--- /dev/null
+====================
+Systemtap of Libvirt
+====================
+
+.. contents::
+
+`Systemtap <https://sourceware.org/systemtap/>`__ is a scripting
+language and tool for dynamically probing or tracing in Linux kernel
+space or user space. This page is about the usage of systemtap
+in libvirt tracing.
+
+Preparation
+===========
+
+Libvirt
+-------
+
+Libvirt should be configured with the systemtap option to support libvirt
+probing events in systemtap.
+
+For libvirt before **6.7.0**, it can be configured by:
+
+::
+
+ mkdir build
+ cd build
+ ../configure --with-dtrace
+
+For libvirt **6.7.0** or later, configure it by the ``meson`` (seeing
+`libvirt compiling <https://libvirt.org/compiling.html>`__):
+
+::
+
+ meson build -Ddtrace=enabled
+
+For the libvirt binaries installed by the package manager like ``dnf`` or
+``apt``, if libvirt systemtap tapset ``/usr/share/systemtap/tapset/libvirt_*``
+exists, it means the libvirt enables the systemtap feature.
+
+Systemtap
+---------
+
+For most of linux distributions, execute ``stap-prep`` by root to prepare the
+environment for systemtap after installing the systemtap. If your distribution
+doesn't have ``stap-prep``, install the ``kernel debuginfo`` packages manually.
+
+After these above, run this test command to confirm the systemtap works well:
+
+::
+
+ stap -e 'probe oneshot{ printf("hello world\n")}'
+
+
+Tracing events
+==============
+
+The libvirt systemtap tracing events are defined in tapset
+``/usr/share/systemtap/tapset/libvirt_*``. Libvirt support these type of tracing
+events: ``dbus``, ``event_glib``, ``object``, ``qemu``, ``rpc``.
+
+List all tracing events in libvirt:
+
+::
+
+ grep 'probe libvirt.[a-z_0-9.]*' /usr/share/systemtap/tapset/libvirt_* -o|cut -f 2 -d :
+
+
+Tracing examples
+================
+
+Here is an example of the systemtap script to trace the QMP messages sent from libvirtd
+daemon to the qemu process.
+``qmp.stp``:
+
+::
+
+ probe begin
+ {
+ printf("Start tracing\n")
+ }
+ probe libvirt.qemu.monitor_send_msg
+ {
+ printf("QMPs: %s", msg);
+ }
+
+Then run the systemtap script attaching to the libvirtd process:
+
+::
+
+ stap qmp.stp -x `pidof libvirtd`
+
+
+To trace a libvirtd started from command line, use the option ``-c``
+
+::
+
+ stap qmp.stp -c "/usr/sbin/libvirtd"
+
+
+Then after seeing the welcome message "Start tracing" from systemtap, then execute a virsh
+command associated with QMP, for example ``virsh domstats``. Then get the QMP tracing logs
+from systemtap. For example, the result from ``virsh domstats``
+
+::
+
+ QMPs: {"execute":"query-balloon","id":"libvirt-393"}
+ QMPs: {"execute":"qom-get","arguments":{"path":"/machine/peripheral/balloon0","property":"guest-stats"},"id":"libvirt-394"}
+ QMPs: {"execute":"query-blockstats","id":"libvirt-395"}
+ QMPs: {"execute":"query-named-block-nodes","id":"libvirt-396"}
+ QMPs: {"execute":"query-iothreads","id":"libvirt-397"}
+
+For more examples of libvirt systemtap scripts, see the scripts in ``/usr/share/doc/libvirt-docs/examples/systemtap``
+For more details of systemtap language, see `document of systemtap <https://sourceware.org/systemtap/documentation.html>`__