How to trace the memory access on an arm processor

Question

I am analyzing the memory accessing of a program on the ARM processor. Basically, I want to get 'instruction_address : R/W : memory_address' by tracing the instruction execution flow.

For Intel processors, pintool can do this by instruction instrumentation, and the perf can also do this by sampling (simply use 'perf mem' command).

Is there any similar way to trace the memory accesses on an ARMv8 architecture (the ARM-Linux is running on it)?

There is hardware support for tracing the architectural instruction execution (using ETM), but this won't show speculative accesses. — Sean Houlihane, Sep 25 '17 at 10:57
Which arm processor and what did you find in the arm documentation on the topic? — old_timer, Sep 25 '17 at 13:46

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 25 '17 at 08:41

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You can just use perf for ARM.

answered Sep 25 '17 at 08:41

Shachar Shemesh

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Thanks for the reply. The 'perf mem' command requires HW support. This feature is implemented on the Intel processors since it requires Sandy Bridge and Ivy Bridge based processors. However, the perf for ARM seems not support the special kernel PMU events (i.e. mem-loads and mem-store) – Q. Guo Sep 25 '17 at 09:09
ARMv8 processors have their own PMU events. perf tool should work for ARM-Linux for Ubuntu/Redhat etc. – Zhifei Sep 26 '17 at 10:01

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 25 '17 at 08:44

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Alternatively have a look at the strace tool in Linux. It traces system calls and signals (including: network, file activity, memory calls). It is not dependent on the processor type, but it needs advanced knowledge to interpret those messages.

For instructions how to use it, this is a good thread.

answered Sep 25 '17 at 08:44

Ardit

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It does not trace memory access, though. – Shachar Shemesh Sep 25 '17 at 08:44

How to trace the memory access on an arm processor

2 Answers2