ftrace: improve documentation

Impact: extend documentation with notice of using wild cards correctly

We know that we can use wild cards to set set_ftrace_filter, but there's
problem when using them naively such as:

   echo h* > /debug/tracing/set_ftrace_filter

If there are files named with "h" prefix in current directory,
echo "h*" will echo these filenames to set_ftrace_filter, not the
intended "h*".

For example:

  $ cat /debug/tracing/available_filter_functions |grep ^hr |wc -l
  23
  $ ls
  $ touch hraa hrdd
  $ ls
  hraa  hrdd
  $ echo hr* > /debug/tracing/set_ftrace_filter
  $ cat /debug/tracing/set_ftrace_filter

No output in /debug/tracing/set_ftrace_filter!

If we use '' to escape wild cards, it works:

  $ ls
  hraa  hrdd
  $ echo "hr*" > /debug/tracing/set_ftrace_filter
  $ cat /debug/tracing/set_ftrace_filter |wc -l
  23

This problem can lead to unexpected result if current directory has a
lot of files.

Signed-off-by: walimis <walimisdev@gmail.com>
Acked-by: Steven Rostedt <srostedt@redhat.com>
Signed-off-by: Ingo Molnar <mingo@elte.hu>

diff --git a/Documentation/ftrace.txt b/Documentation/ftrace.txt
index de05042f11b9f22fd362325cf22145880ab7152e..803b1318b13da11242a3558123d28293d3ee4378 100644 (file)
--- a/Documentation/ftrace.txt
+++ b/Documentation/ftrace.txt
@@ -1251,7 +1251,11 @@ These are the only wild cards which are supported.
 
   <match>*<match> will not work.
 
- # echo hrtimer_* > /debug/tracing/set_ftrace_filter
+Note: It is better to use quotes to enclose the wild cards, otherwise
+  the shell may expand the parameters into names of files in the local
+  directory.
+
+ # echo 'hrtimer_*' > /debug/tracing/set_ftrace_filter
 
 Produces:
 
@@ -1306,7 +1310,7 @@ Again, now we want to append.
  # echo sys_nanosleep > /debug/tracing/set_ftrace_filter
  # cat /debug/tracing/set_ftrace_filter
 sys_nanosleep
- # echo hrtimer_* >> /debug/tracing/set_ftrace_filter
+ # echo 'hrtimer_*' >> /debug/tracing/set_ftrace_filter
  # cat /debug/tracing/set_ftrace_filter
 hrtimer_run_queues
 hrtimer_run_pending