I’m trying to implement WPP tracing in an existing driver. So far, I’m not
impressed. I’ve gotten a driver set up to emit trace messages under a
specific guid. But the tools (trace*.exe) seem really unpolished – poor
error handling, hard-coded filenames, etc. Are these just SDK samples? Are
the APIs that they use exposed, or am I stuck with these tools?
I’m all for using an anointed tracing facility for drivers, but not if it
sucks. What have your experiences been with using WPP? Is it worth the
initial pain? Stable? Worth the pain? It most certainly is not easy to
use.
Also, are message description files available for any OS components?
Enabling kernel tracing yields a lot of data, and I suspect some of it is
related to the activities of my driver. But if I can’t interpret the data,
it’s worthless.
– arlie
First have you tried TraceView? It is pretty easy to use and will handle
the OS messages. Look under tools in the latest DDK.
The user space API’s that the tools use are documented, and the platform SDK
includes sources of sample versions of the tools (tracelog & tracefmt).
I would recomend you check out the NT Insider articles on WPP tracing
(available at http://www.oseronline.com ) since they have a number of
helpful hints.
–
Don Burn (MVP, Windows DDK)
Windows 2k/XP/2k3 Filesystem and Driver Consulting
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“Arlie Davis” wrote in message
news:xxxxx@ntdev…
> I’m trying to implement WPP tracing in an existing driver. So far, I’m
> not
> impressed. I’ve gotten a driver set up to emit trace messages under a
> specific guid. But the tools (trace*.exe) seem really unpolished – poor
> error handling, hard-coded filenames, etc. Are these just SDK samples?
> Are
> the APIs that they use exposed, or am I stuck with these tools?
>
> I’m all for using an anointed tracing facility for drivers, but not if it
> sucks. What have your experiences been with using WPP? Is it worth the
> initial pain? Stable? Worth the pain? It most certainly is not easy to
> use.
>
> Also, are message description files available for any OS components?
> Enabling kernel tracing yields a lot of data, and I suspect some of it is
> related to the activities of my driver. But if I can’t interpret the
> data,
> it’s worthless.
>
> – arlie
>
>
>
>
I’m using it for the first time in my current driver work. I find it …
acceptable but a royal pain in the ass to get started the first time. Lots
and lots and lots and lots of busy work to find out you have lots and lots
of busy work left to do. Once you get it going though, and can see the
output in your debugger window it ain’t bad.
One thing I’m trying to do and have not had time to knock down is to modify
the makefile.inc to build the TMF files at the end of a build.
–
Gary G. Little
“Arlie Davis” wrote in message
news:xxxxx@ntdev…
> I’m trying to implement WPP tracing in an existing driver. So far, I’m
> not
> impressed. I’ve gotten a driver set up to emit trace messages under a
> specific guid. But the tools (trace*.exe) seem really unpolished – poor
> error handling, hard-coded filenames, etc. Are these just SDK samples?
> Are
> the APIs that they use exposed, or am I stuck with these tools?
>
> I’m all for using an anointed tracing facility for drivers, but not if it
> sucks. What have your experiences been with using WPP? Is it worth the
> initial pain? Stable? Worth the pain? It most certainly is not easy to
> use.
>
> Also, are message description files available for any OS components?
> Enabling kernel tracing yields a lot of data, and I suspect some of it is
> related to the activities of my driver. But if I can’t interpret the
> data,
> it’s worthless.
>
> – arlie
>
>
>
>