2. Tracing OS events

Submitted by admin on Wed, 06/05/2019 - 21:01

In these tutorials, we will make intensive use a commercial tool to illustrate FreeRTOS mechanisms. This tool is Tracealyzer® from Percepio®.

You may take some time to visit Percepio® website:

Tracealyzer main page
Tracealyzer for FreeRTOS user manual

If you cannot get access to a Tracealyzer® licence (sorry for you), you may skip this tutorial. Otherwise, and if you want to be able to record and analyze what's happenning in your FreeRTOS projects, you are highly encouraged to setup your project in order to get those OS traces. That's really helpful, and highly instructive.

The user manual provides detailed instructions on how to get Tracealyzer® working with your project. In particular, see the Integrating the Recorder section.

1. Integrating the Recorder

We're not going here into the details that are well covered by the Percepio® user manual. Let us just review the main steps.

1.1. Getting the Recorder source files into your project

At the moment, Percepio Trace Recorder libraries are in version 4.1.4. After you downloaded the source files, you can perform some cleaning to only keep what is usefull considering your target and debug probe. Here is a screenshot of the project explorer after Recorder sources have been copied into project folder:

The 3 configuration headers have been moved into \app\inc folder
streamports are not necessary for now (maybe later...) as we will use the snapshot mode.
text files (.txt) have been removed

Next, add the TraceRecorder\include path to the build configuration and apply changes:

1.1. Configuring the Recorder

Open FreeRTOSConfig.h and turn on the configUSE_TRACE_FACILITY flag:

/*-----------------------------------------------------------
 * Application specific definitions.
 *
 * These definitions should be adjusted for your particular hardware and
 * application requirements.
 *
 * THESE PARAMETERS ARE DESCRIBED WITHIN THE 'CONFIGURATION' SECTION OF THE
 * FreeRTOS API DOCUMENTATION AVAILABLE ON THE FreeRTOS.org WEB SITE.
 *
 * See http://www.freertos.org/a00110.html.
 *----------------------------------------------------------*/

#define configUSE_PREEMPTION			1
#define configUSE_IDLE_HOOK			0
#define configUSE_TICK_HOOK			0
#define configCPU_CLOCK_HZ			( 48000000UL )	
#define configTICK_RATE_HZ			( ( TickType_t ) 1000 )
#define configMAX_PRIORITIES			( 5 )
#define configMINIMAL_STACK_SIZE		( ( unsigned short ) 70 )
#define configTOTAL_HEAP_SIZE			( ( size_t ) ( 7 * 1024 ) )
#define configMAX_TASK_NAME_LEN			( 10 )
#define configUSE_TRACE_FACILITY		1          // <-- Set this flag
#define configUSE_16_BIT_TICKS			0
#define configIDLE_SHOULD_YIELD			1
#define configUSE_MUTEXES			1
#define configQUEUE_REGISTRY_SIZE		0
#define configGENERATE_RUN_TIME_STATS	        0
#define configCHECK_FOR_STACK_OVERFLOW	        0
#define configUSE_RECURSIVE_MUTEXES		0
#define configUSE_MALLOC_FAILED_HOOK	        0
#define configUSE_APPLICATION_TASK_TAG	        0
#define configUSE_COUNTING_SEMAPHORES	        0

Then add the following at the very end of FreeRTOSConfig.h :


...

/* Integrates the Tracealyzer recorder with FreeRTOS */
#if ( configUSE_TRACE_FACILITY == 1 )
#include "trcRecorder.h"
#endif

#endif /* FREERTOS_CONFIG_H */

Now open trcConfig.h and check or edit the settings:

/******************************************************************************
 * Include of processor header file
 *
 * Here you may need to include the header file for your processor. This is
 * required at least for the ARM Cortex-M port, that uses the ARM CMSIS API.
 * Try that in case of build problems. Otherwise, remove the #error line below.
 *****************************************************************************/
#include "stm32f0xx.h"

/*******************************************************************************
 * Configuration Macro: TRC_CFG_HARDWARE_PORT
 *
 * Specify what hardware port to use (i.e., the "timestamping driver").
 *
 * All ARM Cortex-M MCUs are supported by "TRC_HARDWARE_PORT_ARM_Cortex_M".
 * This port uses the DWT cycle counter for Cortex-M3/M4/M7 devices, which is
 * available on most such devices. In case your device don't have DWT support,
 * you will get an error message opening the trace. In that case, you may
 * force the recorder to use SysTick timestamping instead, using this define:
 *
 * #define TRC_CFG_ARM_CM_USE_SYSTICK
 *
 * For ARM Cortex-M0/M0+ devices, SysTick mode is used automatically.
 *
 * See trcHardwarePort.h for available ports and information on how to
 * define your own port, if not already present.
 ******************************************************************************/
#define TRC_CFG_HARDWARE_PORT TRC_HARDWARE_PORT_ARM_Cortex_M

/*******************************************************************************
 * Configuration Macro: TRC_CFG_RECORDER_MODE
 *
 * Specify what recording mode to use. Snapshot means that the data is saved in
 * an internal RAM buffer, for later upload. Streaming means that the data is
 * transferred continuously to the host PC.
 *
 * For more information, see http://percepio.com/2016/10/05/rtos-tracing/
 * and the Tracealyzer User Manual.
 *
 * Values:
 * TRC_RECORDER_MODE_SNAPSHOT
 * TRC_RECORDER_MODE_STREAMING
 ******************************************************************************/
#define TRC_CFG_RECORDER_MODE TRC_RECORDER_MODE_SNAPSHOT

/******************************************************************************
 * TRC_CFG_FREERTOS_VERSION
 *
 * Specify what version of FreeRTOS that is used (don't change unless using the
 * trace recorder library with an older version of FreeRTOS).
 *
 * TRC_FREERTOS_VERSION_7_3						If using FreeRTOS v7.3.x
 * TRC_FREERTOS_VERSION_7_4						If using FreeRTOS v7.4.x 
 * TRC_FREERTOS_VERSION_7_5_OR_7_6				If using FreeRTOS v7.5.0 - v7.6.0
 * TRC_FREERTOS_VERSION_8_X						If using FreeRTOS v8.X.X
 * TRC_FREERTOS_VERSION_9_0_0					If using FreeRTOS v9.0.0
 * TRC_FREERTOS_VERSION_9_0_1					If using FreeRTOS v9.0.1
 * TRC_FREERTOS_VERSION_9_0_2					If using FreeRTOS v9.0.2
 * TRC_FREERTOS_VERSION_10_0_0					If using FreeRTOS v10.0.0 or later
 *****************************************************************************/
#define TRC_CFG_FREERTOS_VERSION TRC_FREERTOS_VERSION_10_0_0

Remove the OS tick events from the record, as it uses a lot of RAM... and we have a little...

 /*****************************************************************************
 * TRC_CFG_INCLUDE_OSTICK_EVENTS
 *
 * Macro which should be defined as either zero (0) or one (1).
 *
 * If this is one (1), events will be generated whenever the OS clock is
 * increased. If zero (0), OS tick events are not generated, which allows for
 * recording longer traces in the same amount of RAM.
 *
 * Default value is 1.
 *****************************************************************************/
#define TRC_CFG_INCLUDE_OSTICK_EVENTS 0    // Disable the recording of OS tick events

Finally, open trcSnapshotConfig.h and check the following:

/******************************************************************************
 * TRC_CFG_SNAPSHOT_MODE
 *
 * Macro which should be defined as one of:
 * - TRC_SNAPSHOT_MODE_RING_BUFFER
 * - TRC_SNAPSHOT_MODE_STOP_WHEN_FULL
 * Default is TRC_SNAPSHOT_MODE_RING_BUFFER.
 *
 * With TRC_CFG_SNAPSHOT_MODE set to TRC_SNAPSHOT_MODE_RING_BUFFER, the
 * events are stored in a ring buffer, i.e., where the oldest events are
 * overwritten when the buffer becomes full. This allows you to get the last
 * events leading up to an interesting state, e.g., an error, without having
 * to store the whole run since startup.
 *
 * When TRC_CFG_SNAPSHOT_MODE is TRC_SNAPSHOT_MODE_STOP_WHEN_FULL, the
 * recording is stopped when the buffer becomes full. This is useful for
 * recording events following a specific state, e.g., the startup sequence.
 *****************************************************************************/
#define TRC_CFG_SNAPSHOT_MODE TRC_SNAPSHOT_MODE_STOP_WHEN_FULL

/*******************************************************************************
 * TRC_CFG_EVENT_BUFFER_SIZE
 *
 * Macro which should be defined as an integer value.
 *
 * This defines the capacity of the event buffer, i.e., the number of records
 * it may store. Most events use one record (4 byte), although some events
 * require multiple 4-byte records. You should adjust this to the amount of RAM
 * available in the target system.
 *
 * Default value is 1000, which means that 4000 bytes is allocated for the
 * event buffer.
 ******************************************************************************/
#define TRC_CFG_EVENT_BUFFER_SIZE 1000

/*******************************************************************************
 * TRC_CFG_NTASK, TRC_CFG_NISR, TRC_CFG_NQUEUE, TRC_CFG_NSEMAPHORE...
 *
 * A group of macros which should be defined as integer values, zero or larger.
 *
 * These define the capacity of the Object Property Table, i.e., the maximum
 * number of objects active at any given point, within each object class (e.g.,
 * task, queue, semaphore, ...).
 *
 * If tasks or other objects are deleted in your system, this
 * setting does not limit the total amount of objects created, only the number
 * of objects that have been successfully created but not yet deleted.
 *
 * Using too small values will cause vTraceError to be called, which stores an
 * error message in the trace that is shown when opening the trace file. The
 * error message can also be retrieved using xTraceGetLastError.
 *
 * It can be wise to start with large values for these constants,
 * unless you are very confident on these numbers. Then do a recording and
 * check the actual usage by selecting View menu -> Trace Details ->
 * Resource Usage -> Object Table.
 ******************************************************************************/
#define TRC_CFG_NTASK			15
#define TRC_CFG_NISR			5
#define TRC_CFG_NQUEUE			10
#define TRC_CFG_NSEMAPHORE		10
#define TRC_CFG_NMUTEX			10
#define TRC_CFG_NTIMER			5
#define TRC_CFG_NEVENTGROUP		5
#define TRC_CFG_NSTREAMBUFFER	        5
#define TRC_CFG_NMESSAGEBUFFER	        5

Save all and make sure that the project still builds without any error or warnings.

Print size information
   text	   data	    bss	    dec	    hex	filename
  49976	     36	  14304	  64316	   fb3c	nucleo_64_F072_FreeRTOS.elf
Print size information done
Generate listing file
Output sent to: nucleo_64_F072_FreeRTOS.list
Generate listing file done
Generate build reports done

You should take care of the reported level of bss memory since it includes the amount of memory that we reserved for both the FreeRTOS heap (7kB) and for the recorder (4kB). Remember that STM32F072 only features 16kB of RAM. Here, it's almost full...

Fortunately, the linker won't build if you exceed the amount of available RAM. You can try to double the Recorder capacity for instance, and you'll see...

#define TRC_CFG_EVENT_BUFFER_SIZE 2000

Then go back to 1000...

2. Recording OS events

The first step is to start the record process somewhere in the program. If you want to catch all the FreeRTOS events from the startup, then start the Recorder before any call to any FreeRTOS API function. In our case, edit main() as follows:

// Main program
int main()
{
	// Configure System Clock
	SystemClock_Config();

	// Initialize LED pin
	BSP_LED_Init();

	// Initialize Debug Console
	BSP_Console_Init();

	// Start Trace Recording
	vTraceEnable(TRC_START);

	// Create Tasks
	xTaskCreate(vTask1, "Task_1", 256, NULL, 1, NULL);
	xTaskCreate(vTask2, "Task_2", 256, NULL, 2, NULL);

	// Start the Scheduler
	vTaskStartScheduler();

	while(1)
	{
		// The program should never be here...
	}
}

Then, let us speed things up in vTask1() and vTask2() in order to get more recorded events in a short time window. Set the LED toggle period to 30ms, and the message display every 100ms.

/*
 *	Task1 toggles LED every 30ms
 */
void vTask1 (void *pvParameters)
{
	while(1)
	{
		BSP_LED_Toggle();
		vTaskDelay(30);
	}
}

/*
 *	Task2 sends a message to console every 100ms
 */
void vTask2 (void *pvParameters)
{
	uint16_t count;

	count = 0;

	while(1)
	{
		my_printf("Hello %2d from task2\r\n", count);
		count++;
		vTaskDelay(100);
	}
}

Save all , make sure that the project still builds without any error or warnings and then launch a debug session .

You should get the debugger waiting at the beginning of main():

The first thing to do is to locate the RecorderData global variable in the processor memory. RecorderData is actually a structure of data you can display and locate using the Expressions view:

The above tells us that RecorderData is located at address 0x20001e60 in memory.

Alternately, you can add

a memory Monitor in the Memory view:

Step over the code until you pass the vTraceEnable() function and take a look (unfold) the RecorderData structure in the Expression view. You'll see that a lot of initializations have been performed. Notice that numEvents member is set to 1. Then step over the two xTaskCreate() function while watching the numEvents member. You'll see that a task creation corresponds to 8 events in the recorder.

Now, just run the program , wait a little while (a couple of seconds) and then click the suspend button. How high is the numEvent variable ? If it reached 1000, that means that recorder is full, and that it doesn't record anything anymore.

At this step, we have a very valuable information stored in the Recorder memory, but it's not human readable in its current form:

That's where Tracealyzer® comes into the game.

3. Analyzing the trace

3.1. Dump the memory into a file on the host computer

While the debugger is still in the suspended state, click the Export button in the Memory view. Then fill up the popup window:

Select RAW Binary as export Format
Make sure that Start address is the one of the RecorderData structure you got above (0x20001e60)
Set the Length to something much bigger than the expected recorder length (4000 bytes of events + other fields) → say 10000
Give a simple name such as 'ram.bin' to the destination file

Then click OK. You should get a file ram.bin created on your computer, which is a mirror of the actual STM32 memory content.

3.2. Open the memory dump into Tracealyzer®

From Windows launch menu, start Tracealyzer for FreeRTOS:

Version at time of writing is 4.3.3.

Within Tracealyzer®, select File →Open File and browse to ram.bin. You can also just drag and drop the ram.bin file into the Tracealyzer® window. The trace opens...

On the left, vertical lanes represent the system tasks execution along a vertical time line. Task priority is increasing from left to right. You can scroll and zoom into this view using the mouse wheel and use right filters to display various informations.

You can measure time by click-dragging the mouse in the main view:

Selecting the task IDLE (left lane), you get an idea of the CPU load. In the figure below, the IDLE task is running 97.9% of time. In other words, the CPU is only busy with our Task_1 and Task_2 for 2.1% of the time.

Using the View menu, you get access to more information. Open for instance View→Trace Overview. This view provides a summary of the recorder trace. You can see that 1000 events have been recorded in 3.7s. If you need longer traces, you need a larger recorder buffer, which is difficult with a limited amount of RAM.

Now try and open Views → Actor Instance Graphs → Wait time. You get a view of waiting time for each task. The waiting time corresponds to the time a task waits, from the moment it is ready to execute, to the moment it actually runs. In the graph below, one can see that Task_2 (red) never waits. That's fortunate, because Task_2 is of highest priority. Task_1 (yellow) wait time is also zero most of the time, but by 3 times within the record window, it had to wait about 2ms before being executed.

Double-clicking the point of interrest in the above view align all the Tracealyzer® opened views so that you can get a better understanding of the local situation. In this case, we understand that, at regular time interval, both Task_1 and Task_2 are simultaneously ready. Task_2 has higher priority, therefore Task_1 waits for the CPU to be available (i.e. until Task_2 terminates).

Main menu

Tutorials Menu

2. Tracing OS events

1. Integrating the Recorder

1.1. Getting the Recorder source files into your project

1.1. Configuring the Recorder

2. Recording OS events

3. Analyzing the trace

3.1. Dump the memory into a file on the host computer

3.2. Open the memory dump into Tracealyzer®

Main menu

You are here

Tutorials Menu

User login

2. Tracing OS events

1. Integrating the Recorder

1.1. Getting the Recorder source files into your project

1.1. Configuring the Recorder

2. Recording OS events

3. Analyzing the trace

3.1. Dump the memory into a file on the host computer

3.2. Open the memory dump into Tracealyzer®