DTrace Programming
DTrace supports the D programing language. This topic describes how to get started writing and using DTrace scripts.
For general information about DTrace on Windows, see DTrace.
For detailed information about DTrace see the OpenDTrace Specification version 1.0 at the University Of Cambridge.
Note
DTrace is supported in the Insider builds of Windows after version 18980 and Windows Server build 18975.
Additional sample scripts
Additional D scripts applicable for Windows scenarios are available in the samples directory of the DTrace source code.
https://github.com/microsoft/DTrace-on-Windows/tree/windows/samples/windows
A set of opentrace toolkit scripts is available at https://github.com/opendtrace/toolkit.
Hello World
DTrace scripts are simple text files that contain commands and D programming script elements.
dtrace:::BEGIN
{
trace("Hello World from DTrace!");
exit(0);
}
Save the file as helloworld.d.
Open a command prompt window as an Administrator and run the script using the -s option.
dtrace -s helloworld.d
dtrace: script '.\helloworld.d' matched 1 probe
CPU ID FUNCTION:NAME
0 1 :BEGIN Hello World from DTrace!
NtCreateUserProcess return time
You can author DTrace scripts to track time taken across multiple functions/events. Below is a simple example that tracks the NtCreateUserProcess function between entry/return for the create process.
syscall::NtCreateUserProcess:entry
{
self->ts = timestamp;
}
syscall::NtCreateUserProcess:return
{
printf(" [Caller %s]: Time taken to return from create process is %d MicroSecond \n", execname, (timestamp - self->ts)/ 1000);
}
Save the file as ntcreatetime.d and use the -s option to run the test script.
C:\Windows\system32>dtrace -s ntcreatetime.d
dtrace: script 'ntcreatetime.d' matched 2 probes
CPU ID FUNCTION:NAME
0 183 NtCreateUserProcess:return [Caller svchost.exe]: Time taken to return from create process is 51191 MicroSecond
0 183 NtCreateUserProcess:return [Caller SearchIndexer.]: Time taken to return from create process is 84418 MicroSecond
0 183 NtCreateUserProcess:return [Caller SearchIndexer.]: Time taken to return from create process is 137961 MicroSecond
File Delete Tracker
This sample script uses syscall provider to instrument NtOpenFile on entry and checks for flag passed (argument #5) to track deletes across the system.
Copy the below script into filedeletetracker.d.
ERROR{exit(0);}
struct ustr{uint16_t buffer[256];};
syscall::NtOpenFile:entry
{
this->deleted = arg5 & 0x00001000; /* & with FILE_DELETE_ON_CLOSE */
if (this->deleted) {
this->attr = (nt`_OBJECT_ATTRIBUTES*)
copyin(arg2, sizeof(nt`_OBJECT_ATTRIBUTES));
if (this->attr->ObjectName) {
this->objectName = (nt`_UNICODE_STRING*)
copyin((uintptr_t)this->attr->ObjectName,
sizeof(nt`_UNICODE_STRING));
this->fname = (uint16_t*)
copyin((uintptr_t)this->objectName->Buffer,
this->objectName->Length);
printf("Process %s PID %d deleted file %*ws \n", execname,pid,
this->objectName->Length / 2,
((struct ustr*)this->fname)->buffer);
}
}
}
Use the -s option to run the test script.
Create or locate a file that you would like to delete. Move the file to the Recycle Bin and then empty the Recycle Bin. When the file is deleted and event will fire and the information about the file delete will be displayed.
C:\Windows\system32>dtrace -s filedeletetracker.d
dtrace: script 'filedeletetracker.d' matched 8 probes
CPU ID FUNCTION:NAME
0 512 NtOpenFile:entry Process explorer.exe PID 4684 deleted file \??\C:\$Recycle.Bin\S-1-12-1-3310478672-1302480547-4207937687-2985363607\$ROSR3FA.txt
This program is designed to continue to monitor file deletes. Press CTRL+C to exit.
For additional larger code samples, see the next topic, DTrace Windows Code Samples.