dlt-daemon

DLT Offline Logstorage

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Introduction to DLT Offline Logstorage

Logstorage is a mechanism to store DLT logs on the target system or an external device (e.g. USB stick) connected to the target. It can be seen as an improvement of the Offline Trace functionality which is already part of DLT.

Logstorage provides the following features:

Configuration

General Configuration

General configuration is done inside dlt.conf. The following configuration options exist:

##############################################################################
# Offline logstorage                                                         #
##############################################################################
# Store DLT log messages, if not set offline logstorage is off (Default: off)
# Maximum devices to be used as offline logstorage devices
# OfflineLogstorageMaxDevices = 1

# Path to store DLT offline log storage messages (Default: off)
# OfflineLogstorageDirPath = /opt

# File options
# Appends timestamp in log file name, Disable by setting to 0 (Default: 1)
# OfflineLogstorageTimestamp = 0

# Appends delimiter in log file name, allowed punctutations only (Default: _)
# OfflineLogstorageDelimiter = _

# Wrap around value for log file count in file name (Default: UINT_MAX)
# OfflineLogstorageMaxCounter = 999

# Don't append counter for NOFiles=1 (Default: 0)
# OfflineLogstorageOptionalIndex = 1

# Maximal used memory for Logstorage Cache in KB (Default: 30000 KB)
# OfflineLogstorageCacheSize = 30000

Configuration file format

For DLT daemon to store logs the configuration file named “dlt_logstorage.conf” should be present in external storage or internal storage device (= given path in the file system).

[Filter<unique number>]              # filter configration name
LogAppName=<APID>                    # Name of application to store logs from. Multiple applications can be separated by "," and ".*" denotes all applications
ContextName=<CTID>                   # Name or names of contexts to store logs from. Multiple contexts can be separated by "," and ".*" denotes all contexts of the application
LogLevel=<Log level>                 # Define log level, e.g. DLT_LOG_INFO or DLT_LOG_FATAL
File=<file name>                     # Base name of the created files that containing the logs, e.g. "example". For further file naming scheme configurations see man dlt.conf
FileSize=<file size in bytes>        # Maximum file size in bytes
NOFiles=<number of files>            # Number of created files before oldest is deleted and a new one is created
SyncBehavior=<strategy>              # Specify sync strategy. Default: Sync'ed after every message. See Logstorage Ringbuffer Implementation below.
EcuID=<ECUid>                        # Specify ECU identifier
SpecificSize=<spec size in bytes>    # Store logs in storage devices after specific size is reached.
GzipCompression=<ON/OFF>             # Write the logfiles with gzip compression.
OverwriteBehavior=<strategy>         # Specify overwrite strategy. Default: Delete oldest file and continue. See Logstorage Ringbuffer Implementation below.
DisableNetwork=<ON/OFF>              # Specify if the message shall be routed to network client.

The Parameters “SyncBehavior”, “GzipCompression”, “OverwriteBehavior”, “DisableNetwork”, “EcuID” and “SpecificSize” are optional - all others are mandatory.

If both of the parameter “LogAppName” and “ContextName” are set to wildcard or not present in the configuration file, “EcuID” must be specified.

A typical configuration file may look like:

[FILTER1]
LogAppName=APP1
ContextName=CON1,CON2
LogLevel=DLT_LOG_INFO
File=App
FileSize=10000
NOFiles=10

[FILTER2]
LogAppName=TEST
ContextName=.*
LogLevel=DLT_LOG_ERROR
File=Test
FileSize=250000
NOFiles=5
EcuID=ECU1
SyncBehavior=ON_SPECIFIC_SIZE
SpecificSize=5000
GzipCompression=on

[FILTER3]
LogAppName=TEST
ContextName=.*
LogLevel=DLT_LOG_ERROR
File=Test
FileSize=250000
NOFiles=5
SyncBehavior=ON_FILE_SIZE,ON_DEMAND
EcuID=ECU1

[FILTER4]
LogAppName=APP2
ContextName=.*
LogLevel=DLT_LOG_INFO
File=App2
FileSize=10000
NOFiles=5
SyncBehavior=ON_FILE_SIZE
EcuID=ECU1
OverwriteBehavior=DISCARD_NEW
DisableNetwork=ON

In case of Non-Verbose mode, following filters should be used.

[NON-VERBOSE-STORAGE-FILTER<unique number>]    # filter configuration name for a Non-Verbose passive node
EcuID=<ECUid>                                  # Specify ECU identifier
File=<file name>                               # Base name of the created files that containing the logs, e.g. "example". For further file naming scheme configurations see man dlt.conf
FileSize=<file size in bytes>                  # Maximum file size in bytes
NOFiles=<number of files>                      # Number of created files before oldest is deleted and a new one is created
GzipCompression=on                             # Compress the log files

[NON-VERBOSE-LOGLEVEL-CTRL<unique number>]     # filter configuration name to control log level of Non-Verbose applications
LogAppName=<APID>                              # Name of application (wildcard allowed)
ContextName=<CTID>                             # Name of context (wildcard allowed)
LogLevel=<Log level>                           # Define log level, e.g. DLT_LOG_INFO or DLT_LOG_FATAL
EcuID=<ECUid>                                  # Specify ECU identifier

A typical configuration file may look like:

[NON-VERBOSE-STORAGE-FILTER1]
EcuID=PASV
File=scc
FileSize=50000
NOFiles=5

[NON-VERBOSE-LOGLEVEL-CTRL1]
LogAppName=LOG
ContextName=TEST
LogLevel=DLT_LOG_DEBUG
EcuID=PASV

[NON-VERBOSE-LOGLEVEL-CTRL2]
LogAppName=.*
ContextName=.*
LogLevel=DLT_LOG_WARN
EcuID=PASV

Usage DLT Offline Logstorage

Enable OfflineLogstorage by setting OfflineLogstorageMaxDevices = 1 in dlt.conf. Be aware that the performance of DLT may drop if multiple Logstorage devices are used; the performance depends on the write speed of the used device, too.

Create the device folder:

mkdir -p /var/dltlogs

Create a configuration file and store it on into that folder or mount an external device containing a configuration file.

Start the DLT Daemon. This is not necessary if the DLT Daemon was started already with Offline Logstorage enabled.

Trigger DLT Daemon to use the new logstorage device:

dlt-logstorage-ctrl -c 1 -p /var/dltlogs

Afterwards, logs that match the filter configuration are stored onto the Logstorage device.

dlt-logstorage-ctrl -c 0 -p /var/dltlogs

The configured logstorage device is disconnected from the DLT Daemon.

Using dlt-logstorage-ctrl application

Usage: dlt-logstorage-ctrl [options]
Send a trigger to DLT daemon to connect/disconnect a certain logstorage device

Options:
  -c         Connection type: connect = 1, disconnect = 0
  -d[prop]   Run as daemon: prop = use proprietary handler
             'prop' may be replaced by any meaningful word
  -e         Set ECU ID (Default: ECU1)
  -h         Usage
  -p         Mount point path
  -s         Sync Logstorage cache
  -t         Specify connection timeout (Default: 10s)
  -S         Send message with serial header (Default: Without serial header)
  -R         Enable resync serial header
  -v         Set verbose flag (Default:0)

Testing DLT Offline Logstorage

The following procedure can be used to test Offline Logstorage:

Example sequence can be found under tests/component/logstorage_one_file and tests/component/logstorage_multi_file.

Logstorage Ring Buffer Implementation

The DLT Logstorage is mainly used to store a configurable set of logs on an external mass storage device attached to the target. In this scenario, writing each incoming log message directly onto the external storage device is appreciate, because the storage device might be un-mounted/suddenly removed at any time. Writing each log message immediately avoids the problem of losing too many messages because the file system sync could not be finished before the device has been removed physically from the target. On the other hand the DLT Logstorage feature might be used as well to store a configurable set of logs on any internal, nonvolatile memory (e.g. FLASH storage device). Due to the reason of limited write cycles of a FLASH device the number of write cycles has to be reduced as much as possible. But the drawback of losing log messages in case of an unexpected operating system crash has to be taking into account as well. The obvious idea is to cache incoming log messages in memory and write the log data to disk based on a certain strategy. Incoming log messages are stored in a data cache with a specific size. Depending on user defined strategy, the data cache is written onto the storage device、without relying on the sync mechanism of the file system.

The following strategies are implemented:

Note :

  1. Combinations (not allowed: combinations with ON_MSG,combination of ON_FILE_SIZE with ON_SPECIFIC_SIZE)
  2. If on_demand sync strategy alone is specified, it is advised to concatenate the log files in sequential order before viewing it on viewer.
  3. In case multiple FILTERs use the same File value, it is recommened that the following settings must also have same values: NOFiles, FileSize and SpecificSize

OverwriteBehavior - What should be discarded?

The ring buffer behaviour can be modified for specific filters by changing the OverwriteBehavior.

The following strategies are implemented:

Disable network routing - What should be forwarded?

Routing to network client (e.g. DLT Viewer) can be changed by the DisableNetwork.

The following flags are implemented:

Maintain Logstorage Log Level Implementation

The log level setting of each user context in the logstorage FILTER will be treated as the highest priority. Other clients (e.g: dlt-control, dlt-viewer) can update the user context’s log level to a lower level but can not update to a higher level. In case the clients need to update the user context’s log level to a higher level, the new macro MaintainLogstorageLogLevel is implemented in the [General] session to allow changing user context’s log level to any level or maintain the log level of logstorage configuration.

A typical configuration file may look like:

  [General]
  MaintainLogstorageLogLevel=OFF

By setting MaintainLogstorageLogLevel=OFF or MaintainLogstorageLogLevel=0, the clients are able to update any log level to user contexts.

By setting MaintainLogstorageLogLevel=ON or MaintainLogstorageLogLevel=1 or not set, the logstorage will maintain its log level as the highest priority.

Logstorage Negative Filter

The DLT Logstorage also provides negative filter feature, which allows filtering unwanted Application or Context.

The following strategies are implemented:

Note :

DLT offline logstorage does not support multiple Application and multiple Context filter. The following configuration is not supported and the behavior will be undefinded:

  [FILTER1]
  ...
  LogAppName=LOG1,LOG2,LOG3
  ContextName=TEST1,TEST2,TEST3

  [FILTER2]
  ...
  ExcludedLogAppName=LOG1,LOG2,LOG3
  ExcludedContextName=TEST1,TEST2,TEST3