there is less then 512 bytes of pending data at the moment of panic they will not be flushed and will not overwrite previous 16KB. The option is only meaningful in post-mortem mode and when working over JTAG.
2. ``CONFIG_ESP32_APPTRACE_ONPANIC_HOST_FLUSH_TMO``. The option is only meaningful in streaming mode and controls the maximum time tracing module will wait for the host to read the last data in case of panic.


How to use this library
-----------------------

This library provides API for transferring arbitrary data between host and ESP32. When enabled in menuconfig target application tracing module is initialized automatically at the system startup, so all what the user needs to do is to call corresponding API to send, receive or flush the data.

Application Specific Tracing
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

In general user should decide what type of data should be transferred in every direction and how these data must be interpreted (processed). The following steps must be performed to transfer data between target and host:

1. On target side user should implement algorithms for writing trace data to the host. Piece of code below shows an example how to do this.

.. code-block:: c

    #include "esp_app_trace.h"
    ...
    char buf[] = "Hello World!";
    esp_err_t res = esp_apptrace_write(ESP_APPTRACE_DEST_TRAX, buf, strlen(buf), ESP_APPTRACE_TMO_INFINITE);
    if (res != ESP_OK) {
        ESP_LOGE(TAG, "Failed to write data to host!");
        return res;
    }

``esp_apptrace_write()`` function uses memcpy to copy user data to the internal buffer. In some cases it can be more optimal to use ``esp_apptrace_buffer_get()`` and ``esp_apptrace_buffer_put()`` functions. They allow developers to allocate buffer and fill it themselves. The following piece of code shows how to do this.

.. code-block:: c

    #include "esp_app_trace.h"
    ...
    int number = 10;
    char *ptr = (char *)esp_apptrace_buffer_get(32, 100/*tmo in us*/);
    if (ptr == NULL) {
        ESP_LOGE("Failed to get buffer!");
        return ESP_FAIL;
    }
    sprintf(ptr, "Here is the number %d", number);
    esp_err_t res = esp_apptrace_buffer_put(ptr, 100/*tmo in us*/);
    if (res != ESP_OK) {
        /* in case of error host tracing tool (e.g. OpenOCD) will report incomplete user buffer */
        ESP_LOGE("Failed to put buffer!");
        return res;
    }

Also according to his needs user may want to receive data from the host. Piece of code below shows an example how to do this.

.. code-block:: c

    #include "esp_app_trace.h"
    ...
    char buf[32];
    size_t sz = sizeof(buf);
    /* check for incoming data and read them if any */
    esp_err_t res = esp_apptrace_read(ESP_APPTRACE_DEST_TRAX, buf, &sz, 0/*do not wait*/);
    if (res != ESP_OK) {
        ESP_LOGE(TAG, "Failed to read data from host!");
        return res;
    }
    if (sz > 0) {
        /* we have data, process them */
        ...
    }

2. The next step is to build the program image and download it to the target as described in :doc:`Build and Flash <../get-started/make-project>`.
3. Run OpenOCD (see :doc:`Debugging <../api-guides/openocd>`).
4. Connect to OpenOCD telnet server. On Linux it can be done using the following command in terminal ``telnet <oocd_host> 4444``. If telnet session is opened on the same machine which runs OpenOCD you can use ``localhost`` as ``<oocd_host>`` in the command above.
5. Start trace data collection using special OpenOCD command. This command will transfer tracing data and redirect them to specified file or socket (currently only files are supported as trace data destination). For description of the corresponding commands see `OpenOCD Application Level Tracing Commands`_.
6. The final step is to process received data. Since format of data is defined by user the processing stage is out of the scope of this document. Good starting points for data processor are python scripts in ``$IDF_PATH/tools/esp_app_trace``: ``apptrace_proc.py`` (used for feature tests) and ``logtrace_proc.py`` (see more details in section `Logging to Host`_).

OpenOCD Application Level Tracing Commands
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""

*HW UP BUFFER* is shared between user data blocks and filling of the allocated memory is performed on behalf of the API caller (in task or ISR context). In multithreading environment it can happen that task/ISR which fills the buffer is preempted by another high prio task/ISR. So it is possible situation that user data preparation process is not completed at the moment when that chunk is read by the host. To handle such conditions tracing module prepends all user data chunks with header which contains allocated user buffer size (2 bytes) and length of actually written data (2 bytes). So total length of the header is 4 bytes. OpenOCD command which reads trace data reports error when it reads incomplete user data chunk, but in any case it puts contents of the whole user chunk (including unfilled area) to output file.
Below is the description of available OpenOCD application tracing commands.

.. note::

    Currently OpenOCD does not provide commands to send arbitrary user data to the target.

Command usage:

``esp108 apptrace [start <options>] | [stop] | [status] | [dump <cores_num> <outfile>]``

Sub-commands:

  .. list-table::
    :widths: 20 80
    :header-rows: 1

    * - Sub-command
      - Description
    * - start
      - Start tracing (continuous streaming).
    * - stop
      - Stop tracing.
    * - status
      - Get tracing status.
    * - dump
      - Dump all data from *HW UP BUFFER* (post-mortem dump).

Start command syntax:

  ``start <outfile1> [outfile2] [poll_period [trace_size [stop_tmo [wait4halt [skip_size]]]]``

  .. list-table::
    :widths: 20 80
    :header-rows: 1

    * - Argument
      - Description
    * - outfile1
      - Path to file to save data from PRO CPU. This argument should have the following format: ``file://path/to/file``.
    * - outfile2
      - Path to file to save data from APP CPU. This argument should have the following format: ``file://path/to/file``.
    * - poll_period
      - Data polling period (in ms). If greater then 0 then command runs in non-blocking mode. By default 1 ms.
    * - trace_size
      - Maximum size of data to collect (in bytes). Tracing is stopped after specified amount of data is received. By default -1 (trace size stop trigger is disabled).
    * - stop_tmo
      - Idle timeout (in sec). Tracing is stopped if there is no data for specified period of time. By default -1 (disable this stop trigger).
    * - wait4halt
      - If 0 start tracing immediately, otherwise command waits for the target to be halted (after reset, by breakpoint etc.) and then automatically resumes it and starts tracing. By default 0.
    * - skip_size
      - Number of bytes to skip at the start. By default 0.

.. note::

    If ``poll_period`` is 0 OpenOCD telnet command line will not be avalable until tracing is stopped. You must stop it manually by resetting the board or pressing CTRL+C in OpenOCD window (not one with the telnet session).

Logging to Host
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

IDF implements useful feature: logging to host via application level tracing library. This is a kind of semihosting when all ESP_LOGx calls sends strings to be printed to the host instead of UART. This can be useful because "printing to host" eliminates some steps performed when logging to UART. The most part of work is done on the host.
By default IDF's logging library uses vprintf-like function to write formatted output to dedicated UART. In general it invloves the following steps:

1. Format string is parsed to obtain type of each argument.
2. According to its type every argument is converted to string representation.
3. Format string combined with converted arguments is sent to UART.

Though implementation of vprintf-like function can be optimised to a certain level, all steps above have to be peformed in any case and every step takes some time (especially item 3). So it is frequent situation when addition of extra logging to the program to diagnose some problem changes its behaviour and problem dissapears or in the worst cases program can not work normally at all and ends up with an error or even hangs.
Possible ways to overcome this problem are to use higher UART bitrates (or another faster interface) and/or move string formatting procedure to the host.
Application level tracing feature can be used to transfer log information to host using ``esp_apptrace_vprintf`` function. This function does not perform full parsing of the format string and arguments, instead it just calculates number of arguments passed and sends them along with the format string address to the host. On the host log data are processed and printed out by a special Python script.

Limitations
"""""""""""

Curent implmentation of logging over JTAG has several limitations:

1. Tracing from ``ESP_EARLY_LOGx`` macros is not supported.
2. No support for printf arguments which size exceeds 4 bytes (e.g. ``double`` and ``uint64_t``).
3. Only strings from .rodata section are supported as format strings and arguments.
4. Maximum number of printf arguments is 256.

How To Use It
"""""""""""""

In order to use logging via trace module user needs to perform the following steps:

1. On target side special vprintf-like function needs to be installed. As it was mentioned earlier this function is ``esp_apptrace_vprintf``. It sends log data to the host. Example code is shown below.

.. code-block:: c

    #include "esp_app_trace.h"
    ...
    void app_main()
    {
        // set log vprintf handler
        esp_log_set_vprintf(esp_apptrace_vprintf);
        ...
        // user code using ESP_LOGx starts here
        // all data passed to ESP_LOGx are sent to host
        ...
        // restore log vprintf handler
        esp_log_set_vprintf(vprintf);
        // flush last data to host
        esp_apptrace_flush(ESP_APPTRACE_DEST_TRAX, 100000 /*tmo in us*/);
        ESP_LOGI(TAG, "Tracing is finished."); // this will be printed out to UART
        while (1);
    }

2. Follow instructions in items 2-5 in `Application Specific Tracing`_.
3. To print out collected log records run the following command in terminal: ``$IDF_PATH/tools/esp_app_trace/logtrace_proc.py /path/to/trace/file /path/to/program/elf/file``.

Log Trace Processor Command Options
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Command usage:

``logtrace_proc.py [-h] [--no-errors] <trace_file> <elf_file>``

Positional arguments:

  .. list-table::
    :widths: 20 80
    :header-rows: 1

    * - Argument
      - Description
    * - trace_file
      - Path to log trace file
    * - elf_file
      - Path to program ELF file

Optional arguments:

  .. list-table::
    :widths: 20 80
    :header-rows: 1

    * - Argument
      - Description
    * - -h, --help
      - show this help message and exit
    * - --no-errors, -n
      - Do not print errors

System Behaviour Analysis with SEGGER SystemView
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Another useful IDF feature built on top of application tracing library is the system level tracing which produces traces compatible with SEGGER SystemView tool (see `SystemView <https://www.segger.com/systemview.html>`_). SEGGER SystemView is a real-time recording and visualization tool that allows to analyze runtime behavior of an application.

.. note::

    Currently IDF-based application is able to generate SystemView compatible traces, but tracing process can not be controlled using that tool.

How To Use It
"""""""""""""

Support for this feature is enabled by ``CONFIG_SYSVIEW_ENABLE`` menuconfig option. It also enables a bunch of options related to that type of tracing:

1. ``CONFIG_SYSVIEW_TS_SOURCE`` selects the source of timestamps for SystemView events. In single core mode timestamps are generated using ESP32 internal cycle counter running at maximum 240 Mhz (~4ns granularity). In dual-core mode external timer working at 40Mhz is used, so timestamp granularity is 25 ns.
2. ``CONFIG_SYSVIEW_EVT_XXX`` enables or disables particular SystemView event.

IDF has all the code required to produce SystemView compatible traces, so user can just configure necessary project options (see above), build, download the image to target and use OpenOCD to collect data as described in the previous sections.

OpenOCD SystemView Tracing Command Options
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""

Command usage:

``esp108 sysview [start <options>] | [stop] | [status]``

Sub-commands:

  .. list-table::
    :widths: 20 80
    :header-rows: 1

    * - Sub-command
      - Description
    * - start
      - Start tracing (continuous streaming).
    * - stop
      - Stop tracing.
    * - status
      - Get tracing status.

Start command syntax:

  ``start <outfile1> [outfile2] [poll_period [trace_size [stop_tmo]]]``

  .. list-table::
    :widths: 20 80
    :header-rows: 1

    * - Argument
      - Description
    * - outfile1
      - Path to file to save data from PRO CPU. This argument should have the following format: ``file://path/to/file``.
    * - outfile2
      - Path to file to save data from APP CPU. This argument should have the following format: ``file://path/to/file``.
    * - poll_period
      - Data polling period (in ms). If greater then 0 then command runs in non-blocking mode. By default 1 ms.
    * - trace_size
      - Maximum size of data to collect (in bytes). Tracing is stopped after specified amount of data is received. By default -1 (trace size stop trigger is disabled).
    * - stop_tmo
      - Idle timeout (in sec). Tracing is stopped if there is no data for specified period of time. By default -1 (disable this stop trigger).

.. note::

    If ``poll_period`` is 0 OpenOCD telnet command line will not be avalable until tracing is stopped. You must stop it manually by resetting the board or pressing CTRL+C in OpenOCD window (not one with the telnet session).

Data Visualization
""""""""""""""""""

After trace data are collected user can use special tool to visuailize the results and inspect behaviour of the program. Unfortunately SystemView does not support tracing from multiple cores. So when tracing from ESP32 working in dual-core mode two files are generated: one for PRO CPU and another one for APP CPU.
User can load every file into separate instance of the tool. It is uneasy and awkward to analyze data for every core in separate instance of the tool.
Fortunately there is Eclipse plugin called *Impulse* which can load several trace files and makes its possible to inspect events from both cores in one view. Also this plugin has no limitation of 1000000 events as compared to free version of SystemView.

Good instruction on how to install, configure and visualize data in Impulse from one core can be found `here <https://mcuoneclipse.com/2016/07/31/impulse-segger-systemview-in-eclipse/>`_.

.. note::

    IDF uses its own mapping for SystemView FreeRTOS events IDs, so user needs to replace original file with mapping ``$SYSVIEW_INSTALL_DIR/Description/SYSVIEW_FreeRTOS.txt`` with ``$IDF_PATH/docs/api-guides/SYSVIEW_FreeRTOS.txt``.
    Also contents of that IDF specific file should be used when configuring SystemView serializer using above link.

Configure Impulse for Dual Core Traces
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After installing Impulse and ensuring that it can succussefully load trace files for each core in separate tabs user can add special Multi Adapter port and load both files into one view. To do this user needs to do the following in Eclipse:

1. Open 'Signal Ports' view. Go to Windows->Show View->Other menu. Find 'Signal Ports' view in Impulse folder and double-click on it.
2. In 'Signal Ports' view right-click on 'Ports' and select 'Add ...'->New Multi Adapter Port
3. In open dialog Press 'Add' button and select 'New Pipe/File'.
4. In open dialog select 'SystemView Serializer' as Serializer and set path to PRO CPU trace file. Press OK.
5. Repeat steps 3-4 for APP CPU trace file.
6. Double-click on created port. View for this port should open.
7. Click Start/Stop Streaming button. Data should be loaded.
8. Use 'Zoom Out', 'Zoom In' and 'Zoom Fit' button to inspect data.
9. For settings measurement cursors and other features please see `Impulse documentation <http://toem.de/index.php/projects/impulse>`_).

.. note::

    If you have problems with visualization (no data are shown or strange behaviour of zoom action is observed) you can try to delete current signal hierarchy and double click on necessary file or port. Eclipse will ask you to create new signal hierarchy.