[lttng-dev] lttng snapshots and running traces

[Thibault, Daniel]

Envoyé : 26 septembre 2013 15:55

>>    If the tracers pass the consumer, and then the consumer passes the 
>> tracers, does the consumer stop copying the buffer contents to the snapshot trace?
>>
>> * consumer reads a number of "pass n" sub-buffers (where n is the number of times the tracers have gone around)
>> * tracers catch up with the consumer, skip ahead, write at least one whole "pass n+1" sub-buffer
>> * tracers then stop or slow down
>> * consumer reads the "pass n+1" sub-buffer(s), then overtakes the tracers
>> * consumer skips over the sub-buffer where the tracers are, finds a "pass n" sub-buffer
>> 
>>    If the consumer doesn't close the trace at that point, it would corrupt the snapshot.
>
> The consumer reads absolute positions in the ring-buffer, if a subbuffer has been overwritten, it skips to the next until it reaches its end position.
> The consumer will never read data that has been recorded after it started taking the snapshot.
> That is why it is important to know that we deal with absolute positions.
>
> Is that clearer ?
>
> If you want to take a look, the code for the kernel is in the function lttng_kconsumer_snapshot_channel in src/common/kernel-consumer/kernel-consumer.c.
> You will see that we take the begin and end positions, and then iterate subbuffer by subbuffer, if a get_subbuff(absolute_position) fails it means it has already been reused and we > skip to the next.
>
> Julien

   I think I get it now: the consumer skips the "pass n+1" sub-buffers and reads only the "pass n" sub-buffers it encounters during its sweep.  Thanks!

Daniel U. Thibault
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