# BTrace Tutorial (BTrace 2.2.6)

## 1. Hello World

Accustoms the learner to 'btrace' command and the way it is used.
Demonstrates the BTrace ability to instrument a class.

### Setup

#### HelloWorld Class

```java
package extra;

public abstract class HelloWorld extends HelloWorldBase {
    protected int field = 0;

    public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
        System.out.println("ready when you are ...");
        System.in.read();

        callA();
    }

    private static void callA() {
        HelloWorld instance = new HelloWorldExt();
        long x = System.nanoTime();
        instance.callA("hello", 13);
        System.out.println("dur = " + (System.nanoTime() - x));
    }

    private void callA(String a, int b) {
        field++;
        callB(callC(a, b));
        field--;
    }

    private void callB(String s) {
        field++;
        System.out.println("You want " + s);
        field--;
    }

    protected abstract String callC(String a, int b);
}

final class HelloWorldExt extends HelloWorld {
    @Override
    protected String callC(String a, int b) {
        try {
            field++;
            String s = a + "-" + b;
            for (int i = 0; i < 100; i++) {
                s = callD(s);
            }
            return s;
        } finally {
            field--;
        }
    }
}

abstract class HelloWorldBase {
    protected final String callD(String s) {
        return "# " + s;
    }
}
```

### Steps

1. Run the HelloWorld application
2. Get the HelloWorld application PID via `jps` command
3. Run `btrace <PID> <HelloWorldTrace.java>`
4. Proceed with the HelloWorld application
5. Watch messages being printed

You will repeat these steps while gradually enhancing the used BTrace script

### Lessons

#### Lesson 1 - Launching BTrace

##### Using `btrace` client to attach to a running JVM

`btrace [opts] <pid> <btrace-script> [<args>]`

* **opts** BTrace specific options; use `btrace -h` to obtain the list of all supported options
* **pid** process id of the traced Java program
* **btrace-script** trace program. If it is a ".java", then it is compiled before submission. Or else, it is assumed to be pre-compiled [i.e., it has to be a .class] and submitted.
* **args** trace specific arguments

Once you are attached to the target JVM you can press Ctrl-C in the terminal to show the BTrace console. From there you can either detach and exit or send an event (handled by the __@OnEvent__ annotated methods in the trace program).

##### Starting a Java application with BTrace agent

###### Directly

`java -javaagent:btrace-agent.jar=[<agent-arg>[,<agent-arg>]*]? <launch-args>`

The agent takes a list of comma separated arguments.

* **noServer** - don't start the socket server
* **bootClassPath** - boot classpath to be used
* **systemClassPath** - system classpath to be used
* **debug** - turns on verbose debug messages (true/false)
* **trusted** - do not check for btrace restrictions violations (true/false)
* **dumpClasses** - dump the transformed bytecode to files (true/false)
* **dumpDir** - specifies the folder where the transformed classes will be dumped to
* **stdout** - redirect the btrace output to stdout instead of writing it to an arbitrary file (true/false)
* **probeDescPath** - the path to search for probe descriptor XMLs
* **startupRetransform** - enable retransform of all the loaded classes at attach (true/false)
* **scriptdir** - the path to a directory containing scripts to be run at the agent startup
* **scriptOutputFile** - the path to a file the btrace agent will store its output
* **script** - colon separated list of tracing scripts to be run at the agent startup

The scripts to be run must have already been compiled to bytecode (a *.class* file) by __btracec__.

###### Using `btracer'

`btracer [opts] <pre-compiled-btrace.class> <vm-arg> <application-args>`

* **opts** BTrace specific options; use `btracer -h` to obtain the list of all supported options
* **pre-compiled-btrace.class** the trace script compiled to bytecode via __btracec__
* **vm-args** the VM arguments; eg. `-cp app.jar Main.class` or `-jar app.jar`
* **application-args** the application specific arguments

You can use __btracer__ to launch java application from jar (`btracer ... -jar app.jar <application args>`) or a main class (`btracer ... -cp <class_path> <main class> <application args>`)

##### Compiling trace scripts

This needs to be done in order to launch the Java application with BTrace agent.

`btracec [-cp <classpath>] [-d <directory>] <one-or-more-BTrace-.java-files>`

* **classpath** is the classpath used for compiling BTrace program(s). Default is "."
* **directory** is the output directory where compiled .class files are stored. Default is ".".

Rather than regular *javac* the BTrace compiler is used - causing the script to be validated at compile time and prevent reporting verify errors at runtime.

##### Inspecting the compiled trace scripts

BTrace compiler will, by default, create a binary trace representation which packages the trace class file together with some metadata designed to make the
trace loading and application faster. These packages are not directly readable by tools like `javap` and one must use `btracep` instead.
The syntax is straightforward - `./btracep <binary trace file>`. The tool will print out
* trace name
* verification status (trusted or not)
* transformation status (will cause class retransformation or not)
* all probe handlers (all `@OnProbe`, `@OnTimer` etc. definitions)
* ASM-ified version of the associated "data holder" class - the class contains the information that needs to be globally accessible from instrumented code

#### Lesson 2 - Tracing methods

This is the main purpose of BTrace - inject a custom code to custom locations to give the insights about the internal state and dynamics of the application.

1. Getting just the information that any method is being executed
```java
package helloworld;
import ...;

@BTrace
public class HelloWorldTrace {
    @OnMethod(clazz="extra.HelloWorld", method="/.*/")
    public static void onMethod() {
        println("Hello from method");
    }
}
```

2. Get the method names
```java
package helloworld;
import ...;

@BTrace 
public class HelloWorldTrace {
    @OnMethod(clazz="extra.HelloWorld")
    public static void onMethod(@ProbeMethodName String pmn) {
        println("Hello from method " + pmn);
    }
}
```

3. Intercept only a particular method
```java
package helloworld;
import ...;

@BTrace
public class HelloWorldTrace {
    @OnMethod(clazz="extra.HelloWorld", method="callA")
    public static void onMethod(@ProbeMethodName String pmn) {
        println("Hello from method " + pmn);
    }
}
```

4. Intercept only a particular method with name matching the handler name
```java
package helloworld;
import ...;

@BTrace
public class HelloWorldTrace {
    @OnMethod(clazz="extra.HelloWorld", method="#")
    public static void callA(@ProbeMethodName String pmn) {
        println("Hello from method " + pmn);
    }
}
```

5. Intercept methods with names matching certain patterns
__Note:__ you can use pattern matching for the class names, too

```java
package helloworld;
import ...;

@BTrace
public class HelloWorldTrace {
    @OnMethod(clazz="extra.HelloWorld", method="/call.*/")
    public static void onMethod(@ProbeMethodName String pmn) {
        println("Hello from method " + pmn);
    }
}
```

6. Intercept methods with names matching certain patterns and inspect their parameters

```java
package helloworld;
import ...;

@BTrace
public class HelloWorldTrace {
    @OnMethod(clazz="extra.HelloWorld", method="/call.*/")
    public static void onMethod(@ProbeMethodName String pmn, AnyType[] args) {
        println("Hello from method " + pmn);
        println("Received the following parameters:");
        printArray(args);
    }
}
```

7. Intercept method with names matching certain patterns and discover their signatures
```java
package helloworld;
import ...;

@BTrace
public class HelloWorldTrace {
    @OnMethod(clazz="extra.HelloWorld", method="/call.*/")
    public static void onMethod(@ProbeMethodName(fqn = true) String pmn) {
        println("Hello from method " + pmn);
    }
}
```

8. Intercept methods for all subclasses and implementations of a certain class/interface

__Note:__ 'extra.HelloWorldBase.callD()' doesn't show up - it is defined in the superclass of 'extra.HelloWorld' and therefore not intercepted.

```java
package helloworld;
import ...;

@BTrace
public class HelloWorldTrace {
    @OnMethod(clazz="+extra.HelloWorld", method="/call.*/")
    public static void onMethod(@ProbeMethodName(fqn = true) String pmn) {
        println("Hello from method " + pmn);
    }
}
```

9. Intercept method with a particular name and signature + capture the method arguments (you need to use the information learned in the previous step)

__Note:__ The order of the un-annotated parameters must correspond to the order of the traced method parameters. Annotated parameters may be placed anywhere.

```java
package helloworld;
import ...;

@BTrace
public class HelloWorldTrace {
    @OnMethod(clazz="extra.HelloWorldExt", method="callC")
    public static void onMethod(@ProbeMethodName String pmn, String param1, int param2) {
        println("Hello from method " + pmn);
        println("Arguments: param1 = " + str(param1) + ", param2 = " + str(param2));
    }
}
```

10. Intercept method with a particular name and signature but don't capture the method arguments. Here you will need to decifer the VM method signature to get java like method signature. See the @OnMethod.type() javadoc for the java like signature format.

Eg. having the VM method signature in form of (Ljava/lang/String;I)V will translate to "void (java.lang.String, int)"

__Note:__ We are using overloaded method here and specifying the signature helps BTrace determine which method should be instrumented

```java
package helloworld;
import ...;

@BTrace
public class HelloWorldTrace {
    @OnMethod(clazz="extra.HelloWorld", method="callA", type="void (java.lang.String, int)")
    public static void onMethod(@ProbeMethodName(fqn = true) String pmn) {
        println("Hello from method " + pmn);
    }
}
```

11. Intercept method with a particular name and capture its return value
`location=@Location(Kind.RETURN)` sets up the instrumentation to be inserted just before the method exits

```java
package helloworld;
import ...;

@BTrace
public class HelloWorldTrace {
    @OnMethod(clazz="extra.HelloWorld", method="callC", location=@Location(Kind.RETURN))
    public static void onMethod(@ProbeMethodName(fqn = true) String pmn, @Return String ret) {
        println("Hello from method " + pmn + "; returning " + ret);
    }
}
```

12. Inspect the content of an instance variable in the method declaring class

```java
package helloworld;
import ...;

@BTrace
public class HelloWorldTrace {
    @OnMethod(clazz="extra.HelloWorld", method="/call.*/", location=@Location(Kind.RETURN))
    public static void onMethod(@ProbeMethodName(fqn = true) String pmn, @Self Object thiz) {
        println("Hello from method " + pmn);
        println("field = " + str(getInt("field", thiz)));
    }
}
```

Or retrieve the `java.lang.Field` instance first and perform a check before trying to retrieve the field value.

```java
package helloworld;
import java.lang.Class;
import java.lang.reflect.Field;
import ...;

@BTrace
public class HelloWorldTrace {
    @OnMethod(clazz="extra.HelloWorld", method="/call.*/", location=@Location(Kind.RETURN))
    public static void onMethod(@ProbeMethodName(fqn = true) String pmn, @Self Object thiz) {
        Class myClz = classOf(thiz);
        Field fld = field(myClz, "field", false);
        println("Hello from method " + pmn);
        if (fld != null) {
           println("field = " + str(getInt(fld, thiz)));
        }
    }
}
```

13. Get the method execution duration

__Note:__ Need to use @Location(Kind.RETURN) to be able to capture the execution duration

```java
package helloworld;
import ...;

@BTrace
public class HelloWorldTrace {
    @OnMethod(clazz="extra.HelloWorld", method="/call.*/", location=@Location(Kind.RETURN))
    public static void onMethod(@ProbeMethodName(fqn = true) String pmn, @Duration long dur) {
        println("Hello from method " + pmn);
        println("It took " + str(dur) + "ns to execute this method");
    }
}
```

14. Tracing methods invoked from inside a particular method

__Note:__ 'class', 'method' etc. directly in the @OnMethod annotation will determine where we should look for the invocation of the methods defined by 'class', 'method' etc. parameters in the @Location annotation.

__Note:__ @ProbeMethodName and @ProbeClassName refer to the context method and class; @TargetMethodOrField refers to the traced method invocation

__Note:__ You can use the 'type' annotation parameter in @OnMethod annotation to restrict the context methods and in @Location to restrict the traced method invocations

```java
package helloworld;
import ...;

@BTrace
public class HelloWorldTrace {
    @OnMethod(clazz="extra.HelloWorld", method="callA",
              location=@Location(
                    value = Kind.CALL,
                    clazz = "extra.HelloWorld",
                    method = "/call.*/",
                    where = Where.BEFORE)
    )
    public static void onMethod(@ProbeMethodName(fqn = true) String pmn, @TargetMethodOrField(fqn = true) String tpmn) {
        println("Hello from method " + pmn);
        println("Going to invoke method " + tpmn);
    }
}
```

15. Measuring the duration of methods invoked from inside a particular method

```java
package helloworld;
import ...;

@BTrace
public class HelloWorldTrace {
    @OnMethod(clazz="extra.HelloWorld", method="callA",
              location=@Location(
                    value = Kind.CALL,
                    clazz = "extra.HelloWorld",
                    method = "/call.*/",
                    where = Where.AFTER)
    )
    public static void onMethod(@ProbeMethodName(fqn = true) String pmn, @TargetMethodOrField(fqn = true) String tpmn, @Duration long dur) {
        println("Hello from method " + pmn);
        println("Executing " + tpmn + " took " + dur + "ns");
    }
}
```

16. Tracing methods invoked from inside a particular method and capturing their parameters

__Note:__ The captured parameters pertain to the invoked method rather than the context method

__Note:__ The @Self annotated parameter captures the context instance and @TargetInstance annotated parameter captures the instance the method is invoked on

```java
package helloworld;
import ...;

@BTrace
public class HelloWorldTrace {
    @OnMethod(clazz="extra.HelloWorld", method="callA",
              location=@Location(
                    value = Kind.CALL,
                    clazz = "extra.HelloWorld",
                    method = "/call.*/",
                    where = Where.BEFORE)
    )
    public static void onMethod(@ProbeMethodName(fqn = true) String pmn, @TargetMethodOrField(fqn = true) String tpmn,
                                @Self Object thiz, @TargetInstance Object tgt, String a, int b) {
        println("Hello from method " + pmn);
        println("Going to invoke method " + tpmn);
        println("context = " + str(classOf(thiz)) + ", target = " + str(classOf(tgt)));
        println("a = " + a + ", b = " + str(b));
    }
}
```

#### Lesson 3 - Global callbacks

Global callbacks are not directly related to the tracing code injection but they allow us to observe the global state and act correspondingly.

#### __@OnExit__

Called when the traced application is about to exit. Allows to capture the exit code.

__Note:__ The signature of the handler method __MUST__ be 'void (int)'

```java
package helloworld;
import ...;

@BTrace
public class HelloWorldTrace {
    @OnExit
    public static void onexit(int code) {
        println("Application exitting with " + code);
    }
}
```

#### __@OnError__

Called whenever an exception is thrown from anywhere in the BTrace handlers.

__Note:__ The signature of the handler method __MUST__ be 'void (java.lang.Throwable)'

```java
package helloworld;
import ...;

@BTrace
public class HelloWorldTrace {
    @OnError
    public static void onerror(Throwable t) {
        println("Encountered internal error " + str(t));
    }
}
```

#### __@OnTimer__

Allows to register a handler to be invoked periodically at defined intervals.

__Note:__ The annotation parameter takes the interval value in milliseconds

__Note:__ The signature of the handler method __MUST__ be 'void ()'

```java
package helloworld;
import ...;

@BTrace
public class HelloWorldTrace {
    @OnTimer(1000)
    public static void ontimer() {
        println("tick ...");
    }
}
```

#### __@OnEvent__

Used to raise events from external clients (eg. the command line client). The annotation takes a String parameter which is the event name. When not provided the event is considered to be 'unnamed'.

```java
package helloworld;
import ...;

@BTrace
public class HelloWorldTrace {
    @OnEvent
    public static void unnamed() {
        println("Received unnamed event");
    }
}
```
or

```java
package helloworld;
import ...;

@BTrace
public class HelloWorldTrace {
    @OnEvent("myEvent")
    public static void myevent() {
        println("Received my event");
    }
}
```

#### Lesson 4 - Sampling

Tracing many methods being executed frequently can bring a significant overhead to the traced application. And often we are not really interested in the high detail data - an aggregated view would do just fine.

Therefore it is possible to employ statistical sampling to reduce the amount of collected data and related overhead while still providing relevant information about the application behaviour.

The sampling implementation in BTrace guarantees that at least one invocation of a traced method will be recorded, no matter what the sampling settings are.

1. Intercept only each 10th invocation on average

__Note:__ Even though the 'callD' method is executed 100 times we will get only ~10 hits - as dictated by the 'mean' parameter.

```java
package helloworld;
import ...;

@BTrace
public class HelloWorldTrace {
    private static int cntr = 1;
    @Sampled(kind = Sampled.Sampler.Const, mean = 10)
    @OnMethod(clazz="/extra\\.HelloWorld.*/", method="callD")
    public static void onMethod(@ProbeMethodName(fqn = true) String pmn) {
        println("Hello from method " + pmn + " : " + (cntr++));
    }
}
```

2. Let the sampler mean parameter be adjusted dynamically by keeping to the overhead target

__Note:__ In this case the 'mean' parameter actually specifies the lowest number of nanoseconds the average interval between interceptions should be

__Note:__ Because the adaptive sampling needs to collect timestamps in order to maintain the overhead target the lowest value for the 'mean' parameter is 180 (cca. 60ns for getting start/stop timestamp pair multiplied by the safety margin of 3) 

__Note:__ The 'callD' method is very short and the number of iteration is rather limited - we will most probably get only one hit here

```java
package helloworld;
import ...;

@BTrace
public class HelloWorldTrace {
    private static int cntr = 1;
    @Sampled(kind = Sampled.Sampler.Adaptive, mean = 50)
    @OnMethod(clazz="/extra\\.HelloWorld.*/", method="callD")
    public static void onMethod(@ProbeMethodName(fqn = true) String pmn) {
        println("Hello from method " + pmn + " : " + (cntr++));
    }
}
```

#### Lesson 5 - JFR events

Since BTrace 2.1.0 it is possible to define and use JFR dynamic events directly from the BTrace scripts. This gives immediate access to the high-performance
event recording engine built directly in JVM. Being able to observe the script defined events in the bigger context of full application/JVM is an additional
benefit when comparing to the 'standard' BTrace way of writing the information to stdout or a dedicated text file.

##### Define and use a regular JFR event

A new dynamic event type in BTrace is defined via a `JfrEvent.Factory` instance configured by `@Event` aannotation.
The annotation defines the event metadata and event fields.

###### Event Metadata

* **name** - global event name
* **label** - a pretty printed event name
* **description** - long description
* **category** - arbitrary category in 'directory' format (eg. 'Application/SQL/Updates')
* **stacktrace** - whether the event should collect stacktrace or not

###### Field definition

The `fields` argument of the `@Event` annotation defines the array of event fields where each field is defined with the help
of `@Event.Field` annotation.
The fields can only be of a supported type (Java primitives + String, Class and Thread) and don't support arrays/lists. 

###### Using the event

`BTraceUtils` has been enhanced with the following methods to support working with JFR events:
* **prepareEvent(eventFactory)** - prepares a new event using the given factory
* **begin(event)** - calls `begin()` event method to start measuring the event time span
* **end(event)** - calls `end()` event method to stop measuring the event time span
* **setEventField(event, field, value)** - sets a field value
* **commit(event)** - tries and commits the event

###### Example
```java
@BTrace public class JfrEventsProbe {
    @Event(
        name = "CustomEvent",
        label = "Custom Event",
        fields = {
            @Event.Field(type = Event.FieldType.INT, name = "a"),
            @Event.Field(type = Event.FieldType.STRING, name = "b")
        }
    )
    private static JfrEvent.Factory customEventFactory;

    @OnMethod(clazz = "/.*/", method = "/.*/")
    public static void onMethod() {
        JfrEvent event = prepareEvent(customEventFactory);
        setEventField(event, "a", 10);
        setEventField(event, "b", "hello");
        commit(event);
    }
}
```

##### Define and use a periodic JFR event

A periodic JFR event is automatically generated by JFR at a given time interval or at beginning/end of a JFR chunk.

###### Periodic event handler

A periodic event is defined by an event handler - it is a method by `@PeriodEvent` annotation, pretty much like `@OnMethod` or `@OnTimer` handlers.
Similarly to the regular events the annotation defines the event metadata and the event fields.
In addition to that the annotation defines the period which can be a time unit like `10 s` or `100 ms` or it can be one of
`everyChunk`, `beginChunk` or `endChunk`.

The handler method takes one parameter of `JfrEvent` type. The value of this parameter can be used in the `BTraceUtils` JFR
specific methods.


###### Example
```java
@BTrace public class JfrEventsProbe {
    @PeriodicEvent(name = "PeriodicEvent", fields = @Event.Field(type = Event.FieldType.INT, name = "ts", kind = @Event.Field.Kind(name = Event.FieldKind.TIMESTAMP)), period = "1 s")
    public static void onPeriod(JfrEvent event) {
        if (shouldCommit(event)) {
            setEventField(event, "ts", 1);
            commit(event);
        }
    }
}
```