diff --git a/Documentation/trace/ftrace.rst b/Documentation/trace/ftrace.rst index 23572f6697c0..231d26ceedb0 100644 --- a/Documentation/trace/ftrace.rst +++ b/Documentation/trace/ftrace.rst @@ -203,6 +203,33 @@ of ftrace. Here is a list of some of the key files: This displays the total combined size of all the trace buffers. + buffer_subbuf_order: + + This sets or displays the sub buffer page size order. The ring buffer + is broken up into several same size "sub buffers". An event can not be + bigger than the size of the sub buffer. Normally, the sub buffer is + the size of the architecture's page (4K on x86). The sub buffer also + contains meta data at the start which also limits the size of an event. + That means when the sub buffer is a page size, no event can be larger + than the page size minus the sub buffer meta data. + + The buffer_subbuf_order allows the user to change the size of the sub + buffer. As the sub buffer is a set of pages by the power of 2, thus + the sub buffer total size is defined by the order: + + order size + ---- ---- + 0 PAGE_SIZE + 1 PAGE_SIZE * 2 + 2 PAGE_SIZE * 4 + 3 PAGE_SIZE * 8 + + Changing the order will change the sub buffer size allowing for events + to be larger than the page size. + + Note: When changing the order, tracing is stopped and any data in the + ring buffer and the snapshot buffer will be discarded. + free_buffer: If a process is performing tracing, and the ring buffer should be