xref: /openbmc/qemu/docs/about/emulation.rst (revision 03ee5e0c)
1Emulation
2=========
3
4QEMU's Tiny Code Generator (TCG) provides the ability to emulate a
5number of CPU architectures on any supported host platform. Both
6:ref:`System Emulation` and :ref:`User Mode Emulation` are supported
7depending on the guest architecture.
8
9.. list-table:: Supported Guest Architectures for Emulation
10  :widths: 30 10 10 50
11  :header-rows: 1
12
13  * - Architecture (qemu name)
14    - System
15    - User
16    - Notes
17  * - Alpha
18    - Yes
19    - Yes
20    - Legacy 64 bit RISC ISA developed by DEC
21  * - Arm (arm, aarch64)
22    - :ref:`Yes<ARM-System-emulator>`
23    - Yes
24    - Wide range of features, see :ref:`Arm Emulation` for details
25  * - AVR
26    - :ref:`Yes<AVR-System-emulator>`
27    - No
28    - 8 bit micro controller, often used in maker projects
29  * - Cris
30    - Yes
31    - Yes
32    - Embedded RISC chip developed by AXIS
33  * - Hexagon
34    - No
35    - Yes
36    - Family of DSPs by Qualcomm
37  * - PA-RISC (hppa)
38    - Yes
39    - Yes
40    - A legacy RISC system used in HP's old minicomputers
41  * - x86 (i386, x86_64)
42    - :ref:`Yes<QEMU-PC-System-emulator>`
43    - Yes
44    - The ubiquitous desktop PC CPU architecture, 32 and 64 bit.
45  * - LoongArch
46    - Yes
47    - Yes
48    - A MIPS-like 64bit RISC architecture developed in China
49  * - m68k
50    - :ref:`Yes<ColdFire-System-emulator>`
51    - Yes
52    - Motorola 68000 variants and ColdFire
53  * - Microblaze
54    - Yes
55    - Yes
56    - RISC based soft-core by Xilinx
57  * - MIPS (mips*)
58    - :ref:`Yes<MIPS-System-emulator>`
59    - Yes
60    - Venerable RISC architecture originally out of Stanford University
61  * - OpenRISC
62    - :ref:`Yes<OpenRISC-System-emulator>`
63    - Yes
64    - Open source RISC architecture developed by the OpenRISC community
65  * - Power (ppc, ppc64)
66    - :ref:`Yes<PowerPC-System-emulator>`
67    - Yes
68    - A general purpose RISC architecture now managed by IBM
69  * - RISC-V
70    - :ref:`Yes<RISC-V-System-emulator>`
71    - Yes
72    - An open standard RISC ISA maintained by RISC-V International
73  * - RX
74    - :ref:`Yes<RX-System-emulator>`
75    - No
76    - A 32 bit micro controller developed by Renesas
77  * - s390x
78    - :ref:`Yes<s390x-System-emulator>`
79    - Yes
80    - A 64 bit CPU found in IBM's System Z mainframes
81  * - sh4
82    - Yes
83    - Yes
84    - A 32 bit RISC embedded CPU developed by Hitachi
85  * - SPARC (sparc, sparc64)
86    - :ref:`Yes<Sparc32-System-emulator>`
87    - Yes
88    - A RISC ISA originally developed by Sun Microsystems
89  * - Tricore
90    - Yes
91    - No
92    - A 32 bit RISC/uController/DSP developed by Infineon
93  * - Xtensa
94    - :ref:`Yes<Xtensa-System-emulator>`
95    - Yes
96    - A configurable 32 bit soft core now owned by Cadence
97
98.. _Semihosting:
99
100Semihosting
101-----------
102
103Semihosting is a feature defined by the owner of the architecture to
104allow programs to interact with a debugging host system. On real
105hardware this is usually provided by an In-circuit emulator (ICE)
106hooked directly to the board. QEMU's implementation allows for
107semihosting calls to be passed to the host system or via the
108``gdbstub``.
109
110Generally semihosting makes it easier to bring up low level code before a
111more fully functional operating system has been enabled. On QEMU it
112also allows for embedded micro-controller code which typically doesn't
113have a full libc to be run as "bare-metal" code under QEMU's user-mode
114emulation. It is also useful for writing test cases and indeed a
115number of compiler suites as well as QEMU itself use semihosting calls
116to exit test code while reporting the success state.
117
118Semihosting is only available using TCG emulation. This is because the
119instructions to trigger a semihosting call are typically reserved
120causing most hypervisors to trap and fault on them.
121
122.. warning::
123   Semihosting inherently bypasses any isolation there may be between
124   the guest and the host. As a result a program using semihosting can
125   happily trash your host system. Some semihosting calls (e.g.
126   ``SYS_READC``) can block execution indefinitely. You should only
127   ever run trusted code with semihosting enabled.
128
129Redirection
130~~~~~~~~~~~
131
132Semihosting calls can be re-directed to a (potentially remote) gdb
133during debugging via the :ref:`gdbstub<GDB usage>`. Output to the
134semihosting console is configured as a ``chardev`` so can be
135redirected to a file, pipe or socket like any other ``chardev``
136device.
137
138Supported Targets
139~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
140
141Most targets offer similar semihosting implementations with some
142minor changes to define the appropriate instruction to encode the
143semihosting call and which registers hold the parameters. They tend to
144presents a simple POSIX-like API which allows your program to read and
145write files, access the console and some other basic interactions.
146
147For full details of the ABI for a particular target, and the set of
148calls it provides, you should consult the semihosting specification
149for that architecture.
150
151.. note::
152   QEMU makes an implementation decision to implement all file
153   access in ``O_BINARY`` mode. The user-visible effect of this is
154   regardless of the text/binary mode the program sets QEMU will
155   always select a binary mode ensuring no line-terminator conversion
156   is performed on input or output. This is because gdb semihosting
157   support doesn't make the distinction between the modes and
158   magically processing line endings can be confusing.
159
160.. list-table:: Guest Architectures supporting Semihosting
161  :widths: 10 10 80
162  :header-rows: 1
163
164  * - Architecture
165    - Modes
166    - Specification
167  * - Arm
168    - System and User-mode
169    - https://github.com/ARM-software/abi-aa/blob/main/semihosting/semihosting.rst
170  * - m68k
171    - System
172    - https://sourceware.org/git/?p=newlib-cygwin.git;a=blob;f=libgloss/m68k/m68k-semi.txt;hb=HEAD
173  * - MIPS
174    - System
175    - Unified Hosting Interface (MD01069)
176  * - RISC-V
177    - System and User-mode
178    - https://github.com/riscv/riscv-semihosting-spec/blob/main/riscv-semihosting-spec.adoc
179  * - Xtensa
180    - System
181    - Tensilica ISS SIMCALL
182
183TCG Plugins
184-----------
185
186QEMU TCG plugins provide a way for users to run experiments taking
187advantage of the total system control emulation can have over a guest.
188It provides a mechanism for plugins to subscribe to events during
189translation and execution and optionally callback into the plugin
190during these events. TCG plugins are unable to change the system state
191only monitor it passively. However they can do this down to an
192individual instruction granularity including potentially subscribing
193to all load and store operations.
194
195See the developer section of the manual for details about
196:ref:`writing plugins<TCG Plugins>`.
197
198Usage
199~~~~~
200
201Any QEMU binary with TCG support has plugins enabled by default.
202Earlier releases needed to be explicitly enabled with::
203
204  configure --enable-plugins
205
206Once built a program can be run with multiple plugins loaded each with
207their own arguments::
208
209  $QEMU $OTHER_QEMU_ARGS \
210      -plugin contrib/plugins/libhowvec.so,inline=on,count=hint \
211      -plugin contrib/plugins/libhotblocks.so
212
213Arguments are plugin specific and can be used to modify their
214behaviour. In this case the howvec plugin is being asked to use inline
215ops to count and break down the hint instructions by type.
216
217Linux user-mode emulation also evaluates the environment variable
218``QEMU_PLUGIN``::
219
220  QEMU_PLUGIN="file=contrib/plugins/libhowvec.so,inline=on,count=hint" $QEMU
221
222QEMU plugins avoid to write directly to stdin/stderr, and use the log provided
223by the API (see function ``qemu_plugin_outs``).
224To show output, you may use this additional parameter::
225
226  $QEMU $OTHER_QEMU_ARGS \
227    -d plugin \
228    -plugin contrib/plugins/libhowvec.so,inline=on,count=hint
229
230Example Plugins
231~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
232
233There are a number of plugins included with QEMU and you are
234encouraged to contribute your own plugins plugins upstream. There is a
235``contrib/plugins`` directory where they can go. There are also some
236basic plugins that are used to test and exercise the API during the
237``make check-tcg`` target in ``tests/tcg/plugins`` that are never the
238less useful for basic analysis.
239
240Empty
241.....
242
243``tests/tcg/plugins/empty.c``
244
245Purely a test plugin for measuring the overhead of the plugins system
246itself. Does no instrumentation.
247
248Basic Blocks
249............
250
251``tests/tcg/plugins/bb.c``
252
253A very basic plugin which will measure execution in coarse terms as
254each basic block is executed. By default the results are shown once
255execution finishes::
256
257  $ qemu-aarch64 -plugin tests/plugin/libbb.so \
258      -d plugin ./tests/tcg/aarch64-linux-user/sha1
259  SHA1=15dd99a1991e0b3826fede3deffc1feba42278e6
260  bb's: 2277338, insns: 158483046
261
262Behaviour can be tweaked with the following arguments:
263
264.. list-table:: Basic Block plugin arguments
265  :widths: 20 80
266  :header-rows: 1
267
268  * - Option
269    - Description
270  * - inline=true|false
271    - Use faster inline addition of a single counter.
272  * - idle=true|false
273    - Dump the current execution stats whenever the guest vCPU idles
274
275Instruction
276...........
277
278``tests/tcg/plugins/insn.c``
279
280This is a basic instruction level instrumentation which can count the
281number of instructions executed on each core/thread::
282
283  $ qemu-aarch64 -plugin tests/plugin/libinsn.so \
284      -d plugin ./tests/tcg/aarch64-linux-user/threadcount
285  Created 10 threads
286  Done
287  cpu 0 insns: 46765
288  cpu 1 insns: 3694
289  cpu 2 insns: 3694
290  cpu 3 insns: 2994
291  cpu 4 insns: 1497
292  cpu 5 insns: 1497
293  cpu 6 insns: 1497
294  cpu 7 insns: 1497
295  total insns: 63135
296
297Behaviour can be tweaked with the following arguments:
298
299.. list-table:: Instruction plugin arguments
300  :widths: 20 80
301  :header-rows: 1
302
303  * - Option
304    - Description
305  * - inline=true|false
306    - Use faster inline addition of a single counter.
307  * - sizes=true|false
308    - Give a summary of the instruction sizes for the execution
309  * - match=<string>
310    - Only instrument instructions matching the string prefix
311
312The ``match`` option will show some basic stats including how many
313instructions have executed since the last execution. For
314example::
315
316   $ qemu-aarch64 -plugin tests/plugin/libinsn.so,match=bl \
317       -d plugin ./tests/tcg/aarch64-linux-user/sha512-vector
318   ...
319   0x40069c, 'bl #0x4002b0', 10 hits, 1093 match hits, Δ+1257 since last match, 98 avg insns/match
320   0x4006ac, 'bl #0x403690', 10 hits, 1094 match hits, Δ+47 since last match, 98 avg insns/match
321   0x4037fc, 'bl #0x4002b0', 18 hits, 1095 match hits, Δ+22 since last match, 98 avg insns/match
322   0x400720, 'bl #0x403690', 10 hits, 1096 match hits, Δ+58 since last match, 98 avg insns/match
323   0x4037fc, 'bl #0x4002b0', 19 hits, 1097 match hits, Δ+22 since last match, 98 avg insns/match
324   0x400730, 'bl #0x403690', 10 hits, 1098 match hits, Δ+33 since last match, 98 avg insns/match
325   0x4037ac, 'bl #0x4002b0', 12 hits, 1099 match hits, Δ+20 since last match, 98 avg insns/match
326   ...
327
328For more detailed execution tracing see the ``execlog`` plugin for
329other options.
330
331Memory
332......
333
334``tests/tcg/plugins/mem.c``
335
336Basic instruction level memory instrumentation::
337
338  $ qemu-aarch64 -plugin tests/plugin/libmem.so,inline=true \
339      -d plugin ./tests/tcg/aarch64-linux-user/sha1
340  SHA1=15dd99a1991e0b3826fede3deffc1feba42278e6
341  inline mem accesses: 79525013
342
343Behaviour can be tweaked with the following arguments:
344
345.. list-table:: Memory plugin arguments
346  :widths: 20 80
347  :header-rows: 1
348
349  * - Option
350    - Description
351  * - inline=true|false
352    - Use faster inline addition of a single counter
353  * - callback=true|false
354    - Use callbacks on each memory instrumentation.
355  * - hwaddr=true|false
356    - Count IO accesses (only for system emulation)
357
358System Calls
359............
360
361``tests/tcg/plugins/syscall.c``
362
363A basic syscall tracing plugin. This only works for user-mode. By
364default it will give a summary of syscall stats at the end of the
365run::
366
367  $ qemu-aarch64 -plugin tests/plugin/libsyscall \
368      -d plugin ./tests/tcg/aarch64-linux-user/threadcount
369  Created 10 threads
370  Done
371  syscall no.  calls  errors
372  226          12     0
373  99           11     11
374  115          11     0
375  222          11     0
376  93           10     0
377  220          10     0
378  233          10     0
379  215          8      0
380  214          4      0
381  134          2      0
382  64           2      0
383  96           1      0
384  94           1      0
385  80           1      0
386  261          1      0
387  78           1      0
388  160          1      0
389  135          1      0
390
391Test inline operations
392......................
393
394``tests/plugins/inline.c``
395
396This plugin is used for testing all inline operations, conditional callbacks and
397scoreboard. It prints a per-cpu summary of all events.
398
399
400Hot Blocks
401..........
402
403``contrib/plugins/hotblocks.c``
404
405The hotblocks plugin allows you to examine the where hot paths of
406execution are in your program. Once the program has finished you will
407get a sorted list of blocks reporting the starting PC, translation
408count, number of instructions and execution count. This will work best
409with linux-user execution as system emulation tends to generate
410re-translations as blocks from different programs get swapped in and
411out of system memory.
412
413Example::
414
415  $ qemu-aarch64 \
416    -plugin contrib/plugins/libhotblocks.so -d plugin \
417    ./tests/tcg/aarch64-linux-user/sha1
418  SHA1=15dd99a1991e0b3826fede3deffc1feba42278e6
419  collected 903 entries in the hash table
420  pc, tcount, icount, ecount
421  0x0000000041ed10, 1, 5, 66087
422  0x000000004002b0, 1, 4, 66087
423  ...
424
425
426Hot Pages
427.........
428
429``contrib/plugins/hotpages.c``
430
431Similar to hotblocks but this time tracks memory accesses::
432
433  $ qemu-aarch64 \
434    -plugin contrib/plugins/libhotpages.so -d plugin \
435    ./tests/tcg/aarch64-linux-user/sha1
436  SHA1=15dd99a1991e0b3826fede3deffc1feba42278e6
437  Addr, RCPUs, Reads, WCPUs, Writes
438  0x000055007fe000, 0x0001, 31747952, 0x0001, 8835161
439  0x000055007ff000, 0x0001, 29001054, 0x0001, 8780625
440  0x00005500800000, 0x0001, 687465, 0x0001, 335857
441  0x0000000048b000, 0x0001, 130594, 0x0001, 355
442  0x0000000048a000, 0x0001, 1826, 0x0001, 11
443
444The hotpages plugin can be configured using the following arguments:
445
446.. list-table:: Hot pages arguments
447  :widths: 20 80
448  :header-rows: 1
449
450  * - Option
451    - Description
452  * - sortby=reads|writes|address
453    - Log the data sorted by either the number of reads, the number of writes, or
454      memory address. (Default: entries are sorted by the sum of reads and writes)
455  * - io=on
456    - Track IO addresses. Only relevant to full system emulation. (Default: off)
457  * - pagesize=N
458    - The page size used. (Default: N = 4096)
459
460Instruction Distribution
461........................
462
463``contrib/plugins/howvec.c``
464
465This is an instruction classifier so can be used to count different
466types of instructions. It has a number of options to refine which get
467counted. You can give a value to the ``count`` argument for a class of
468instructions to break it down fully, so for example to see all the system
469registers accesses::
470
471  $ qemu-system-aarch64 $(QEMU_ARGS) \
472    -append "root=/dev/sda2 systemd.unit=benchmark.service" \
473    -smp 4 -plugin ./contrib/plugins/libhowvec.so,count=sreg -d plugin
474
475which will lead to a sorted list after the class breakdown::
476
477  Instruction Classes:
478  Class:   UDEF                   not counted
479  Class:   SVE                    (68 hits)
480  Class:   PCrel addr             (47789483 hits)
481  Class:   Add/Sub (imm)          (192817388 hits)
482  Class:   Logical (imm)          (93852565 hits)
483  Class:   Move Wide (imm)        (76398116 hits)
484  Class:   Bitfield               (44706084 hits)
485  Class:   Extract                (5499257 hits)
486  Class:   Cond Branch (imm)      (147202932 hits)
487  Class:   Exception Gen          (193581 hits)
488  Class:     NOP                  not counted
489  Class:   Hints                  (6652291 hits)
490  Class:   Barriers               (8001661 hits)
491  Class:   PSTATE                 (1801695 hits)
492  Class:   System Insn            (6385349 hits)
493  Class:   System Reg             counted individually
494  Class:   Branch (reg)           (69497127 hits)
495  Class:   Branch (imm)           (84393665 hits)
496  Class:   Cmp & Branch           (110929659 hits)
497  Class:   Tst & Branch           (44681442 hits)
498  Class:   AdvSimd ldstmult       (736 hits)
499  Class:   ldst excl              (9098783 hits)
500  Class:   Load Reg (lit)         (87189424 hits)
501  Class:   ldst noalloc pair      (3264433 hits)
502  Class:   ldst pair              (412526434 hits)
503  Class:   ldst reg (imm)         (314734576 hits)
504  Class: Loads & Stores           (2117774 hits)
505  Class: Data Proc Reg            (223519077 hits)
506  Class: Scalar FP                (31657954 hits)
507  Individual Instructions:
508  Instr: mrs x0, sp_el0           (2682661 hits)  (op=0xd5384100/  System Reg)
509  Instr: mrs x1, tpidr_el2        (1789339 hits)  (op=0xd53cd041/  System Reg)
510  Instr: mrs x2, tpidr_el2        (1513494 hits)  (op=0xd53cd042/  System Reg)
511  Instr: mrs x0, tpidr_el2        (1490823 hits)  (op=0xd53cd040/  System Reg)
512  Instr: mrs x1, sp_el0           (933793 hits)   (op=0xd5384101/  System Reg)
513  Instr: mrs x2, sp_el0           (699516 hits)   (op=0xd5384102/  System Reg)
514  Instr: mrs x4, tpidr_el2        (528437 hits)   (op=0xd53cd044/  System Reg)
515  Instr: mrs x30, ttbr1_el1       (480776 hits)   (op=0xd538203e/  System Reg)
516  Instr: msr ttbr1_el1, x30       (480713 hits)   (op=0xd518203e/  System Reg)
517  Instr: msr vbar_el1, x30        (480671 hits)   (op=0xd518c01e/  System Reg)
518  ...
519
520To find the argument shorthand for the class you need to examine the
521source code of the plugin at the moment, specifically the ``*opt``
522argument in the InsnClassExecCount tables.
523
524Lockstep Execution
525..................
526
527``contrib/plugins/lockstep.c``
528
529This is a debugging tool for developers who want to find out when and
530where execution diverges after a subtle change to TCG code generation.
531It is not an exact science and results are likely to be mixed once
532asynchronous events are introduced. While the use of -icount can
533introduce determinism to the execution flow it doesn't always follow
534the translation sequence will be exactly the same. Typically this is
535caused by a timer firing to service the GUI causing a block to end
536early. However in some cases it has proved to be useful in pointing
537people at roughly where execution diverges. The only argument you need
538for the plugin is a path for the socket the two instances will
539communicate over::
540
541
542  $ qemu-system-sparc -monitor none -parallel none \
543    -net none -M SS-20 -m 256 -kernel day11/zImage.elf \
544    -plugin ./contrib/plugins/liblockstep.so,sockpath=lockstep-sparc.sock \
545    -d plugin,nochain
546
547which will eventually report::
548
549  qemu-system-sparc: warning: nic lance.0 has no peer
550  @ 0x000000ffd06678 vs 0x000000ffd001e0 (2/1 since last)
551  @ 0x000000ffd07d9c vs 0x000000ffd06678 (3/1 since last)
552  Δ insn_count @ 0x000000ffd07d9c (809900609) vs 0x000000ffd06678 (809900612)
553    previously @ 0x000000ffd06678/10 (809900609 insns)
554    previously @ 0x000000ffd001e0/4 (809900599 insns)
555    previously @ 0x000000ffd080ac/2 (809900595 insns)
556    previously @ 0x000000ffd08098/5 (809900593 insns)
557    previously @ 0x000000ffd080c0/1 (809900588 insns)
558
559
560Hardware Profile
561................
562
563``contrib/plugins/hwprofile.c``
564
565The hwprofile tool can only be used with system emulation and allows
566the user to see what hardware is accessed how often. It has a number of options:
567
568.. list-table:: Hardware Profile arguments
569  :widths: 20 80
570  :header-rows: 1
571
572  * - Option
573    - Description
574  * - track=[read|write]
575    - By default the plugin tracks both reads and writes. You can use
576      this option to limit the tracking to just one class of accesses.
577  * - source
578    - Will include a detailed break down of what the guest PC that made the
579      access was. Not compatible with the pattern option. Example output::
580
581        cirrus-low-memory @ 0xfffffd00000a0000
582         pc:fffffc0000005cdc, 1, 256
583         pc:fffffc0000005ce8, 1, 256
584         pc:fffffc0000005cec, 1, 256
585
586  * - pattern
587    - Instead break down the accesses based on the offset into the HW
588      region. This can be useful for seeing the most used registers of
589      a device. Example output::
590
591        pci0-conf @ 0xfffffd01fe000000
592          off:00000004, 1, 1
593          off:00000010, 1, 3
594          off:00000014, 1, 3
595          off:00000018, 1, 2
596          off:0000001c, 1, 2
597          off:00000020, 1, 2
598          ...
599
600
601Execution Log
602.............
603
604``contrib/plugins/execlog.c``
605
606The execlog tool traces executed instructions with memory access. It can be used
607for debugging and security analysis purposes.
608Please be aware that this will generate a lot of output.
609
610The plugin needs default argument::
611
612  $ qemu-system-arm $(QEMU_ARGS) \
613    -plugin ./contrib/plugins/libexeclog.so -d plugin
614
615which will output an execution trace following this structure::
616
617  # vCPU, vAddr, opcode, disassembly[, load/store, memory addr, device]...
618  0, 0xa12, 0xf8012400, "movs r4, #0"
619  0, 0xa14, 0xf87f42b4, "cmp r4, r6"
620  0, 0xa16, 0xd206, "bhs #0xa26"
621  0, 0xa18, 0xfff94803, "ldr r0, [pc, #0xc]", load, 0x00010a28, RAM
622  0, 0xa1a, 0xf989f000, "bl #0xd30"
623  0, 0xd30, 0xfff9b510, "push {r4, lr}", store, 0x20003ee0, RAM, store, 0x20003ee4, RAM
624  0, 0xd32, 0xf9893014, "adds r0, #0x14"
625  0, 0xd34, 0xf9c8f000, "bl #0x10c8"
626  0, 0x10c8, 0xfff96c43, "ldr r3, [r0, #0x44]", load, 0x200000e4, RAM
627
628Please note that you need to configure QEMU with Capstone support to get disassembly.
629
630The output can be filtered to only track certain instructions or
631addresses using the ``ifilter`` or ``afilter`` options. You can stack the
632arguments if required::
633
634  $ qemu-system-arm $(QEMU_ARGS) \
635    -plugin ./contrib/plugins/libexeclog.so,ifilter=st1w,afilter=0x40001808 -d plugin
636
637This plugin can also dump registers when they change value. Specify the name of the
638registers with multiple ``reg`` options. You can also use glob style matching if you wish::
639
640  $ qemu-system-arm $(QEMU_ARGS) \
641    -plugin ./contrib/plugins/libexeclog.so,reg=\*_el2,reg=sp -d plugin
642
643Be aware that each additional register to check will slow down
644execution quite considerably. You can optimise the number of register
645checks done by using the rdisas option. This will only instrument
646instructions that mention the registers in question in disassembly.
647This is not foolproof as some instructions implicitly change
648instructions. You can use the ifilter to catch these cases::
649
650  $ qemu-system-arm $(QEMU_ARGS) \
651    -plugin ./contrib/plugins/libexeclog.so,ifilter=msr,ifilter=blr,reg=x30,reg=\*_el1,rdisas=on
652
653Cache Modelling
654...............
655
656``contrib/plugins/cache.c``
657
658Cache modelling plugin that measures the performance of a given L1 cache
659configuration, and optionally a unified L2 per-core cache when a given working
660set is run::
661
662  $ qemu-x86_64 -plugin ./contrib/plugins/libcache.so \
663      -d plugin -D cache.log ./tests/tcg/x86_64-linux-user/float_convs
664
665will report the following::
666
667    core #, data accesses, data misses, dmiss rate, insn accesses, insn misses, imiss rate
668    0       996695         508             0.0510%  2642799        18617           0.7044%
669
670    address, data misses, instruction
671    0x424f1e (_int_malloc), 109, movq %rax, 8(%rcx)
672    0x41f395 (_IO_default_xsputn), 49, movb %dl, (%rdi, %rax)
673    0x42584d (ptmalloc_init.part.0), 33, movaps %xmm0, (%rax)
674    0x454d48 (__tunables_init), 20, cmpb $0, (%r8)
675    ...
676
677    address, fetch misses, instruction
678    0x4160a0 (__vfprintf_internal), 744, movl $1, %ebx
679    0x41f0a0 (_IO_setb), 744, endbr64
680    0x415882 (__vfprintf_internal), 744, movq %r12, %rdi
681    0x4268a0 (__malloc), 696, andq $0xfffffffffffffff0, %rax
682    ...
683
684The plugin has a number of arguments, all of them are optional:
685
686.. list-table:: Cache modelling arguments
687  :widths: 20 80
688  :header-rows: 1
689
690  * - Option
691    - Description
692  * - limit=N
693    - Print top N icache and dcache thrashing instructions along with
694      their address, number of misses, and its disassembly. (default: 32)
695  * - icachesize=N
696      iblksize=B
697      iassoc=A
698    - Instruction cache configuration arguments. They specify the
699      cache size, block size, and associativity of the instruction
700      cache, respectively. (default: N = 16384, B = 64, A = 8)
701  * - dcachesize=N
702    - Data cache size (default: 16834)
703  * - dblksize=B
704    - Data cache block size (default: 64)
705  * - dassoc=A
706    - Data cache associativity (default: 8)
707  * - evict=POLICY
708    - Sets the eviction policy to POLICY. Available policies are:
709      ``lru``, ``fifo``, and ``rand``. The plugin will use
710      the specified policy for both instruction and data caches.
711      (default: POLICY = ``lru``)
712  * - cores=N
713    - Sets the number of cores for which we maintain separate icache
714      and dcache. (default: for linux-user, N = 1, for full system
715      emulation: N = cores available to guest)
716  * - l2=on
717    - Simulates a unified L2 cache (stores blocks for both
718      instructions and data) using the default L2 configuration (cache
719      size = 2MB, associativity = 16-way, block size = 64B).
720  * - l2cachesize=N
721    - L2 cache size (default: 2097152 (2MB)), implies ``l2=on``
722  * - l2blksize=B
723    - L2 cache block size (default: 64), implies ``l2=on``
724  * - l2assoc=A
725    - L2 cache associativity (default: 16), implies ``l2=on``
726
727Stop on Trigger
728...............
729
730``contrib/plugins/stoptrigger.c``
731
732The stoptrigger plugin allows to setup triggers to stop emulation.
733It can be used for research purposes to launch some code and precisely stop it
734and understand where its execution flow went.
735
736Two types of triggers can be configured: a count of instructions to stop at,
737or an address to stop at. Multiple triggers can be set at once.
738
739By default, QEMU will exit with return code 0. A custom return code can be
740configured for each trigger using ``:CODE`` syntax.
741
742For example, to stop at the 20-th instruction with return code 41, at address
7430xd4 with return code 0 or at address 0xd8 with return code 42::
744
745  $ qemu-system-aarch64 $(QEMU_ARGS) \
746    -plugin ./contrib/plugins/libstoptrigger.so,icount=20:41,addr=0xd4,addr=0xd8:42 -d plugin
747
748The plugin will log the reason of exit, for example::
749
750  0xd4 reached, exiting
751
752Limit instructions per second
753.............................
754
755This plugin can limit the number of Instructions Per Second that are executed::
756
757    # get number of instructions
758    $ num_insn=$(./build/qemu-x86_64 -plugin ./build/tests/plugin/libinsn.so -d plugin /bin/true |& grep total | sed -e 's/.*: //')
759    # limit speed to execute in 10 seconds
760    $ time ./build/qemu-x86_64 -plugin ./build/contrib/plugins/libips.so,ips=$(($num_insn/10)) /bin/true
761    real 10.000s
762
763
764.. list-table:: IPS arguments
765  :widths: 20 80
766  :header-rows: 1
767
768  * - Option
769    - Description
770  * - ips=N
771    - Maximum number of instructions per cpu that can be executed in one second.
772      The plugin will sleep when the given number of instructions is reached.
773
774Other emulation features
775------------------------
776
777When running system emulation you can also enable deterministic
778execution which allows for repeatable record/replay debugging. See
779:ref:`Record/Replay<replay>` for more details.
780
781