Re: Question about LTTng Context

Amir Najafi Zadeh via lttng-dev <[email protected]> Thu, 11 Dec 2025 10:51:50 -0500
Newsgroups org.lttng.lists.lttng-dev
Message-ID <CAOQX81e-dtfgLQ+xTt8kr-Qxc+hhiaW4vHF=S=RDVsMR0-TnLA@mail.gmail.com>
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Michael, Kienan, Thank you both for your replies. As you mentioned the
cgroup namespace, it isn=E2=80=99t very helpful in some cases. Containers m=
ay share
the same cgroup namespace, and the container runtime often avoids giving
each container a private cgroup namespace for performance and security
reasons. Because of this, the cgroup namespace can=E2=80=99t be used as a r=
eliable
or unique label for filtering trace logs.

In my case, with container-d you can inspect a container, find its PID, and
then check /proc/<pid>/ns/cgroup, but you=E2=80=99ll see that different con=
tainers
often have the same cgroup namespace ID (e.g., in the following logs you
can see the calico-node and kube-proxy containers sharing a cgroup ns).

```
Name: calico-node  CID:
b5624afe31b005725f4ba53c7b6fe758f3c09fabf013085231ff8b97588f6ace  PID: 2243
 cgroup_ns_inode: 4026531835
Name: kube-proxy  CID:
52f3c12def7a680f61a925ac92dd5ebd5eba6cad17d671efbfd1d40db7dff624  PID: 1851
 cgroup_ns_inode: 4026531835
  >> MATCH FOUND: shares ns with container:
b5624afe31b005725f4ba53c7b6fe758f3c09fabf013085231ff8b97588f6ace
(calico-node)
```

Thanks again for your answers. I hope this feature appears in a future
patch.

Best,
Amir

On Thu, Dec 11, 2025 at 9:57=E2=80=AFAM Michael Jeanson <mjeanson@efficios.=
com>
wrote:

> On 12/11/25 09:30, Kienan Stewart via lttng-dev wrote:
> > Hi Amir,
> >
> > On 12/10/25 9:40 PM, Amir Najafi Zadeh via lttng-dev wrote:
> >> Hello everyone,
> >>
> >> I hope you=E2=80=99re doing well. My name is Amir, and I=E2=80=99m a P=
hD student in
> >> the Computer Science department at Stony Brook University, New York.
> >>
> >> I have a question about the LTTng context that I haven=E2=80=99t been =
able to
> >> find an answer for in the docs or man pages. Does LTTng support adding
> >> the cgroup ID or cgroup path as a context field? I want to filter my
> >> trace results based on cgroups.
> >>
> >
> > I think you're looking for the `cgroup_ns` context which adds the inum
> > of the cgroup namespace as a context field.
>
> This will give you the ID of the cgroup namespace but we don't have
> contexts for cgroups themselves. It's probably something we would like
> to have but there is no concrete plans on implementing this at the moment=
.
>
> >
> >> If this isn=E2=80=99t supported, are there any plans to add it in futu=
re
> >> versions, such as 2.14?
> >>
> >> For reference, I=E2=80=99m currently using LTTng 2.13 on Ubuntu 24.04 =
with
> >> kernel 6.8.0-87-generic.
> >>
> >> Cheers,
> >> Amir
> >> --
> >> *Amirhossein Najafizadeh*
> >> *PhD Student, Computer Science Department, Stony Brook University, N.Y=
.
> >> File systems and Storage Lab (FSL)
>

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<div dir=3D"ltr">Michael, Kienan, Thank you both for your replies. As you m=
entioned the cgroup namespace, it isn=E2=80=99t very helpful in some cases.=
 Containers may share the same cgroup namespace, and the container runtime =
often avoids giving each container a private cgroup namespace for performan=
ce and security reasons. Because of this, the cgroup namespace can=E2=80=99=
t be used as a reliable or unique label for filtering trace logs.<br><br>In=
 my case, with container-d you can inspect a container, find its PID, and t=
hen check /proc/&lt;pid&gt;/ns/cgroup, but you=E2=80=99ll see that differen=
t containers often have the same cgroup namespace ID (e.g., in the followin=
g logs you can see the calico-node and kube-proxy containers sharing a cgro=
up ns).<br><br>```<br>Name: calico-node =C2=A0CID: b5624afe31b005725f4ba53c=
7b6fe758f3c09fabf013085231ff8b97588f6ace =C2=A0PID: 2243 =C2=A0cgroup_ns_in=
ode: 4026531835<br>Name: kube-proxy =C2=A0CID: 52f3c12def7a680f61a925ac92dd=
5ebd5eba6cad17d671efbfd1d40db7dff624 =C2=A0PID: 1851 =C2=A0cgroup_ns_inode:=
 4026531835<br>=C2=A0 &gt;&gt; MATCH FOUND: shares ns with container: b5624=
afe31b005725f4ba53c7b6fe758f3c09fabf013085231ff8b97588f6ace (calico-node)<b=
r>```<br><br>Thanks again for your answers. I hope this feature appears in =
a future patch.<br><br>Best,<br>Amir</div><br><div class=3D"gmail_quote gma=
il_quote_container"><div dir=3D"ltr" class=3D"gmail_attr">On Thu, Dec 11, 2=
025 at 9:57=E2=80=AFAM Michael Jeanson &lt;<a href=3D"mailto:mjeanson@effic=
ios.com">[email protected]</a>&gt; wrote:<br></div><blockquote class=3D=
"gmail_quote" style=3D"margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(2=
04,204,204);padding-left:1ex">On 12/11/25 09:30, Kienan Stewart via lttng-d=
ev wrote:<br>
&gt; Hi Amir,<br>
&gt; <br>
&gt; On 12/10/25 9:40 PM, Amir Najafi Zadeh via lttng-dev wrote:<br>
&gt;&gt; Hello everyone,<br>
&gt;&gt;<br>
&gt;&gt; I hope you=E2=80=99re doing well. My name is Amir, and I=E2=80=99m=
 a PhD student in <br>
&gt;&gt; the Computer Science department at Stony Brook University, New Yor=
k.<br>
&gt;&gt;<br>
&gt;&gt; I have a question about the LTTng context that I haven=E2=80=99t b=
een able to <br>
&gt;&gt; find an answer for in the docs or man pages. Does LTTng support ad=
ding <br>
&gt;&gt; the cgroup ID or cgroup path as a context field? I want to filter =
my <br>
&gt;&gt; trace results based on cgroups.<br>
&gt;&gt;<br>
&gt; <br>
&gt; I think you&#39;re looking for the `cgroup_ns` context which adds the =
inum <br>
&gt; of the cgroup namespace as a context field.<br>
<br>
This will give you the ID of the cgroup namespace but we don&#39;t have <br=
>
contexts for cgroups themselves. It&#39;s probably something we would like =
<br>
to have but there is no concrete plans on implementing this at the moment.<=
br>
<br>
&gt; <br>
&gt;&gt; If this isn=E2=80=99t supported, are there any plans to add it in =
future <br>
&gt;&gt; versions, such as 2.14?<br>
&gt;&gt;<br>
&gt;&gt; For reference, I=E2=80=99m currently using LTTng 2.13 on Ubuntu 24=
.04 with <br>
&gt;&gt; kernel 6.8.0-87-generic.<br>
&gt;&gt;<br>
&gt;&gt; Cheers,<br>
&gt;&gt; Amir<br>
&gt;&gt; -- <br>
&gt;&gt; *Amirhossein Najafizadeh*<br>
&gt;&gt; *PhD Student, Computer Science Department, Stony Brook University,=
 N.Y.<br>
&gt;&gt; File systems and Storage Lab (FSL)<br>
</blockquote></div>

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