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1u_trace GPU Performance Tracing
2===============================
3
4Mesa has its own GPU performance tracing framework which drivers may
5choose to implement. ``gpu.renderstages.*`` producer for
6:doc:`Perfetto Tracing <perfetto>` is based on u_trace.
7
8It doesn't require external dependencies and much simpler to use. Though
9it provides information only about GPU timings and is harder to analyze
10for complex rendering.
11
12u_trace is useful when one needs to quickly identify performance bottleneck,
13or to build a tool to analyze the raw performance data.
14
15Drivers which support u_trace:
16   - Intel drivers: Anv, Iris
17   - Adreno drivers: Freedreno, Turnip
18
19Usage
20-----
21
22u_trace is controlled by environment variables:
23
24:envvar:`GPU_TRACE`
25   if set to ``1`` enables tracing and outputs the data into ``stdout``
26
27:envvar:`GPU_TRACEFILE`
28   specifies a file where to write the output instead of ``stdout``
29
30:envvar:`GPU_TRACE_FORMAT`
31   controls a format of the output
32
33   ``txt``
34      human readable text format
35   ``json``
36      json format, suitable for parsing. Application should appropriately
37      finish its rendering in order for trace's json to be valid.
38      For Vulkan api it is expected to destroy the device, for GL it is
39      expected to destroy the context.
40
41:envvar:`GPU_TRACE_INSTRUMENT`
42   Meaningful only for Perfetto tracing. If set to ``1`` enables
43   instrumentation of GPU commands before the tracing is enabled.
44
45:envvar:`*_GPU_TRACEPOINT`
46   tracepoints can be enabled or disabled using driver specific environment
47   variable. Most tracepoints are enabled by default. For instance
48   ``TU_GPU_TRACEPOINT=-blit,+render_pass`` will disable the
49   ``blit`` tracepoints and enable the ``render_pass`` tracepoints.
50
51.. list-table::
52   :header-rows: 1
53
54   * - Driver
55     - Environment Variable
56     - Tracepoint Definitions
57   * - Freedreno
58     - :envvar:`FD_GPU_TRACEPOINT`
59     - ``src/gallium/drivers/freedreno/freedreno_tracepoints.py``
60   * - Turnip
61     - :envvar:`TU_GPU_TRACEPOINT`
62     - ``src/freedreno/vulkan/tu_tracepoints.py``
63