path: root/doc/source/user/api.rst

===
API
===

There are few things that you should know about API before using it.

Five ways to add a new trace point.
-----------------------------------

.. code-block:: python

    from osprofiler import profiler

    def some_func():
        profiler.start("point_name", {"any_key": "with_any_value"})
        # your code
        profiler.stop({"any_info_about_point": "in_this_dict"})


    @profiler.trace("point_name",
                    info={"any_info_about_point": "in_this_dict"},
                    hide_args=False)
    def some_func2(*args, **kwargs):
        # If you need to hide args in profile info, put hide_args=True
        pass

    def some_func3():
        with profiler.Trace("point_name",
                            info={"any_key": "with_any_value"}):
            # some code here

    @profiler.trace_cls("point_name", info={}, hide_args=False,
                        trace_private=False)
    class TracedClass(object):

        def traced_method(self):
            pass

        def _traced_only_if_trace_private_true(self):
             pass

    class RpcManagerClass(object, metaclass=profiler.TracedMeta):
        __trace_args__ = {'name': 'rpc',
                          'info': None,
                          'hide_args': False,
                          'trace_private': False}

         def my_method(self, some_args):
             pass

         def my_method2(self, some_arg1, some_arg2, kw=None, kw2=None)
             pass

How profiler works?
-------------------

* **profiler.Trace()** and **@profiler.trace()** are just syntax sugar,
  that just calls **profiler.start()** & **profiler.stop()** methods.

* Every call of **profiler.start()** & **profiler.stop()** sends to
  **collector** 1 message. It means that every trace point creates 2 records
  in the collector. *(more about collector & records later)*

* Nested trace points are supported. The sample below produces 2 trace points:

  .. code-block:: python

        profiler.start("parent_point")
        profiler.start("child_point")
        profiler.stop()
        profiler.stop()

  The implementation is quite simple. Profiler has one stack that contains
  ids of all trace points. E.g.:

  .. code-block:: python

        profiler.start("parent_point") # trace_stack.push(<new_uuid>)
                                       # send to collector -> trace_stack[-2:]

        profiler.start("parent_point") # trace_stack.push(<new_uuid>)
                                       # send to collector -> trace_stack[-2:]
        profiler.stop()                # send to collector -> trace_stack[-2:]
                                       # trace_stack.pop()

        profiler.stop()                # send to collector -> trace_stack[-2:]
                                       # trace_stack.pop()

  It's simple to build a tree of nested trace points, having
  **(parent_id, point_id)** of all trace points.

Process of sending to collector.
--------------------------------

Trace points contain 2 messages (start and stop). Messages like below are
sent to a collector:

.. parsed-literal::

  {
      "name": <point_name>-(start|stop)
      "base_id": <uuid>,
      "parent_id": <uuid>,
      "trace_id": <uuid>,
      "info": <dict>
  }

The fields are defined as the following:

* base_id - ``<uuid>`` that is equal for all trace points that belong
  to one trace, this is done to simplify the process of retrieving
  all trace points related to one trace from collector
* parent_id - ``<uuid>`` of parent trace point
* trace_id - ``<uuid>`` of current trace point
* info - the dictionary that contains user information passed when calling
  profiler **start()** & **stop()** methods.

Setting up the collector.
-------------------------

Using OSProfiler notifier.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

.. note:: The following way of configuring OSProfiler is deprecated. The new
          version description is located below - `Using OSProfiler initializer.`_.
          Don't use OSproliler notifier directly! Its support will be removed soon
          from OSProfiler.

The profiler doesn't include a trace point collector. The user/developer
should instead provide a method that sends messages to a collector. Let's
take a look at a trivial sample, where the collector is just a file:

.. code-block:: python

    import json

    from osprofiler import notifier

    def send_info_to_file_collector(info, context=None):
        with open("traces", "a") as f:
            f.write(json.dumps(info))

    notifier.set(send_info_to_file_collector)

So now on every **profiler.start()** and **profiler.stop()** call we will
write info about the trace point to the end of the **traces** file.

Using OSProfiler initializer.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

OSProfiler now contains various storage drivers to collect tracing data.
Information about what driver to use and what options to pass to OSProfiler
are now stored in OpenStack services configuration files. Example of such
configuration can be found below:

.. code-block:: bash

    [profiler]
    enabled = True
    trace_sqlalchemy = True
    hmac_keys = SECRET_KEY
    connection_string = messaging://

If such configuration is provided, OSProfiler setting up can be processed in
following way:

.. code-block:: python

    if CONF.profiler.enabled:
        osprofiler_initializer.init_from_conf(
            conf=CONF,
            context=context.get_admin_context().to_dict(),
            project="cinder",
            service=binary,
            host=host
        )

Initialization of profiler.
---------------------------

If profiler is not initialized, all calls to **profiler.start()** and
**profiler.stop()** will be ignored.

Initialization is a quite simple procedure.

.. code-block:: python

    from osprofiler import profiler

    profiler.init("SECRET_HMAC_KEY", base_id=<uuid>, parent_id=<uuid>)

``SECRET_HMAC_KEY`` - will be discussed later, because it's related to the
integration of OSprofiler & OpenStack.

**base_id** and **trace_id** will be used to initialize stack_trace in
profiler, e.g. ``stack_trace = [base_id, trace_id]``.

OSProfiler CLI.
---------------

To make it easier for end users to work with profiler from CLI, OSProfiler
has entry point that allows them to retrieve information about traces and
present it in human readable form.

Available commands:

* Help message with all available commands and their arguments:

  .. parsed-literal::

     $ osprofiler -h/--help

* OSProfiler version:

  .. parsed-literal::

     $ osprofiler -v/--version

* Results of profiling can be obtained in JSON (option: ``--json``) and HTML
  (option: ``--html``) formats:

  .. parsed-literal::

     $ osprofiler trace show <trace_id> --json/--html

  hint: option ``--out`` will redirect result of ``osprofiler trace show``
  in specified file:

  .. parsed-literal::

     $ osprofiler trace show <trace_id> --json/--html --out /path/to/file

* In latest versions of OSProfiler with storage drivers (e.g. MongoDB (URI:
  ``mongodb://``), Messaging (URI: ``messaging://``))
  ``--connection-string`` parameter should be set up:

  .. parsed-literal::

     $ osprofiler trace show <trace_id> --connection-string=<URI> --json/--html