Command Line Kernel Trace Tool Tutorial

Purpose

This document explains how to use the command line kernel trace tool to extract trace data from a device.

Intended Audience

Developers who need to debug a device using the command line kernel trace tool.

Required Background

An understanding of the trace macros in EUser.

Introduction

The command line kernel trace tool is a command line tool which displays trace data produced by the BTrace framework.

Setup and Configuration Requirements

The command line kernel trace tool is included in all Base Text-Shell ROMs but must be manually added to other kinds of ROM.

Using Command Line Kernel Trace Tool

The following tasks will be covered in this tutorial:

• Using the command line kernel trace tool to extract trace data.

Basic Procedure

The high level steps to setting a trace are shown here:

1. Determine the name of the executable to be traced.

2. Determine the category to be filtered.

3. Select a capture mode.

4. Choose a file to write to.

5. Enter the appropriate commands into the command line.

Command syntax

The syntax for the commands is this:

BTRACE [-fLIST] [-mN] [-bN] [-d] [filename]

where

• LIST stands for a list of comma separated category numbers,

• -mN stands for -m followed by an integer as defined in RBTrace::TMode,

  • 0 trace disabled and new traces are discarded on overflow,

  • 1 trace enabled and new traces are discarded on overflow,

  • 2 trace disabled and old traces are discarded on overflow,

  • 3 trace enabled and old traces are discarded on overflow,

• -bN stands for the size in bytes of the capture buffer,

• -d causes the contents of the trace buffer to be dumped to the debug port, and

• filename is the file to which the trace data is to be written.

Here is an example command:

BTRACE -f1,2,3 -m3 -b1024
MyTestProgram.exe
BTRACE d:\MyLog.txt