Logging in U-Boot
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=================
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Introduction
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------------
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U-Boot's internal operation involves many different steps and actions. From
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setting up the board to displaying a start-up screen to loading an Operating
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System, there are many component parts each with many actions.
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Most of the time this internal detail is not useful. Displaying it on the
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console would delay booting (U-Boot's primary purpose) and confuse users.
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But for digging into what is happening in a particular area, or for debugging
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a problem it is often useful to see what U-Boot is doing in more detail than
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is visible from the basic console output.
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U-Boot's logging feature aims to satisfy this goal for both users and
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developers.
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Logging levels
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--------------
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There are a number logging levels available, in increasing order of verbosity:
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LOGL_EMERG - Printed before U-Boot halts
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LOGL_ALERT - Indicates action must be taken immediate or U-Boot will crash
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LOGL_CRIT - Indicates a critical error that will cause boot failure
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LOGL_ERR - Indicates an error that may cause boot failure
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LOGL_WARNING - Warning about an unexpected condition
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LOGL_NOTE - Important information about progress
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LOGL_INFO - Information about normal boot progress
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LOGL_DEBUG - Debug information (useful for debugging a driver or subsystem)
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LOGL_DEBUG_CONTENT - Debug message showing full message content
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LOGL_DEBUG_IO - Debug message showing hardware I/O access
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Logging category
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----------------
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Logging can come from a wide variety of places within U-Boot. Each log message
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has a category which is intended to allow messages to be filtered according to
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their source.
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The following main categories are defined:
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LOGC_NONE - Unknown category (e.g. a debug() statement)
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UCLASS_... - Related to a particular uclass (e.g. UCLASS_USB)
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LOGC_ARCH - Related to architecture-specific code
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LOGC_BOARD - Related to board-specific code
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LOGC_CORE - Related to core driver-model support
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LOGC_DT - Related to device tree control
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Enabling logging
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----------------
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The following options are used to enable logging at compile time:
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CONFIG_LOG - Enables the logging system
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CONFIG_MAX_LOG_LEVEL - Max log level to build (anything higher is compiled
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out)
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CONFIG_LOG_CONSOLE - Enable writing log records to the console
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If CONFIG_LOG is not set, then no logging will be available.
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The above have SPL versions also, e.g. CONFIG_SPL_MAX_LOG_LEVEL.
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Using DEBUG
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-----------
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U-Boot has traditionally used a #define called DEBUG to enable debugging on a
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file-by-file basis. The debug() macro compiles to a printf() statement if
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DEBUG is enabled, and an empty statement if not.
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With logging enabled, debug() statements are interpreted as logging output
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with a level of LOGL_DEBUG and a category of LOGC_NONE.
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The logging facilities are intended to replace DEBUG, but if DEBUG is defined
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at the top of a file, then it takes precedence. This means that debug()
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statements will result in output to the console and this output will not be
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logged.
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Logging destinations
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--------------------
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If logging information goes nowhere then it serves no purpose. U-Boot provides
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several possible determinations for logging information, all of which can be
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enabled or disabled independently:
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console - goes to stdout
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Filters
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-------
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Filters are attached to log drivers to control what those drivers emit. Only
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records that pass through the filter make it to the driver.
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Filters can be based on several criteria:
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- maximum log level
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- in a set of categories
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- in a set of files
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If no filters are attached to a driver then a default filter is used, which
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limits output to records with a level less than CONFIG_LOG_MAX_LEVEL.
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Logging statements
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------------------
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The main logging function is:
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log(category, level, format_string, ...)
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Also debug() and error() will generate log records - these use LOG_CATEGORY
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as the category, so you should #define this right at the top of the source
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file to ensure the category is correct.
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Code size
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---------
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Code size impact depends largely on what is enabled. The following numbers are
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for snow, which is a Thumb-2 board:
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This series: adds bss +20.0 data +4.0 rodata +4.0 text +44.0
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CONFIG_LOG: bss -52.0 data +92.0 rodata -635.0 text +1048.0
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CONFIG_LOG_MAX_LEVEL=7: bss +188.0 data +4.0 rodata +49183.0 text +98124.0
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The last option turns every debug() statement into a logging call, which
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bloats the code hugely. The advantage is that it is then possible to enable
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all logging within U-Boot.
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To Do
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-----
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There are lots of useful additions that could be made. None of the below is
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implemented! If you do one, please add a test in test/py/tests/test_log.py
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Convenience functions to support setting the category:
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log_arch(level, format_string, ...) - category LOGC_ARCH
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log_board(level, format_string, ...) - category LOGC_BOARD
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log_core(level, format_string, ...) - category LOGC_CORE
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log_dt(level, format_string, ...) - category LOGC_DT
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Convenience functions to support a category defined for a single file, for
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example:
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#define LOG_CATEGORY UCLASS_USB
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all of these can use LOG_CATEGORY as the category, and a log level
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corresponding to the function name:
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logc(level, format_string, ...)
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More logging destinations:
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device - goes to a device (e.g. serial)
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buffer - recorded in a memory buffer
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Convert debug() statements in the code to log() statements
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Support making printf() emit log statements a L_INFO level
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Convert error() statements in the code to log() statements
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Figure out what to do with BUG(), BUG_ON() and warn_non_spl()
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Figure out what to do with assert()
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Add a way to browse log records
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Add a way to record log records for browsing using an external tool
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Add commands to add and remove filters
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Add commands to add and remove log devices
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Allow sharing of printf format strings in log records to reduce storage size
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for large numbers of log records
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Add a command-line option to sandbox to set the default logging level
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Convert core driver model code to use logging
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Convert uclasses to use logging with the correct category
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Consider making log() calls emit an automatic newline, perhaps with a logn()
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function to avoid that
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Passing log records through to linux (e.g. via device tree /chosen)
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Provide a command to access the number of log records generated, and the
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number dropped due to them being generated before the log system was ready.
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Add a printf() format string pragma so that log statements are checked properly
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Enhance the log console driver to show level / category / file / line
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information
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Add a command to add new log records and delete existing records.
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Provide additional log() functions - e.g. logc() to specify the category
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--
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Simon Glass <sjg@chromium.org>
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15-Sep-17
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