xref: /openbmc/qemu/docs/about/emulation.rst (revision 2e1cacfb)
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  * - Hexagon
30    - No
31    - Yes
32    - Family of DSPs by Qualcomm
33  * - PA-RISC (hppa)
34    - Yes
35    - Yes
36    - A legacy RISC system used in HP's old minicomputers
37  * - x86 (i386, x86_64)
38    - :ref:`Yes<QEMU-PC-System-emulator>`
39    - Yes
40    - The ubiquitous desktop PC CPU architecture, 32 and 64 bit.
41  * - LoongArch
42    - Yes
43    - Yes
44    - A MIPS-like 64bit RISC architecture developed in China
45  * - m68k
46    - :ref:`Yes<ColdFire-System-emulator>`
47    - Yes
48    - Motorola 68000 variants and ColdFire
49  * - Microblaze
50    - Yes
51    - Yes
52    - RISC based soft-core by Xilinx
53  * - MIPS (mips*)
54    - :ref:`Yes<MIPS-System-emulator>`
55    - Yes
56    - Venerable RISC architecture originally out of Stanford University
57  * - OpenRISC
58    - :ref:`Yes<OpenRISC-System-emulator>`
59    - Yes
60    - Open source RISC architecture developed by the OpenRISC community
61  * - Power (ppc, ppc64)
62    - :ref:`Yes<PowerPC-System-emulator>`
63    - Yes
64    - A general purpose RISC architecture now managed by IBM
65  * - RISC-V
66    - :ref:`Yes<RISC-V-System-emulator>`
67    - Yes
68    - An open standard RISC ISA maintained by RISC-V International
69  * - RX
70    - :ref:`Yes<RX-System-emulator>`
71    - No
72    - A 32 bit micro controller developed by Renesas
73  * - s390x
74    - :ref:`Yes<s390x-System-emulator>`
75    - Yes
76    - A 64 bit CPU found in IBM's System Z mainframes
77  * - sh4
78    - Yes
79    - Yes
80    - A 32 bit RISC embedded CPU developed by Hitachi
81  * - SPARC (sparc, sparc64)
82    - :ref:`Yes<Sparc32-System-emulator>`
83    - Yes
84    - A RISC ISA originally developed by Sun Microsystems
85  * - Tricore
86    - Yes
87    - No
88    - A 32 bit RISC/uController/DSP developed by Infineon
89  * - Xtensa
90    - :ref:`Yes<Xtensa-System-emulator>`
91    - Yes
92    - A configurable 32 bit soft core now owned by Cadence
93
94.. _Semihosting:
95
96Semihosting
97-----------
98
99Semihosting is a feature defined by the owner of the architecture to
100allow programs to interact with a debugging host system. On real
101hardware this is usually provided by an In-circuit emulator (ICE)
102hooked directly to the board. QEMU's implementation allows for
103semihosting calls to be passed to the host system or via the
104``gdbstub``.
105
106Generally semihosting makes it easier to bring up low level code before a
107more fully functional operating system has been enabled. On QEMU it
108also allows for embedded micro-controller code which typically doesn't
109have a full libc to be run as "bare-metal" code under QEMU's user-mode
110emulation. It is also useful for writing test cases and indeed a
111number of compiler suites as well as QEMU itself use semihosting calls
112to exit test code while reporting the success state.
113
114Semihosting is only available using TCG emulation. This is because the
115instructions to trigger a semihosting call are typically reserved
116causing most hypervisors to trap and fault on them.
117
118.. warning::
119   Semihosting inherently bypasses any isolation there may be between
120   the guest and the host. As a result a program using semihosting can
121   happily trash your host system. Some semihosting calls (e.g.
122   ``SYS_READC``) can block execution indefinitely. You should only
123   ever run trusted code with semihosting enabled.
124
125Redirection
126~~~~~~~~~~~
127
128Semihosting calls can be re-directed to a (potentially remote) gdb
129during debugging via the :ref:`gdbstub<GDB usage>`. Output to the
130semihosting console is configured as a ``chardev`` so can be
131redirected to a file, pipe or socket like any other ``chardev``
132device.
133
134Supported Targets
135~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
136
137Most targets offer similar semihosting implementations with some
138minor changes to define the appropriate instruction to encode the
139semihosting call and which registers hold the parameters. They tend to
140presents a simple POSIX-like API which allows your program to read and
141write files, access the console and some other basic interactions.
142
143For full details of the ABI for a particular target, and the set of
144calls it provides, you should consult the semihosting specification
145for that architecture.
146
147.. note::
148   QEMU makes an implementation decision to implement all file
149   access in ``O_BINARY`` mode. The user-visible effect of this is
150   regardless of the text/binary mode the program sets QEMU will
151   always select a binary mode ensuring no line-terminator conversion
152   is performed on input or output. This is because gdb semihosting
153   support doesn't make the distinction between the modes and
154   magically processing line endings can be confusing.
155
156.. list-table:: Guest Architectures supporting Semihosting
157  :widths: 10 10 80
158  :header-rows: 1
159
160  * - Architecture
161    - Modes
162    - Specification
163  * - Arm
164    - System and User-mode
165    - https://github.com/ARM-software/abi-aa/blob/main/semihosting/semihosting.rst
166  * - m68k
167    - System
168    - https://sourceware.org/git/?p=newlib-cygwin.git;a=blob;f=libgloss/m68k/m68k-semi.txt;hb=HEAD
169  * - MIPS
170    - System
171    - Unified Hosting Interface (MD01069)
172  * - RISC-V
173    - System and User-mode
174    - https://github.com/riscv/riscv-semihosting-spec/blob/main/riscv-semihosting-spec.adoc
175  * - Xtensa
176    - System
177    - Tensilica ISS SIMCALL
178
179TCG Plugins
180-----------
181
182QEMU TCG plugins provide a way for users to run experiments taking
183advantage of the total system control emulation can have over a guest.
184It provides a mechanism for plugins to subscribe to events during
185translation and execution and optionally callback into the plugin
186during these events. TCG plugins are unable to change the system state
187only monitor it passively. However they can do this down to an
188individual instruction granularity including potentially subscribing
189to all load and store operations.
190
191See the developer section of the manual for details about
192:ref:`writing plugins<TCG Plugins>`.
193
194Usage
195~~~~~
196
197Any QEMU binary with TCG support has plugins enabled by default.
198Earlier releases needed to be explicitly enabled with::
199
200  configure --enable-plugins
201
202Once built a program can be run with multiple plugins loaded each with
203their own arguments::
204
205  $QEMU $OTHER_QEMU_ARGS \
206      -plugin contrib/plugins/libhowvec.so,inline=on,count=hint \
207      -plugin contrib/plugins/libhotblocks.so
208
209Arguments are plugin specific and can be used to modify their
210behaviour. In this case the howvec plugin is being asked to use inline
211ops to count and break down the hint instructions by type.
212
213Linux user-mode emulation also evaluates the environment variable
214``QEMU_PLUGIN``::
215
216  QEMU_PLUGIN="file=contrib/plugins/libhowvec.so,inline=on,count=hint" $QEMU
217
218QEMU plugins avoid to write directly to stdin/stderr, and use the log provided
219by the API (see function ``qemu_plugin_outs``).
220To show output, you may use this additional parameter::
221
222  $QEMU $OTHER_QEMU_ARGS \
223    -d plugin \
224    -plugin contrib/plugins/libhowvec.so,inline=on,count=hint
225
226Example Plugins
227~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
228
229There are a number of plugins included with QEMU and you are
230encouraged to contribute your own plugins plugins upstream. There is a
231``contrib/plugins`` directory where they can go. There are also some
232basic plugins that are used to test and exercise the API during the
233``make check-tcg`` target in ``tests/tcg/plugins`` that are never the
234less useful for basic analysis.
235
236Empty
237.....
238
239``tests/tcg/plugins/empty.c``
240
241Purely a test plugin for measuring the overhead of the plugins system
242itself. Does no instrumentation.
243
244Basic Blocks
245............
246
247``tests/tcg/plugins/bb.c``
248
249A very basic plugin which will measure execution in coarse terms as
250each basic block is executed. By default the results are shown once
251execution finishes::
252
253  $ qemu-aarch64 -plugin tests/plugin/libbb.so \
254      -d plugin ./tests/tcg/aarch64-linux-user/sha1
255  SHA1=15dd99a1991e0b3826fede3deffc1feba42278e6
256  bb's: 2277338, insns: 158483046
257
258Behaviour can be tweaked with the following arguments:
259
260.. list-table:: Basic Block plugin arguments
261  :widths: 20 80
262  :header-rows: 1
263
264  * - Option
265    - Description
266  * - inline=true|false
267    - Use faster inline addition of a single counter.
268  * - idle=true|false
269    - Dump the current execution stats whenever the guest vCPU idles
270
271Basic Block Vectors
272...................
273
274``contrib/plugins/bbv.c``
275
276The bbv plugin allows you to generate basic block vectors for use with the
277`SimPoint <https://cseweb.ucsd.edu/~calder/simpoint/>`__ analysis tool.
278
279.. list-table:: Basic block vectors arguments
280  :widths: 20 80
281  :header-rows: 1
282
283  * - Option
284    - Description
285  * - interval=N
286    - The interval to generate a basic block vector specified by the number of
287      instructions (Default: N = 100000000)
288  * - outfile=PATH
289    - The path to output files.
290      It will be suffixed with ``.N.bb`` where ``N`` is a vCPU index.
291
292Example::
293
294  $ qemu-aarch64 \
295    -plugin contrib/plugins/libbbv.so,interval=100,outfile=sha1 \
296    tests/tcg/aarch64-linux-user/sha1
297  SHA1=15dd99a1991e0b3826fede3deffc1feba42278e6
298  $ du sha1.0.bb
299  23128   sha1.0.bb
300
301Instruction
302...........
303
304``tests/tcg/plugins/insn.c``
305
306This is a basic instruction level instrumentation which can count the
307number of instructions executed on each core/thread::
308
309  $ qemu-aarch64 -plugin tests/plugin/libinsn.so \
310      -d plugin ./tests/tcg/aarch64-linux-user/threadcount
311  Created 10 threads
312  Done
313  cpu 0 insns: 46765
314  cpu 1 insns: 3694
315  cpu 2 insns: 3694
316  cpu 3 insns: 2994
317  cpu 4 insns: 1497
318  cpu 5 insns: 1497
319  cpu 6 insns: 1497
320  cpu 7 insns: 1497
321  total insns: 63135
322
323Behaviour can be tweaked with the following arguments:
324
325.. list-table:: Instruction plugin arguments
326  :widths: 20 80
327  :header-rows: 1
328
329  * - Option
330    - Description
331  * - inline=true|false
332    - Use faster inline addition of a single counter.
333  * - sizes=true|false
334    - Give a summary of the instruction sizes for the execution
335  * - match=<string>
336    - Only instrument instructions matching the string prefix
337
338The ``match`` option will show some basic stats including how many
339instructions have executed since the last execution. For
340example::
341
342   $ qemu-aarch64 -plugin tests/plugin/libinsn.so,match=bl \
343       -d plugin ./tests/tcg/aarch64-linux-user/sha512-vector
344   ...
345   0x40069c, 'bl #0x4002b0', 10 hits, 1093 match hits, Δ+1257 since last match, 98 avg insns/match
346   0x4006ac, 'bl #0x403690', 10 hits, 1094 match hits, Δ+47 since last match, 98 avg insns/match
347   0x4037fc, 'bl #0x4002b0', 18 hits, 1095 match hits, Δ+22 since last match, 98 avg insns/match
348   0x400720, 'bl #0x403690', 10 hits, 1096 match hits, Δ+58 since last match, 98 avg insns/match
349   0x4037fc, 'bl #0x4002b0', 19 hits, 1097 match hits, Δ+22 since last match, 98 avg insns/match
350   0x400730, 'bl #0x403690', 10 hits, 1098 match hits, Δ+33 since last match, 98 avg insns/match
351   0x4037ac, 'bl #0x4002b0', 12 hits, 1099 match hits, Δ+20 since last match, 98 avg insns/match
352   ...
353
354For more detailed execution tracing see the ``execlog`` plugin for
355other options.
356
357Memory
358......
359
360``tests/tcg/plugins/mem.c``
361
362Basic instruction level memory instrumentation::
363
364  $ qemu-aarch64 -plugin tests/plugin/libmem.so,inline=true \
365      -d plugin ./tests/tcg/aarch64-linux-user/sha1
366  SHA1=15dd99a1991e0b3826fede3deffc1feba42278e6
367  inline mem accesses: 79525013
368
369Behaviour can be tweaked with the following arguments:
370
371.. list-table:: Memory plugin arguments
372  :widths: 20 80
373  :header-rows: 1
374
375  * - Option
376    - Description
377  * - inline=true|false
378    - Use faster inline addition of a single counter
379  * - callback=true|false
380    - Use callbacks on each memory instrumentation.
381  * - hwaddr=true|false
382    - Count IO accesses (only for system emulation)
383
384System Calls
385............
386
387``tests/tcg/plugins/syscall.c``
388
389A basic syscall tracing plugin. This only works for user-mode. By
390default it will give a summary of syscall stats at the end of the
391run::
392
393  $ qemu-aarch64 -plugin tests/plugin/libsyscall \
394      -d plugin ./tests/tcg/aarch64-linux-user/threadcount
395  Created 10 threads
396  Done
397  syscall no.  calls  errors
398  226          12     0
399  99           11     11
400  115          11     0
401  222          11     0
402  93           10     0
403  220          10     0
404  233          10     0
405  215          8      0
406  214          4      0
407  134          2      0
408  64           2      0
409  96           1      0
410  94           1      0
411  80           1      0
412  261          1      0
413  78           1      0
414  160          1      0
415  135          1      0
416
417Behaviour can be tweaked with the following arguments:
418
419.. list-table:: Syscall plugin arguments
420  :widths: 20 80
421  :header-rows: 1
422
423  * - Option
424    - Description
425  * - print=true|false
426    - Print the number of times each syscall is called
427  * - log_writes=true|false
428    - Log the buffer of each write syscall in hexdump format
429
430Test inline operations
431......................
432
433``tests/plugins/inline.c``
434
435This plugin is used for testing all inline operations, conditional callbacks and
436scoreboard. It prints a per-cpu summary of all events.
437
438
439Hot Blocks
440..........
441
442``contrib/plugins/hotblocks.c``
443
444The hotblocks plugin allows you to examine the where hot paths of
445execution are in your program. Once the program has finished you will
446get a sorted list of blocks reporting the starting PC, translation
447count, number of instructions and execution count. This will work best
448with linux-user execution as system emulation tends to generate
449re-translations as blocks from different programs get swapped in and
450out of system memory.
451
452Example::
453
454  $ qemu-aarch64 \
455    -plugin contrib/plugins/libhotblocks.so -d plugin \
456    ./tests/tcg/aarch64-linux-user/sha1
457  SHA1=15dd99a1991e0b3826fede3deffc1feba42278e6
458  collected 903 entries in the hash table
459  pc, tcount, icount, ecount
460  0x0000000041ed10, 1, 5, 66087
461  0x000000004002b0, 1, 4, 66087
462  ...
463
464
465Hot Pages
466.........
467
468``contrib/plugins/hotpages.c``
469
470Similar to hotblocks but this time tracks memory accesses::
471
472  $ qemu-aarch64 \
473    -plugin contrib/plugins/libhotpages.so -d plugin \
474    ./tests/tcg/aarch64-linux-user/sha1
475  SHA1=15dd99a1991e0b3826fede3deffc1feba42278e6
476  Addr, RCPUs, Reads, WCPUs, Writes
477  0x000055007fe000, 0x0001, 31747952, 0x0001, 8835161
478  0x000055007ff000, 0x0001, 29001054, 0x0001, 8780625
479  0x00005500800000, 0x0001, 687465, 0x0001, 335857
480  0x0000000048b000, 0x0001, 130594, 0x0001, 355
481  0x0000000048a000, 0x0001, 1826, 0x0001, 11
482
483The hotpages plugin can be configured using the following arguments:
484
485.. list-table:: Hot pages arguments
486  :widths: 20 80
487  :header-rows: 1
488
489  * - Option
490    - Description
491  * - sortby=reads|writes|address
492    - Log the data sorted by either the number of reads, the number of writes, or
493      memory address. (Default: entries are sorted by the sum of reads and writes)
494  * - io=on
495    - Track IO addresses. Only relevant to full system emulation. (Default: off)
496  * - pagesize=N
497    - The page size used. (Default: N = 4096)
498
499Instruction Distribution
500........................
501
502``contrib/plugins/howvec.c``
503
504This is an instruction classifier so can be used to count different
505types of instructions. It has a number of options to refine which get
506counted. You can give a value to the ``count`` argument for a class of
507instructions to break it down fully, so for example to see all the system
508registers accesses::
509
510  $ qemu-system-aarch64 $(QEMU_ARGS) \
511    -append "root=/dev/sda2 systemd.unit=benchmark.service" \
512    -smp 4 -plugin ./contrib/plugins/libhowvec.so,count=sreg -d plugin
513
514which will lead to a sorted list after the class breakdown::
515
516  Instruction Classes:
517  Class:   UDEF                   not counted
518  Class:   SVE                    (68 hits)
519  Class:   PCrel addr             (47789483 hits)
520  Class:   Add/Sub (imm)          (192817388 hits)
521  Class:   Logical (imm)          (93852565 hits)
522  Class:   Move Wide (imm)        (76398116 hits)
523  Class:   Bitfield               (44706084 hits)
524  Class:   Extract                (5499257 hits)
525  Class:   Cond Branch (imm)      (147202932 hits)
526  Class:   Exception Gen          (193581 hits)
527  Class:     NOP                  not counted
528  Class:   Hints                  (6652291 hits)
529  Class:   Barriers               (8001661 hits)
530  Class:   PSTATE                 (1801695 hits)
531  Class:   System Insn            (6385349 hits)
532  Class:   System Reg             counted individually
533  Class:   Branch (reg)           (69497127 hits)
534  Class:   Branch (imm)           (84393665 hits)
535  Class:   Cmp & Branch           (110929659 hits)
536  Class:   Tst & Branch           (44681442 hits)
537  Class:   AdvSimd ldstmult       (736 hits)
538  Class:   ldst excl              (9098783 hits)
539  Class:   Load Reg (lit)         (87189424 hits)
540  Class:   ldst noalloc pair      (3264433 hits)
541  Class:   ldst pair              (412526434 hits)
542  Class:   ldst reg (imm)         (314734576 hits)
543  Class: Loads & Stores           (2117774 hits)
544  Class: Data Proc Reg            (223519077 hits)
545  Class: Scalar FP                (31657954 hits)
546  Individual Instructions:
547  Instr: mrs x0, sp_el0           (2682661 hits)  (op=0xd5384100/  System Reg)
548  Instr: mrs x1, tpidr_el2        (1789339 hits)  (op=0xd53cd041/  System Reg)
549  Instr: mrs x2, tpidr_el2        (1513494 hits)  (op=0xd53cd042/  System Reg)
550  Instr: mrs x0, tpidr_el2        (1490823 hits)  (op=0xd53cd040/  System Reg)
551  Instr: mrs x1, sp_el0           (933793 hits)   (op=0xd5384101/  System Reg)
552  Instr: mrs x2, sp_el0           (699516 hits)   (op=0xd5384102/  System Reg)
553  Instr: mrs x4, tpidr_el2        (528437 hits)   (op=0xd53cd044/  System Reg)
554  Instr: mrs x30, ttbr1_el1       (480776 hits)   (op=0xd538203e/  System Reg)
555  Instr: msr ttbr1_el1, x30       (480713 hits)   (op=0xd518203e/  System Reg)
556  Instr: msr vbar_el1, x30        (480671 hits)   (op=0xd518c01e/  System Reg)
557  ...
558
559To find the argument shorthand for the class you need to examine the
560source code of the plugin at the moment, specifically the ``*opt``
561argument in the InsnClassExecCount tables.
562
563Lockstep Execution
564..................
565
566``contrib/plugins/lockstep.c``
567
568This is a debugging tool for developers who want to find out when and
569where execution diverges after a subtle change to TCG code generation.
570It is not an exact science and results are likely to be mixed once
571asynchronous events are introduced. While the use of -icount can
572introduce determinism to the execution flow it doesn't always follow
573the translation sequence will be exactly the same. Typically this is
574caused by a timer firing to service the GUI causing a block to end
575early. However in some cases it has proved to be useful in pointing
576people at roughly where execution diverges. The only argument you need
577for the plugin is a path for the socket the two instances will
578communicate over::
579
580
581  $ qemu-system-sparc -monitor none -parallel none \
582    -net none -M SS-20 -m 256 -kernel day11/zImage.elf \
583    -plugin ./contrib/plugins/liblockstep.so,sockpath=lockstep-sparc.sock \
584    -d plugin,nochain
585
586which will eventually report::
587
588  qemu-system-sparc: warning: nic lance.0 has no peer
589  @ 0x000000ffd06678 vs 0x000000ffd001e0 (2/1 since last)
590  @ 0x000000ffd07d9c vs 0x000000ffd06678 (3/1 since last)
591  Δ insn_count @ 0x000000ffd07d9c (809900609) vs 0x000000ffd06678 (809900612)
592    previously @ 0x000000ffd06678/10 (809900609 insns)
593    previously @ 0x000000ffd001e0/4 (809900599 insns)
594    previously @ 0x000000ffd080ac/2 (809900595 insns)
595    previously @ 0x000000ffd08098/5 (809900593 insns)
596    previously @ 0x000000ffd080c0/1 (809900588 insns)
597
598
599Hardware Profile
600................
601
602``contrib/plugins/hwprofile.c``
603
604The hwprofile tool can only be used with system emulation and allows
605the user to see what hardware is accessed how often. It has a number of options:
606
607.. list-table:: Hardware Profile arguments
608  :widths: 20 80
609  :header-rows: 1
610
611  * - Option
612    - Description
613  * - track=[read|write]
614    - By default the plugin tracks both reads and writes. You can use
615      this option to limit the tracking to just one class of accesses.
616  * - source
617    - Will include a detailed break down of what the guest PC that made the
618      access was. Not compatible with the pattern option. Example output::
619
620        cirrus-low-memory @ 0xfffffd00000a0000
621         pc:fffffc0000005cdc, 1, 256
622         pc:fffffc0000005ce8, 1, 256
623         pc:fffffc0000005cec, 1, 256
624
625  * - pattern
626    - Instead break down the accesses based on the offset into the HW
627      region. This can be useful for seeing the most used registers of
628      a device. Example output::
629
630        pci0-conf @ 0xfffffd01fe000000
631          off:00000004, 1, 1
632          off:00000010, 1, 3
633          off:00000014, 1, 3
634          off:00000018, 1, 2
635          off:0000001c, 1, 2
636          off:00000020, 1, 2
637          ...
638
639
640Execution Log
641.............
642
643``contrib/plugins/execlog.c``
644
645The execlog tool traces executed instructions with memory access. It can be used
646for debugging and security analysis purposes.
647Please be aware that this will generate a lot of output.
648
649The plugin needs default argument::
650
651  $ qemu-system-arm $(QEMU_ARGS) \
652    -plugin ./contrib/plugins/libexeclog.so -d plugin
653
654which will output an execution trace following this structure::
655
656  # vCPU, vAddr, opcode, disassembly[, load/store, memory addr, device]...
657  0, 0xa12, 0xf8012400, "movs r4, #0"
658  0, 0xa14, 0xf87f42b4, "cmp r4, r6"
659  0, 0xa16, 0xd206, "bhs #0xa26"
660  0, 0xa18, 0xfff94803, "ldr r0, [pc, #0xc]", load, 0x00010a28, RAM
661  0, 0xa1a, 0xf989f000, "bl #0xd30"
662  0, 0xd30, 0xfff9b510, "push {r4, lr}", store, 0x20003ee0, RAM, store, 0x20003ee4, RAM
663  0, 0xd32, 0xf9893014, "adds r0, #0x14"
664  0, 0xd34, 0xf9c8f000, "bl #0x10c8"
665  0, 0x10c8, 0xfff96c43, "ldr r3, [r0, #0x44]", load, 0x200000e4, RAM
666
667Please note that you need to configure QEMU with Capstone support to get disassembly.
668
669The output can be filtered to only track certain instructions or
670addresses using the ``ifilter`` or ``afilter`` options. You can stack the
671arguments if required::
672
673  $ qemu-system-arm $(QEMU_ARGS) \
674    -plugin ./contrib/plugins/libexeclog.so,ifilter=st1w,afilter=0x40001808 -d plugin
675
676This plugin can also dump registers when they change value. Specify the name of the
677registers with multiple ``reg`` options. You can also use glob style matching if you wish::
678
679  $ qemu-system-arm $(QEMU_ARGS) \
680    -plugin ./contrib/plugins/libexeclog.so,reg=\*_el2,reg=sp -d plugin
681
682Be aware that each additional register to check will slow down
683execution quite considerably. You can optimise the number of register
684checks done by using the rdisas option. This will only instrument
685instructions that mention the registers in question in disassembly.
686This is not foolproof as some instructions implicitly change
687instructions. You can use the ifilter to catch these cases::
688
689  $ qemu-system-arm $(QEMU_ARGS) \
690    -plugin ./contrib/plugins/libexeclog.so,ifilter=msr,ifilter=blr,reg=x30,reg=\*_el1,rdisas=on
691
692Cache Modelling
693...............
694
695``contrib/plugins/cache.c``
696
697Cache modelling plugin that measures the performance of a given L1 cache
698configuration, and optionally a unified L2 per-core cache when a given working
699set is run::
700
701  $ qemu-x86_64 -plugin ./contrib/plugins/libcache.so \
702      -d plugin -D cache.log ./tests/tcg/x86_64-linux-user/float_convs
703
704will report the following::
705
706    core #, data accesses, data misses, dmiss rate, insn accesses, insn misses, imiss rate
707    0       996695         508             0.0510%  2642799        18617           0.7044%
708
709    address, data misses, instruction
710    0x424f1e (_int_malloc), 109, movq %rax, 8(%rcx)
711    0x41f395 (_IO_default_xsputn), 49, movb %dl, (%rdi, %rax)
712    0x42584d (ptmalloc_init.part.0), 33, movaps %xmm0, (%rax)
713    0x454d48 (__tunables_init), 20, cmpb $0, (%r8)
714    ...
715
716    address, fetch misses, instruction
717    0x4160a0 (__vfprintf_internal), 744, movl $1, %ebx
718    0x41f0a0 (_IO_setb), 744, endbr64
719    0x415882 (__vfprintf_internal), 744, movq %r12, %rdi
720    0x4268a0 (__malloc), 696, andq $0xfffffffffffffff0, %rax
721    ...
722
723The plugin has a number of arguments, all of them are optional:
724
725.. list-table:: Cache modelling arguments
726  :widths: 20 80
727  :header-rows: 1
728
729  * - Option
730    - Description
731  * - limit=N
732    - Print top N icache and dcache thrashing instructions along with
733      their address, number of misses, and its disassembly. (default: 32)
734  * - icachesize=N
735      iblksize=B
736      iassoc=A
737    - Instruction cache configuration arguments. They specify the
738      cache size, block size, and associativity of the instruction
739      cache, respectively. (default: N = 16384, B = 64, A = 8)
740  * - dcachesize=N
741    - Data cache size (default: 16834)
742  * - dblksize=B
743    - Data cache block size (default: 64)
744  * - dassoc=A
745    - Data cache associativity (default: 8)
746  * - evict=POLICY
747    - Sets the eviction policy to POLICY. Available policies are:
748      ``lru``, ``fifo``, and ``rand``. The plugin will use
749      the specified policy for both instruction and data caches.
750      (default: POLICY = ``lru``)
751  * - cores=N
752    - Sets the number of cores for which we maintain separate icache
753      and dcache. (default: for linux-user, N = 1, for full system
754      emulation: N = cores available to guest)
755  * - l2=on
756    - Simulates a unified L2 cache (stores blocks for both
757      instructions and data) using the default L2 configuration (cache
758      size = 2MB, associativity = 16-way, block size = 64B).
759  * - l2cachesize=N
760    - L2 cache size (default: 2097152 (2MB)), implies ``l2=on``
761  * - l2blksize=B
762    - L2 cache block size (default: 64), implies ``l2=on``
763  * - l2assoc=A
764    - L2 cache associativity (default: 16), implies ``l2=on``
765
766Stop on Trigger
767...............
768
769``contrib/plugins/stoptrigger.c``
770
771The stoptrigger plugin allows to setup triggers to stop emulation.
772It can be used for research purposes to launch some code and precisely stop it
773and understand where its execution flow went.
774
775Two types of triggers can be configured: a count of instructions to stop at,
776or an address to stop at. Multiple triggers can be set at once.
777
778By default, QEMU will exit with return code 0. A custom return code can be
779configured for each trigger using ``:CODE`` syntax.
780
781For example, to stop at the 20-th instruction with return code 41, at address
7820xd4 with return code 0 or at address 0xd8 with return code 42::
783
784  $ qemu-system-aarch64 $(QEMU_ARGS) \
785    -plugin ./contrib/plugins/libstoptrigger.so,icount=20:41,addr=0xd4,addr=0xd8:42 -d plugin
786
787The plugin will log the reason of exit, for example::
788
789  0xd4 reached, exiting
790
791Limit instructions per second
792.............................
793
794This plugin can limit the number of Instructions Per Second that are executed::
795
796    # get number of instructions
797    $ num_insn=$(./build/qemu-x86_64 -plugin ./build/tests/plugin/libinsn.so -d plugin /bin/true |& grep total | sed -e 's/.*: //')
798    # limit speed to execute in 10 seconds
799    $ time ./build/qemu-x86_64 -plugin ./build/contrib/plugins/libips.so,ips=$(($num_insn/10)) /bin/true
800    real 10.000s
801
802
803.. list-table:: IPS arguments
804  :widths: 20 80
805  :header-rows: 1
806
807  * - Option
808    - Description
809  * - ips=N
810    - Maximum number of instructions per cpu that can be executed in one second.
811      The plugin will sleep when the given number of instructions is reached.
812
813Other emulation features
814------------------------
815
816When running system emulation you can also enable deterministic
817execution which allows for repeatable record/replay debugging. See
818:ref:`Record/Replay<replay>` for more details.
819