3 The name "usbmon" in lowercase refers to a facility in kernel which is
4 used to collect traces of I/O on the USB bus. This function is analogous
5 to a packet socket used by network monitoring tools such as tcpdump(1)
6 or Ethereal. Similarly, it is expected that a tool such as usbdump or
7 USBMon (with uppercase letters) is used to examine raw traces produced
10 The usbmon reports requests made by peripheral-specific drivers to Host
11 Controller Drivers (HCD). So, if HCD is buggy, the traces reported by
12 usbmon may not correspond to bus transactions precisely. This is the same
13 situation as with tcpdump.
15 Two APIs are currently implemented: "text" and "binary". The binary API
16 is available through a character device in /dev namespace and is an ABI.
17 The text API is deprecated since 2.6.35, but available for convenience.
19 * How to use usbmon to collect raw text traces
21 Unlike the packet socket, usbmon has an interface which provides traces
22 in a text format. This is used for two purposes. First, it serves as a
23 common trace exchange format for tools while more sophisticated formats
24 are finalized. Second, humans can read it in case tools are not available.
26 To collect a raw text trace, execute following steps.
30 Mount debugfs (it has to be enabled in your kernel configuration), and
31 load the usbmon module (if built as module). The second step is skipped
32 if usbmon is built into the kernel.
34 # mount -t debugfs none_debugs /sys/kernel/debug
38 Verify that bus sockets are present.
40 # ls /sys/kernel/debug/usb/usbmon
41 0s 0u 1s 1t 1u 2s 2t 2u 3s 3t 3u 4s 4t 4u
44 Now you can choose to either use the socket '0u' (to capture packets on all
45 buses), and skip to step #3, or find the bus used by your device with step #2.
46 This allows to filter away annoying devices that talk continuously.
48 2. Find which bus connects to the desired device
50 Run "cat /sys/kernel/debug/usb/devices", and find the T-line which corresponds
51 to the device. Usually you do it by looking for the vendor string. If you have
52 many similar devices, unplug one and compare the two
53 /sys/kernel/debug/usb/devices outputs. The T-line will have a bus number.
56 T: Bus=03 Lev=01 Prnt=01 Port=00 Cnt=01 Dev#= 2 Spd=12 MxCh= 0
57 D: Ver= 1.10 Cls=00(>ifc ) Sub=00 Prot=00 MxPS= 8 #Cfgs= 1
58 P: Vendor=0557 ProdID=2004 Rev= 1.00
60 S: Product=UC100KM V2.00
62 "Bus=03" means it's bus 3. Alternatively, you can look at the output from
63 "lsusb" and get the bus number from the appropriate line. Example:
65 Bus 003 Device 002: ID 0557:2004 ATEN UC100KM V2.00
69 # cat /sys/kernel/debug/usb/usbmon/3u > /tmp/1.mon.out
71 to listen on a single bus, otherwise, to listen on all buses, type:
73 # cat /sys/kernel/debug/usb/usbmon/0u > /tmp/1.mon.out
75 This process will be reading until killed. Naturally, the output can be
76 redirected to a desirable location. This is preferred, because it is going
79 4. Perform the desired operation on the USB bus
81 This is where you do something that creates the traffic: plug in a flash key,
82 copy files, control a webcam, etc.
86 Usually it's done with a keyboard interrupt (Control-C).
88 At this point the output file (/tmp/1.mon.out in this example) can be saved,
89 sent by e-mail, or inspected with a text editor. In the last case make sure
90 that the file size is not excessive for your favourite editor.
92 * Raw text data format
94 Two formats are supported currently: the original, or '1t' format, and
95 the '1u' format. The '1t' format is deprecated in kernel 2.6.21. The '1u'
96 format adds a few fields, such as ISO frame descriptors, interval, etc.
97 It produces slightly longer lines, but otherwise is a perfect superset
100 If it is desired to recognize one from the other in a program, look at the
101 "address" word (see below), where '1u' format adds a bus number. If 2 colons
102 are present, it's the '1t' format, otherwise '1u'.
104 Any text format data consists of a stream of events, such as URB submission,
105 URB callback, submission error. Every event is a text line, which consists
106 of whitespace separated words. The number or position of words may depend
107 on the event type, but there is a set of words, common for all types.
109 Here is the list of words, from left to right:
111 - URB Tag. This is used to identify URBs, and is normally an in-kernel address
112 of the URB structure in hexadecimal, but can be a sequence number or any
113 other unique string, within reason.
115 - Timestamp in microseconds, a decimal number. The timestamp's resolution
116 depends on available clock, and so it can be much worse than a microsecond
117 (if the implementation uses jiffies, for example).
119 - Event Type. This type refers to the format of the event, not URB type.
120 Available types are: S - submission, C - callback, E - submission error.
122 - "Address" word (formerly a "pipe"). It consists of four fields, separated by
123 colons: URB type and direction, Bus number, Device address, Endpoint number.
124 Type and direction are encoded with two bytes in the following manner:
125 Ci Co Control input and output
126 Zi Zo Isochronous input and output
127 Ii Io Interrupt input and output
128 Bi Bo Bulk input and output
129 Bus number, Device address, and Endpoint are decimal numbers, but they may
130 have leading zeros, for the sake of human readers.
132 - URB Status word. This is either a letter, or several numbers separated
133 by colons: URB status, interval, start frame, and error count. Unlike the
134 "address" word, all fields save the status are optional. Interval is printed
135 only for interrupt and isochronous URBs. Start frame is printed only for
136 isochronous URBs. Error count is printed only for isochronous callback
139 The status field is a decimal number, sometimes negative, which represents
140 a "status" field of the URB. This field makes no sense for submissions, but
141 is present anyway to help scripts with parsing. When an error occurs, the
142 field contains the error code.
144 In case of a submission of a Control packet, this field contains a Setup Tag
145 instead of an group of numbers. It is easy to tell whether the Setup Tag is
146 present because it is never a number. Thus if scripts find a set of numbers
147 in this word, they proceed to read Data Length (except for isochronous URBs).
148 If they find something else, like a letter, they read the setup packet before
149 reading the Data Length or isochronous descriptors.
151 - Setup packet, if present, consists of 5 words: one of each for bmRequestType,
152 bRequest, wValue, wIndex, wLength, as specified by the USB Specification 2.0.
153 These words are safe to decode if Setup Tag was 's'. Otherwise, the setup
154 packet was present, but not captured, and the fields contain filler.
156 - Number of isochronous frame descriptors and descriptors themselves.
157 If an Isochronous transfer event has a set of descriptors, a total number
158 of them in an URB is printed first, then a word per descriptor, up to a
159 total of 5. The word consists of 3 colon-separated decimal numbers for
160 status, offset, and length respectively. For submissions, initial length
161 is reported. For callbacks, actual length is reported.
163 - Data Length. For submissions, this is the requested length. For callbacks,
164 this is the actual length.
166 - Data tag. The usbmon may not always capture data, even if length is nonzero.
167 The data words are present only if this tag is '='.
169 - Data words follow, in big endian hexadecimal format. Notice that they are
170 not machine words, but really just a byte stream split into words to make
171 it easier to read. Thus, the last word may contain from one to four bytes.
172 The length of collected data is limited and can be less than the data length
173 reported in the Data Length word. In the case of an Isochronous input (Zi)
174 completion where the received data is sparse in the buffer, the length of
175 the collected data can be greater than the Data Length value (because Data
176 Length counts only the bytes that were received whereas the Data words
177 contain the entire transfer buffer).
181 An input control transfer to get a port status.
183 d5ea89a0 3575914555 S Ci:1:001:0 s a3 00 0000 0003 0004 4 <
184 d5ea89a0 3575914560 C Ci:1:001:0 0 4 = 01050000
186 An output bulk transfer to send a SCSI command 0x5E in a 31-byte Bulk wrapper
187 to a storage device at address 5:
189 dd65f0e8 4128379752 S Bo:1:005:2 -115 31 = 55534243 5e000000 00000000 00000600 00000000 00000000 00000000 000000
190 dd65f0e8 4128379808 C Bo:1:005:2 0 31 >
192 * Raw binary format and API
194 The overall architecture of the API is about the same as the one above,
195 only the events are delivered in binary format. Each event is sent in
196 the following structure (its name is made up, so that we can refer to it):
198 struct usbmon_packet {
199 u64 id; /* 0: URB ID - from submission to callback */
200 unsigned char type; /* 8: Same as text; extensible. */
201 unsigned char xfer_type; /* ISO (0), Intr, Control, Bulk (3) */
202 unsigned char epnum; /* Endpoint number and transfer direction */
203 unsigned char devnum; /* Device address */
204 u16 busnum; /* 12: Bus number */
205 char flag_setup; /* 14: Same as text */
206 char flag_data; /* 15: Same as text; Binary zero is OK. */
207 s64 ts_sec; /* 16: gettimeofday */
208 s32 ts_usec; /* 24: gettimeofday */
209 int status; /* 28: */
210 unsigned int length; /* 32: Length of data (submitted or actual) */
211 unsigned int len_cap; /* 36: Delivered length */
213 unsigned char setup[SETUP_LEN]; /* Only for Control S-type */
214 struct iso_rec { /* Only for ISO */
219 int interval; /* 48: Only for Interrupt and ISO */
220 int start_frame; /* 52: For ISO */
221 unsigned int xfer_flags; /* 56: copy of URB's transfer_flags */
222 unsigned int ndesc; /* 60: Actual number of ISO descriptors */
223 }; /* 64 total length */
225 These events can be received from a character device by reading with read(2),
226 with an ioctl(2), or by accessing the buffer with mmap. However, read(2)
227 only returns first 48 bytes for compatibility reasons.
229 The character device is usually called /dev/usbmonN, where N is the USB bus
230 number. Number zero (/dev/usbmon0) is special and means "all buses".
231 Note that specific naming policy is set by your Linux distribution.
233 If you create /dev/usbmon0 by hand, make sure that it is owned by root
234 and has mode 0600. Otherwise, unpriviledged users will be able to snoop
237 The following ioctl calls are available, with MON_IOC_MAGIC 0x92:
239 MON_IOCQ_URB_LEN, defined as _IO(MON_IOC_MAGIC, 1)
241 This call returns the length of data in the next event. Note that majority of
242 events contain no data, so if this call returns zero, it does not mean that
243 no events are available.
245 MON_IOCG_STATS, defined as _IOR(MON_IOC_MAGIC, 3, struct mon_bin_stats)
247 The argument is a pointer to the following structure:
249 struct mon_bin_stats {
254 The member "queued" refers to the number of events currently queued in the
255 buffer (and not to the number of events processed since the last reset).
257 The member "dropped" is the number of events lost since the last call
260 MON_IOCT_RING_SIZE, defined as _IO(MON_IOC_MAGIC, 4)
262 This call sets the buffer size. The argument is the size in bytes.
263 The size may be rounded down to the next chunk (or page). If the requested
264 size is out of [unspecified] bounds for this kernel, the call fails with
267 MON_IOCQ_RING_SIZE, defined as _IO(MON_IOC_MAGIC, 5)
269 This call returns the current size of the buffer in bytes.
271 MON_IOCX_GET, defined as _IOW(MON_IOC_MAGIC, 6, struct mon_get_arg)
272 MON_IOCX_GETX, defined as _IOW(MON_IOC_MAGIC, 10, struct mon_get_arg)
274 These calls wait for events to arrive if none were in the kernel buffer,
275 then return the first event. The argument is a pointer to the following
279 struct usbmon_packet *hdr;
281 size_t alloc; /* Length of data (can be zero) */
284 Before the call, hdr, data, and alloc should be filled. Upon return, the area
285 pointed by hdr contains the next event structure, and the data buffer contains
286 the data, if any. The event is removed from the kernel buffer.
288 The MON_IOCX_GET copies 48 bytes to hdr area, MON_IOCX_GETX copies 64 bytes.
290 MON_IOCX_MFETCH, defined as _IOWR(MON_IOC_MAGIC, 7, struct mon_mfetch_arg)
292 This ioctl is primarily used when the application accesses the buffer
293 with mmap(2). Its argument is a pointer to the following structure:
295 struct mon_mfetch_arg {
296 uint32_t *offvec; /* Vector of events fetched */
297 uint32_t nfetch; /* Number of events to fetch (out: fetched) */
298 uint32_t nflush; /* Number of events to flush */
301 The ioctl operates in 3 stages.
303 First, it removes and discards up to nflush events from the kernel buffer.
304 The actual number of events discarded is returned in nflush.
306 Second, it waits for an event to be present in the buffer, unless the pseudo-
307 device is open with O_NONBLOCK.
309 Third, it extracts up to nfetch offsets into the mmap buffer, and stores
310 them into the offvec. The actual number of event offsets is stored into
313 MON_IOCH_MFLUSH, defined as _IO(MON_IOC_MAGIC, 8)
315 This call removes a number of events from the kernel buffer. Its argument
316 is the number of events to remove. If the buffer contains fewer events
317 than requested, all events present are removed, and no error is reported.
318 This works when no events are available too.
322 The ioctl FIONBIO may be implemented in the future, if there's a need.
324 In addition to ioctl(2) and read(2), the special file of binary API can
325 be polled with select(2) and poll(2). But lseek(2) does not work.
327 * Memory-mapped access of the kernel buffer for the binary API
329 The basic idea is simple:
331 To prepare, map the buffer by getting the current size, then using mmap(2).
332 Then, execute a loop similar to the one written in pseudo-code below:
334 struct mon_mfetch_arg fetch;
335 struct usbmon_packet *hdr;
338 fetch.offvec = vec; // Has N 32-bit words
339 fetch.nfetch = N; // Or less than N
340 fetch.nflush = nflush;
341 ioctl(fd, MON_IOCX_MFETCH, &fetch); // Process errors, too
342 nflush = fetch.nfetch; // This many packets to flush when done
343 for (i = 0; i < nflush; i++) {
344 hdr = (struct ubsmon_packet *) &mmap_area[vec[i]];
345 if (hdr->type == '@') // Filler packet
347 caddr_t data = &mmap_area[vec[i]] + 64;
348 process_packet(hdr, data);
352 Thus, the main idea is to execute only one ioctl per N events.
354 Although the buffer is circular, the returned headers and data do not cross
355 the end of the buffer, so the above pseudo-code does not need any gathering.