how to trace function call in C?

Question

Without modifying the source code, how can i trace which functions are called and with what parameters, when some function(say func100 in the following example) is invoked. I would like the output to be as follows:

enter func100(p1001=xxx,p1002=xxx)
        enter func110(p1101=xxx,p1102=xxx)
        exit  func110(p1101=xxx,p1102=xxx)
        enter func120(p1201=xxx,p1202=xxx,p1203=xxx)
                enter func121(p1211=xxx)
                exit  func121(p1211=xxx)
        exit  func120(p1201=xxx,p1202=xxx,p1203=xxx)
exit  func100(p1001=xxx,p1002=xxx)

is this doable? or what's the solution with minimum modification of source code?

Answer 1

If you use gcc, you can use the -finstrument-functions compilation flag. It adds code that calls two functions, __cyg_profile_func_enter and __cyg_profile_func_exit, whenever a function enters/exits.

You'll need to implement these functions, to do what you want. Make sure to compile them either without the flag, or with __attribute__((no_instrument_function)), so they won't try to call themselves.

The functions' second parameter would be a pointer to the call site (i.e. the return address within the calling function). You can just print it with %p, but it will be somewhat hard to use. You can use nm to figure out the real function which contains this address.

You can't get the function parameters this way.