Update downloads link.

[apitrace] / README.markdown

diff --git a/README.markdown b/README.markdown
index 2764c5939e947cca8422aa47f89d8d98bb4801a0..685f221c13a0c4c9c74eb7af672ac4db6b636620 100644 (file)
--- a/README.markdown
+++ b/README.markdown
@@ -3,108 +3,256 @@ About **apitrace**
 
 **apitrace** consists of a set of tools to:
 
 
 **apitrace** consists of a set of tools to:
 

-* trace OpenGL, D3D9, D3D8, D3D7, and DDRAW APIs calls to a file;
+* trace OpenGL, OpenGL ES, Direct3D, and DirectDraw APIs calls to a file;

 
 

-* retrace OpenGL calls from a file;
+* retrace OpenGL and OpenGL ES calls from a file;

 
 * inspect OpenGL state at any call while retracing;
 
 * visualize and edit trace files.
 
 
 * inspect OpenGL state at any call while retracing;
 
 * visualize and edit trace files.
 

+See the [apitrace homepage](http://apitrace.github.com/) for more details.

 
 

-Basic usage
-===========

 
 

+Obtaining **apitrace**
+======================
+
+To obtain apitrace either [download the latest
+binaries](http://apitrace.github.com/#download) for your platform if
+available, or follow the instructions in INSTALL.markdown to build it yourself.
+On 64bits Linux and Windows platforms you'll need apitrace binaries that match
+the architecture (32bits or 64bits) of the application being traced.

 
 

-Linux and Mac OS X
-------------------
+
+Basic usage
+===========

 
 Run the application you want to trace as
 
 
 Run the application you want to trace as
 

-    apitrace trace application [args...]
+    apitrace trace --api API /path/to/application [args...]

 
 and it will generate a trace named `application.trace` in the current
 
 and it will generate a trace named `application.trace` in the current

-directory.  You can specify the written trace filename by setting the
-`TRACE_FILE` environment variable before running.
+directory.  You can specify the written trace filename by passing the
+`--output` command line option.
+
+Problems while tracing (e.g, if the application uses calls/parameters
+unsupported by apitrace) will be reported via stderr output on Unices.  On
+Windows you'll need to run
+[DebugView](http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896647) to view
+these messages.
+
+Follow the "Tracing manually" instructions below if you cannot obtain a trace.

 
 View the trace with
 
 
 View the trace with
 

-    /path/to/apitrace dump --color application.trace | less -R
+    apitrace dump application.trace
+
+Replay an OpenGL trace with

 
 

-Replay the trace with
+    apitrace retrace application.trace

 
 

-    /path/to/glretrace application.trace
+Pass the `--sb` option to use a single buffered visual.  Pass `--help` to
+`apitrace retrace` for more options.

 
 

-Pass the `-sb` option to use a single buffered visual.  Pass `--help` to
-glretrace for more options.
+
+Basic GUI usage
+===============

 
 Start the GUI as
 
 
 Start the GUI as
 

-    /path/to/qapitrace application.trace
-
-Special notes on "apitrace trace" for Linux
--------------------------------------------
-The "apitrace trace" command uses the `LD_PRELOAD` mechanism which
-should work with most applications.  There are some applications,
-e.g., Unigine Heaven, which global function pointers with the same
-name as GL entrypoints, living in a shared object that wasn't linked
-with `-Bsymbolic` flag, so relocations to those globals function
-pointers get overwritten with the address to our wrapper library, and
-the application will segfault when trying to write to them.
-
-For these applications it is possible to trace by using `glxtrace.so`
-as an ordinary `libGL.so` and injecting into `LD_LIBRARY_PATH`:
-
-    ln -s glxtrace.so libGL.so
-    ln -s glxtrace.so libGL.so.1
-    ln -s glxtrace.so libGL.so.1.2
-    export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/path/to/directory/where/glxtrace/is:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH
+    qapitrace application.trace
+
+You can also tell the GUI to go directly to a specific call
+
+    qapitrace application.trace 12345
+
+
+Advanced command line usage
+===========================
+
+
+Call sets
+---------
+
+Several tools take `CALLSET` arguments, e.g:
+
+    apitrace dump --calls=CALLSET foo.trace
+    apitrace dump-images --calls=CALLSET foo.trace
+
+The call syntax is very flexible. Here are a few examples:
+
+ * `4`             one call
+
+ * `0,2,4,5`       set of calls
+
+ * `"0 2 4 5"`     set of calls (commas are optional and can be replaced with whitespace)
+
+ * `0-100/2`       calls 1, 3, 5, ...,  99
+
+ * `0-1000/draw`   all draw calls between 0 and 1000
+
+ * `0-1000/fbo`    all fbo changes between calls 0 and 1000
+
+ * `frame`         all calls at end of frames
+
+ * `@foo.txt`      read call numbers from `foo.txt`, using the same syntax as above
+
+
+
+Tracing manually
+----------------
+
+### Linux ###
+
+On 64 bits systems, you'll need to determine ether the application is 64 bits
+or 32 bits.  This can be done by doing
+
+    file /path/to/application
+
+But beware of wrapper shell scripts -- what matters is the architecture of the
+main process.
+
+Run the GLX application you want to trace as
+
+    LD_PRELOAD=/path/to/apitrace/wrappers/glxtrace.so /path/to/application
+
+and it will generate a trace named `application.trace` in the current
+directory.  You can specify the written trace filename by setting the
+`TRACE_FILE` environment variable before running.
+
+For EGL applications you will need to use `egltrace.so` instead of
+`glxtrace.so`.
+
+The `LD_PRELOAD` mechanism should work with the majority applications.  There
+are some applications (e.g., Unigine Heaven, Android GPU emulator, etc.), that
+have global function pointers with the same name as GL entrypoints, living in a
+shared object that wasn't linked with `-Bsymbolic` flag, so relocations to
+those globals function pointers get overwritten with the address to our wrapper
+library, and the application will segfault when trying to write to them.  For
+these applications it is possible to trace by using `glxtrace.so` as an
+ordinary `libGL.so` and injecting it via `LD_LIBRARY_PATH`:
+
+    ln -s glxtrace.so wrappers/libGL.so
+    ln -s glxtrace.so wrappers/libGL.so.1
+    ln -s glxtrace.so wrappers/libGL.so.1.2
+    export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/path/to/apitrace/wrappers:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH

     export TRACE_LIBGL=/path/to/real/libGL.so.1
     /path/to/application
 
     export TRACE_LIBGL=/path/to/real/libGL.so.1
     /path/to/application
 

+If you are an application developer, you can avoid this either by linking with
+`-Bsymbolic` flag, or by using some unique prefix for your function pointers.
+

 See the `ld.so` man page for more information about `LD_PRELOAD` and
 `LD_LIBRARY_PATH` environment flags.
 
 See the `ld.so` man page for more information about `LD_PRELOAD` and
 `LD_LIBRARY_PATH` environment flags.
 

+To trace the application inside gdb, invoke gdb as:

 
 

-Special notes on "apitrace trace" for Mac OS X
-----------------------------------------------
-On Mac OS X the "apitrace trace" command sets the following
-environment variable before executing the program:
+    gdb --ex 'set exec-wrapper env LD_PRELOAD=/path/to/glxtrace.so' --args /path/to/application

 
 

-    DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH=/path/to/apitrace/wrappers
+### Android ###

 
 

-Note that although Mac OS X has an `LD_PRELOAD` equivalent,
-`DYLD_INSERT_LIBRARIES`, it is mostly useless because it only works
-with `DYLD_FORCE_FLAT_NAMESPACE=1` which breaks most applications.
-See the `dyld` man page for more details about these environment
-flags.
+The following instructions should work at least for Android Ice Scream
+Sandwitch:

 
 

+For standalone applications the instructions above for Linux should
+work. To trace applications started from within the Android VM process
+(`app_process` aka zygote) you'll have to wrap this process and enable
+tracing dynamically for the application to be traced.

 
 

-Windows
--------
+- Wrapping the android main VM process:

 
 

-* Copy `opengl32.dll`, `d3d8.dll`, or `d3d9.dll` from build/wrappers directory
-  to the directory with the application you want to trace.
+  In the Android root /init.rc add the `LD_PRELOAD` setting to zygote's
+  environment in the 'service zygote' section:

 
 

-* Run the application.
+        service zygote ...
+           setenv LD_PRELOAD /data/egltrace.so
+           ...

 
 

-* View the trace with
+  Note that ICS will overwrite the /init.rc during each boot with the
+  version in the recovery image. So you'll have to change the file in
+  your ICS source tree, rebuild and reflash the device.
+  Rebuilding/reflashing only the recovery image should be sufficient.

 
 

-        \path\to\apitrace dump application.trace
+- Copy egltrace.so to /data

 
 

-* Replay the trace with
+  On the host:

 
 

-        \path\to\glretrace application.trace
+        adb push /path/to/apitrace/build/wrappers/egltrace.so /data

 
 

+- Adjust file permissions to store the trace file:

 
 

-Advanced command line usage
-===========================
+  By default egltrace.so will store the trace in
+  `/data/app_process.trace`. For this to work for applications running
+  with a uid other than 0, you have to allow writes to the `/data`
+  directory on the device:
+
+        chmod 0777 /data
+
+- Enable tracing for a specific process name:
+
+  To trace for example the Settings application:
+
+        setprop debug.apitrace.procname com.android.settings
+
+  In general this name will match what `ps` reports.
+
+- Start the application:
+
+  If the application was already running, for example due to ICS's way
+  of pre-starting the apps, you might have to kill the application
+  first:
+
+        kill <pid of app>
+
+  Launch the application for example from the application menu.
+
+### Mac OS X ###
+
+Run the application you want to trace as
+
+    DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH=/path/to/apitrace/wrappers /path/to/application
+
+Note that although Mac OS X has an `LD_PRELOAD` equivalent,
+`DYLD_INSERT_LIBRARIES`, it is mostly useless because it only works with
+`DYLD_FORCE_FLAT_NAMESPACE=1` which breaks most applications.  See the `dyld` man
+page for more details about these environment flags.
+
+### Windows ###
+
+When tracing third-party applications, you can identify the target
+application's main executable, either by:
+
+* right clicking on the application's icon in the _Start Menu_, choose
+  _Properties_, and see the _Target_ field;
+
+* or by starting the application, run Windows Task Manager (taskmgr.exe), right
+  click on the application name in the _Applications_ tab, choose _Go To Process_,
+  note the highlighted _Image Name_, and search it on `C:\Program Files` or
+  `C:\Program Files (x86)`.

 
 

+On 64 bits Windows, you'll need to determine ether the application is a 64 bits
+or 32 bits. 32 bits applications will have a `*32` suffix in the _Image Name_
+column of the _Processes_ tab of _Windows Task Manager_ window.

 
 

-Emitting annotations to the trace from GL applications
-------------------------------------------------------
+Copy the appropriate `opengl32.dll`, `d3d8.dll`, or `d3d9.dll` from the
+wrappers directory to the directory with the application you want to trace.
+Then run the application as usual.

 
 

-You can emit string and frame annotations through the
+You can specify the written trace filename by setting the `TRACE_FILE`
+environment variable before running.
+
+For D3D10 and higher you really must use `apitrace trace -a DXGI ...`. This is
+because D3D10-11 API span many DLLs which depend on each other, and once a DLL
+with a given name is loaded Windows will reuse it for LoadLibrary calls of the
+same name, causing internal calls to be traced erroneously. `apitrace trace`
+solves this issue by injecting a DLL `dxgitrace.dll` and patching all modules
+to hook only the APIs of interest.
+
+
+Emitting annotations to the trace
+---------------------------------
+
+From OpenGL applications you can embed annotations in the trace file through the

 [`GL_GREMEDY_string_marker`](http://www.opengl.org/registry/specs/GREMEDY/string_marker.txt)
 and
 [`GL_GREMEDY_frame_terminator`](http://www.opengl.org/registry/specs/GREMEDY/frame_terminator.txt)
 [`GL_GREMEDY_string_marker`](http://www.opengl.org/registry/specs/GREMEDY/string_marker.txt)
 and
 [`GL_GREMEDY_frame_terminator`](http://www.opengl.org/registry/specs/GREMEDY/frame_terminator.txt)


@@ -134,24 +282,39 @@ detect and use GL extensions, you could easily accomplish this by doing:
 This has the added advantage of working equally well with gDEBugger.
 
 
 This has the added advantage of working equally well with gDEBugger.
 
 

+From OpenGL ES applications you can embed annotations in the trace file through the
+[`GL_EXT_debug_marker`](http://www.khronos.org/registry/gles/extensions/EXT/EXT_debug_marker.txt)
+extension.
+
+
+For Direct3D applications you can follow the standard procedure for
+[adding user defined events to Visual Studio Graphics Debugger / PIX](http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/vstudio/hh873200.aspx):
+
+- `D3DPERF_BeginEvent`, `D3DPERF_EndEvent`, and `D3DPERF_SetMarker` for D3D9 applications.
+
+- `ID3DUserDefinedAnnotation::BeginEvent`,
+  `ID3DUserDefinedAnnotation::EndEvent`, and
+  `ID3DUserDefinedAnnotation::SetMarker` for D3D11.1 applications.
+
+

 Dump GL state at a particular call
 ----------------------------------
 
 You can get a dump of the bound GL state at call 12345 by doing:
 
 Dump GL state at a particular call
 ----------------------------------
 
 You can get a dump of the bound GL state at call 12345 by doing:
 

-    /path/to/glretrace -D 12345 application.trace > 12345.json
+    apitrace retrace -D 12345 application.trace > 12345.json

 
 This is precisely the mechanism the GUI obtains its own state.
 
 
 This is precisely the mechanism the GUI obtains its own state.
 

-You can compare two state dumps with the jsondiff.py script:
+You can compare two state dumps by doing:

 
 

-    ./scripts/jsondiff.py 12345.json 67890.json
+    apitrace diff-state 12345.json 67890.json

 
 
 Comparing two traces side by side
 ---------------------------------
 
 
 
 Comparing two traces side by side
 ---------------------------------
 

-    ./scripts/tracediff.sh trace1.trace trace2.trace
+    apitrace diff trace1.trace trace2.trace

 
 This works only on Unices, and it will truncate the traces due to performance
 limitations.
 
 This works only on Unices, and it will truncate the traces due to performance
 limitations.


@@ -162,10 +325,43 @@ Recording a video with FFmpeg
 
 You can make a video of the output by doing
 
 
 You can make a video of the output by doing
 

-    /path/to/glretrace -s - application.trace \
+    apitrace dump-images -o - application.trace \

     | ffmpeg -r 30 -f image2pipe -vcodec ppm -i pipe: -vcodec mpeg4 -y output.mp4
 
 
     | ffmpeg -r 30 -f image2pipe -vcodec ppm -i pipe: -vcodec mpeg4 -y output.mp4
 
 

+Trimming a trace
+----------------
+
+You can make a smaller trace by doing:
+
+    apitrace trim --callset 100-1000 -o trimed.trace applicated.trace
+
+If you need precise control over which calls to trim you can specify the
+individual call numbers a plaintext file, as described in the 'Call sets'
+section above.
+
+
+Profiling a trace
+-----------------
+
+You can perform gpu and cpu profiling with the command line options:
+
+ * `--pgpu` record gpu times for frames and draw calls.
+
+ * `--pcpu` record cpu times for frames and draw calls.
+
+ * `--ppd` record pixels drawn for each draw call.
+
+The results from this can then be read by hand or analysed with a script.
+
+`scripts/profileshader.py` will read the profile results and format them into a
+table which displays profiling results per shader.
+
+For example, to record all profiling data and utilise the per shader script:
+
+    apitrace retrace --pgpu --pcpu --ppd foo.trace | ./scripts/profileshader.py
+
+

 Advanced usage for OpenGL implementors
 ======================================
 
 Advanced usage for OpenGL implementors
 ======================================
 


@@ -179,23 +375,17 @@ These are the steps to create a regression test-suite around **apitrace**:
 
 * obtain a trace
 
 
 * obtain a trace
 

-* obtain reference snapshots, by doing:
-
-        mkdir /path/to/snapshots/
-        /path/to/glretrace -s /path/to/reference/snapshots/ application.trace
+* obtain reference snapshots, by doing on a reference system:

 
 

-  on reference system.
+        mkdir /path/to/reference/snapshots/
+        apitrace dump-images -o /path/to/reference/snapshots/ application.trace

 
 * prune the snapshots which are not interesting
 
 
 * prune the snapshots which are not interesting
 

-* to do a regression test, do:
+* to do a regression test, use `apitrace diff-images`:

 
 

-        /path/to/glretrace -c /path/to/reference/snapshots/ application.trace
-
-  Alternatively, for a HTML summary, use the snapdiff script:
-
-        /path/to/glretrace -s /path/to/current/snapshots/ application.trace
-        ./scripts/snapdiff.py --output summary.html /path/to/reference/snapshots/ /path/to/current/snapshots/
+        apitrace dump-images -o /path/to/test/snapshots/ application.trace
+        apitrace diff-images --output summary.html /path/to/reference/snapshots/ /path/to/test/snapshots/

 
 
 Automated git-bisection
 
 
 Automated git-bisection


@@ -263,66 +453,20 @@ reference software renderer.
 
 This can be achieved with retracediff.py script, which invokes glretrace with
 different environments, allowing to choose the desired GL driver by
 
 This can be achieved with retracediff.py script, which invokes glretrace with
 different environments, allowing to choose the desired GL driver by

-manipulating variables such as `LD_LIBRARY_PATH` or `LIBGL_DRIVERS_DIR`.
+manipulating variables such as `LD_LIBRARY_PATH`, `LIBGL_DRIVERS_DIR`, or
+`TRACE_LIBGL`.

 
 

-For example:
+For example, on Linux:

 
     ./scripts/retracediff.py \
         --ref-env LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/path/to/reference/GL/implementation \
 
     ./scripts/retracediff.py \
         --ref-env LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/path/to/reference/GL/implementation \

-        -r ./glretrace \
+        --retrace /path/to/glretrace \

         --diff-prefix=/path/to/output/diffs \
         application.trace
 
         --diff-prefix=/path/to/output/diffs \
         application.trace
 

+Or on Windows:

 
 

+    python scripts\retracediff.py --retrace \path\to\glretrace.exe --ref-env TRACE_LIBGL=\path\to\reference\opengl32.dll application.trace

 
 

-Links
-=====
-
-About **apitrace**:
-
-* [Official mailing list](http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/apitrace)
-
-* [Zack Rusin's blog introducing the GUI](http://zrusin.blogspot.com/2011/04/apitrace.html)
-
-* [Jose's Fonseca blog introducing the tool](http://jrfonseca.blogspot.com/2008/07/tracing-d3d-applications.html)
-
-
-Direct3D
---------
-
-Open-source:
-
-* [Proxy DLL](http://www.mikoweb.eu/index.php?node=21)
-
-  * [Intercept Calls to DirectX with a Proxy DLL](http://www.codeguru.com/cpp/g-m/directx/directx8/article.php/c11453/)
-
-* [Direct3D 9 API Interceptor](http://graphics.stanford.edu/~mdfisher/D3D9Interceptor.html)
-
-Closed-source:
-
-* [Microsoft PIX](http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee417062.aspx)
-
-  * [D3DSpy](http://doc.51windows.net/Directx9_SDK/?url=/directx9_sdk/graphics/programmingguide/TutorialsAndSamplesAndToolsAndTips/Tools/D3DSpy.htm): the predecessor of PIX
-
-* [AMD GPU PerfStudio](http://developer.amd.com/gpu/PerfStudio/pages/APITraceWindow.aspx)
-
-
-OpenGL
-------
-
-Open-source:
-
-* [BuGLe](http://www.opengl.org/sdk/tools/BuGLe/)
-
-* [GLIntercept](http://code.google.com/p/glintercept/)
-
-* [tracy](https://gitorious.org/tracy): OpenGL ES and OpenVG trace, retrace, and state inspection
-
-Closed-source:
-
-* [gDEBugger](http://www.gremedy.com/products.php)
-
-* [glslDevil](http://cumbia.informatik.uni-stuttgart.de/glsldevil/index.html)
-
-* [AMD GPU PerfStudio](http://developer.amd.com/gpu/PerfStudio/pages/APITraceWindow.aspx)

 
 

+[![githalytics.com alpha](https://cruel-carlota.pagodabox.com/c1062ad633aa7a458e9d7520021307e4 "githalytics.com")](http://githalytics.com/apitrace/apitrace)