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.Dd August 18, 2020
.Dt KCOV 4
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm kcov
.Nd interface for collecting kernel code coverage information
.Sh SYNOPSIS
To compile KCOV into the kernel, place the following lines in your kernel
configuration file:
.Bd -ragged -offset indent
.Cd "options COVERAGE"
.Cd "options KCOV"
.Ed
.Pp
The following header file defines the application interface provided
by KCOV:
.Pp
.In sys/kcov.h
.Sh DESCRIPTION
.Nm
is a module that enables collection of code coverage information from the
kernel.
It relies on code instrumentation enabled by the
.Dv COVERAGE
kernel option.
When
.Nm
is enabled by a user-mode thread, it collects coverage information only for
that thread, excluding hard interrupt handlers.
As a result,
.Nm
is not suited to collect comprehensive coverage data for the entire kernel;
its main purpose is to provide input for coverage-guided system call fuzzers.
.Pp
In typical usage, a user-mode thread first allocates a chunk of memory to be
shared with
.Nm .
The thread then enables coverage tracing, with coverage data being written by
the kernel to the shared memory region.
When tracing is disabled, the kernel relinquishes its access to the shared
memory region, and the written coverage data may be consumed.
.Pp
The shared memory buffer can be treated as a 64-bit unsigned integer followed
by an array of records.
The integer records the number of valid records and is updated by the kernel as
coverage information is recorded.
The state of the tracing buffer can be reset by writing the value 0 to this
field.
The record layout depends on the tracing mode set using the
.Dv KIOENABLE
ioctl.
.Pp
Two tracing modes are implemented,
.Dv KCOV_MODE_TRACE_PC
and
.Dv KCOV_MODE_TRACE_CMP .
PC-tracing records a program counter value for each basic block executed while
tracing is enabled.
In this mode, each record is a single 64-bit unsigned integer containing the
program counter value.
Comparison tracing provides information about data flow; information about
dynamic variable comparisons is recorded.
Such records provide information about the results of
.Xr c 7
.Ql if
or
.Ql switch
statements, for example.
In this mode each record consists of four 64-bit unsigned integers.
The first integer is a bitmask defining attributes of the variables involved in
the comparison.
.Dv KCOV_CMP_CONST
is set if one of the variables has a constant value at compile-time, and
.Dv KCOV_CMP_SIZE(n)
specifies the width of the variables:
.Pp
.Bl -inset -offset indent -compact
.It Dv KCOV_CMP_SIZE(0) :
a comparison of 8-bit integers
.It Dv KCOV_CMP_SIZE(1) :
a comparison of 16-bit integers
.It Dv KCOV_CMP_SIZE(2) :
a comparison of 32-bit integers
.It Dv KCOV_CMP_SIZE(3) :
a comparison of 64-bit integers
.El
.Pp
The second and third fields record the values of the two variables, and the
fourth and final field stores the program counter value of the comparison.
.Sh IOCTL INTERFACE
Applications interact with
.Nm
using the
.Xr ioctl 2
system call.
Each thread making use of
.Nm
must use a separate file descriptor for
.Fa /dev/kcov .
The following ioctls are defined:
.Bl -tag -width indent
.It Dv KIOSETBUFSIZE Fa size_t entries
Set the size of the tracing buffer in units of
.Dv KCOV_ENTRY_SIZE .
The buffer may then be mapped into the calling thread's address space by
calling
.Xr mmap 2
on the
.Nm
device file.
.It Dv KIOENABLE Fa int mode
Enable coverage tracing for the calling thread.
Valid modes are
.Dv KCOV_MODE_TRACE_PC
and
.Dv KCOV_MODE_TRACE_CMP .
.It Dv KIODISABLE
Disable coverage tracing for the calling thread.
.El
.Sh FILES
.Nm
creates the
.Pa /dev/kcov
device file.
.Sh EXAMPLES
The following code sample collects information about basic block coverage for
kernel code executed while printing
.Ql "Hello, world" .
.Bd -literal
size_t sz;
uint64_t *buf;
int fd;
fd = open("/dev/kcov", O_RDWR);
if (fd == -1)
err(1, "open(/dev/kcov)");
sz = 1ul << 20; /* 1MB */
if (ioctl(fd, KIOSETBUFSIZE, sz / KCOV_ENTRY_SIZE) != 0)
err(1, "ioctl(KIOSETBUFSIZE)");
buf = mmap(NULL, sz, PROT_READ | PROT_WRITE, MAP_SHARED, fd, 0);
if (buf == MAP_FAILED)
err(1, "mmap");
/* Enable PC tracing. */
if (ioctl(fd, KIOENABLE, KCOV_MODE_TRACE_PC) != 0)
err(1, "ioctl(KIOENABLE)");
/* Clear trace records from the preceding ioctl() call. */
buf[0] = 0;
printf("Hello, world!\\n");
/* Disable PC tracing. */
if (ioctl(fd, KIODISABLE, 0) != 0)
err(1, "ioctl(KIODISABLE)");
for (uint64_t i = 1; i < buf[0]; i++)
printf("%#jx\\n", (uintmax_t)buf[i]);
.Ed
The output of this program can be approximately mapped to line numbers
in kernel source code:
.Bd -literal
# ./kcov-test | sed 1d | addr2line -e /usr/lib/debug/boot/kernel/kernel.debug
.Ed
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr ioctl 2 ,
.Xr mmap 2
.Sh HISTORY
.Nm
first appeared in
.Fx 13.0 .
.Sh BUGS
The
.Fx
implementation of
.Nm
does not yet support remote tracing.
