**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;
+* replay OpenGL and OpenGL ES calls from a file;
-* visualize trace files, and inspect state.
+* 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**
+======================
-Linux
------
+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.
+
+
+Basic usage
+===========
Run the application you want to trace as
- LD_PRELOAD=/path/to/glxtrace.so /path/to/application
+ apitrace trace --api API /path/to/application [args...]
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
- /path/to/tracedump application.trace | less -R
+ apitrace dump application.trace
-Replay the trace with
+Replay an OpenGL trace with
- /path/to/glretrace application.trace
+ apitrace replay application.trace
-Pass the `-sb` option to use a single buffered visual. Pass `--help` to
-glretrace for more options.
+Pass the `--sb` option to use a single buffered visual. Pass `--help` to
+`apitrace replay` for more options.
+
+
+Basic GUI usage
+===============
Start the GUI as
- /path/to/qapitrace application.trace
+ 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:
-The `LD_PRELOAD` mechanism 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`:
+ 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.
- 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:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH
+For EGL applications you will need to use `egltrace.so` instead of
+`glxtrace.so`.
+
+The `LD_PRELOAD` mechanism should work with the majority applications. There
+are some applications (e.g., Unigine Heaven, Android GPU emulator, etc.), that
+have global function pointers with the same name as GL entrypoints, living in a
+shared object that wasn't linked with `-Bsymbolic` flag, so relocations to
+those globals function pointers get overwritten with the address to our wrapper
+library, and the application will segfault when trying to write to them. For
+these applications it is possible to trace by using `glxtrace.so` as an
+ordinary `libGL.so` and injecting it via `LD_LIBRARY_PATH`:
+
+ ln -s glxtrace.so wrappers/libGL.so
+ ln -s glxtrace.so wrappers/libGL.so.1
+ ln -s glxtrace.so wrappers/libGL.so.1.2
+ export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/path/to/apitrace/wrappers:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH
export TRACE_LIBGL=/path/to/real/libGL.so.1
/path/to/application
+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.
+To trace the application inside gdb, invoke gdb as:
+
+ gdb --ex 'set exec-wrapper env LD_PRELOAD=/path/to/glxtrace.so' --args /path/to/application
+### Android ###
-Mac OS X
---------
+To trace standalone native OpenGL ES applications, use
+`LD_PRELOAD=/path/to/egltrace.so /path/to/application` like described in the
+previous section. To trace Java applications, refer to Dalvik.markdown.
-Usage on Mac OS X is similar to Linux above, except for the tracing procedure,
-which is instead:
+### Mac OS X ###
+
+Run the application you want to trace as
DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH=/path/to/apitrace/wrappers /path/to/application
`DYLD_FORCE_FLAT_NAMESPACE=1` which breaks most applications. See the `dyld` man
page for more details about these environment flags.
+### Windows ###
-Windows
--------
+When tracing third-party applications, you can identify the target
+application's main executable, either by:
-* Copy `opengl32.dll`, `d3d8.dll`, or `d3d9.dll` from build/wrappers directory
- to the directory with the application you want to trace.
+* right clicking on the application's icon in the _Start Menu_, choose
+ _Properties_, and see the _Target_ field;
-* Run the application.
+* 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)`.
-* View the trace with
+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.
- \path\to\tracedump application.trace
+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.
-* Replay the trace with
+You can specify the written trace filename by setting the `TRACE_FILE`
+environment variable before running.
- \path\to\glretrace application.trace
+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.
-Advanced command line usage
-===========================
-
-
-Emitting annotations to the trace from GL applications
-------------------------------------------------------
+Emitting annotations to the trace
+---------------------------------
-You can emit string and frame annotations through the
+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 extensions.
-*apitrace* will advertise and intercept these GL extensions independently of
+**apitrace** will advertise and intercept these GL extensions independently of
the GL implementation. So all you have to do is to use these extensions when
available.
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:
- /path/to/glretrace -D 12345 application.trace > 12345.json
+ apitrace replay -D 12345 application.trace > 12345.json
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
---------------------------------
- ./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.
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
+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 replay --pgpu --pcpu --ppd foo.trace | ./scripts/profileshader.py
+
+
Advanced usage for OpenGL implementors
======================================
Regression testing
------------------
-These are the steps to create a regression test-suite around apitrace:
+These are the steps to create a regression test-suite around **apitrace**:
* 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
-* 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
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 \
- -r ./glretrace \
+ --retrace /path/to/glretrace \
--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)
+Advanced GUI usage
+==================
- * [Intercept Calls to DirectX with a Proxy DLL](http://www.codeguru.com/cpp/g-m/directx/directx8/article.php/c11453/)
+qapitrace has rudimentary support for replaying traces on a remote
+target device. This can be useful, for example, when developing for an
+embedded system. The primary GUI will run on the local host, while any
+replays will be performed on the target device.
-* [Direct3D 9 API Interceptor](http://graphics.stanford.edu/~mdfisher/D3D9Interceptor.html)
+In order to target a remote device, use the command-line:
-Closed-source:
+ qapitrace --remote-target <HOST> <trace-file>
-* [Microsoft PIX](http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee417062.aspx)
+In order for this to work, the following must be available in the
+system configuration:
- * [D3DSpy](http://doc.51windows.net/Directx9_SDK/?url=/directx9_sdk/graphics/programmingguide/TutorialsAndSamplesAndToolsAndTips/Tools/D3DSpy.htm): the predecessor of PIX
+1. It must be possible for the current user to initiate an ssh session
+ that has access to the target's window system. The command to be
+ exectuted by qapitrace will be:
-* [AMD GPU PerfStudio](http://developer.amd.com/gpu/PerfStudio/pages/APITraceWindow.aspx)
+ ssh <HOST> glretrace
+ For example, if the target device is using the X window system, one
+ can test whether an ssh session has access to the target X server
+ with:
-OpenGL
-------
+ ssh <HOST> xdpyinfo
-Open-source:
+ If this command fails with something like "cannot open display"
+ then the user will have to configure the target to set the DISPLAY
+ environment variable, (for example, setting DISPLAY=:0 in the
+ .bashrc file on the target or similar).
-* [BuGLe](http://www.opengl.org/sdk/tools/BuGLe/)
+ Also, note that if the ssh session requires a custom username, then
+ this must be configured on the host side so that ssh can be
+ initiated without a username.
-* [GLIntercept](http://code.google.com/p/glintercept/)
+ For example, if you normally connect with `ssh user@192.168.0.2`
+ you could configure ~/.ssh/config on the host with a block such as:
-* [tracy](https://gitorious.org/tracy): OpenGL ES and OpenVG trace, retrace, and state inspection
+ Host target
+ HostName 192.168.0.2
+ User user
-Closed-source:
+ And after this you should be able to connect with `ssh target` so
+ that you can also use `qapitrace --remote-target target`.
-* [gDEBugger](http://www.gremedy.com/products.php)
+2. The target host must have a functional glretrace binary available
-* [glslDevil](http://cumbia.informatik.uni-stuttgart.de/glsldevil/index.html)
+3. The target host must have access to <trace-file> at the same path
+ in the filesystem as the <trace-file> path on the host system being
+ passed to the qapitrace command line.
-* [AMD GPU PerfStudio](http://developer.amd.com/gpu/PerfStudio/pages/APITraceWindow.aspx)
+[](http://githalytics.com/apitrace/apitrace)
projects / apitrace / blobdiff