Provided by: blktrace_1.2.0-5_amd64 bug

NAME

       blkparse - produce formatted output of event streams of block devices

SYNOPSIS

       blkparse [ options ]

DESCRIPTION

       The  blkparse  utility  will  attempt  to combine streams of events for various devices on
       various CPUs, and produce a formatted output of the event information.   Specifically,  it
       will take the (machine-readable) output of the blktrace utility and convert it to a nicely
       formatted and human-readable form.

       As with blktrace, some details concerning blkparse will help in understanding the  command
       line options presented below.

       - By  default,  blkparse  expects  to  run  in a post-processing mode; one where the trace
         events have been saved by a previous run of blktrace, and blkparse  is  combining  event
         streams and dumping formatted data.

         blkparse  may  be  run in a live manner concurrently with blktrace by specifying -i - to
         blkparse, and combining it with the live option for blktrace.  An example would be:

            % blktrace -d /dev/sda -o - | blkparse -i -

       - You can set how many blkparse batches event reads via the -b option, the default  is  to
         handle events in batches of 512.

       - If  you  have  saved  event  traces  in blktrace with different output names (via the -o
         option to blktrace), you must specify the same input name via the -i option.

       - The format of the output data can be controlled via the -f or -F options --  see  OUTPUT
         DESCRIPTION AND FORMATTING for details.

       By  default, blkparse sends formatted data to standard output. This may be changed via the
       -o option, or text output can be disabled via the -O option. A merged binary stream can be
       produced using the -d option.

OPTIONS

       -A hex-mask
       --set-mask=hex-mask
              Set filter mask to hex-mask, see blktrace (8) for masks

       -a mask
       --act-mask=mask
              Add mask to current filter, see blktrace (8) for masks

       -D dir
       --input-directory=dir
              Prepend dir to input file names

       -b batch
       --batch={batch}
              Standard input read batching

       -i file
       --input=file
              Specifies base name for input files -- default is device.blktrace.cpu.

              As  noted above, specifying -i - runs in live mode with blktrace (reading data from
              standard in).

       -F typ,fmt
       --format=typ,fmt
       -f fmt
       --format-spec=fmt
              Sets output format (See OUTPUT DESCRIPTION AND FORMATTING for details.)

              The -f form specifies a format for all events

              The -F form allows one  to  specify  a  format  for  a  specific  event  type.  The
              single-character  typ  field  is  one  of the action specifiers described in ACTION
              IDENTIFIERS.

       -M
       --no-msgs
              When -d is specified, this will stop messages from being output to the  file.  (Can
              seriously reduce the size of the resultant file when using the CFQ I/O scheduler.)

       -h
       --hash-by-name
              Hash processes by name, not by PID

       -o file
       --output=file
              Output file

       -O
       --no-text-output
              Do not produce text output, used for binary (-d) only

       -d file
       --dump-binary=file
              Binary output file

       -q
       --quiet
              Quiet mode

       -s
       --per-program-stats
              Displays data sorted by program

       -t
       --track-ios
              Display time deltas per IO

       -w span
       --stopwatch=span
              Display traces for the span specified -- where span can be:
              end-time -- Display traces from time 0 through end-time (in ns)
              or
              start:end-time -- Display traces from time start through end-time (in ns).

       -v
       --verbose
              More verbose marginal on marginal errors

       -V
       --version
              Display version

TRACE ACTIONS

       The following trace actions are recognised:

       C  -- complete A previously issued request has been completed.  The output will detail the
           sector and size of that request, as well as the success or failure of it.

       D -- issued A request that previously resided on the block  layer  queue  or  in  the  i/o
           scheduler has been sent to the driver.

       I  --  inserted  A request is being sent to the i/o scheduler for addition to the internal
           queue and later service by the driver. The request is fully formed at this time.

       Q -- queued This notes intent to queue i/o at the given location.  No real requests exists
           yet.

       B  --  bounced  The  data pages attached to this bio are not reachable by the hardware and
           must be bounced to a lower  memory  location.  This  causes  a  big  slowdown  in  i/o
           performance, since the data must be copied to/from kernel buffers. Usually this can be
           fixed with using better hardware -- either a better i/o controller, or a platform with
           an IOMMU.

       M  --  back  merge A previously inserted request exists that ends on the boundary of where
           this i/o begins, so the i/o scheduler can merge them together.

       F -- front merge Same as the back merge, except this i/o ends where a previously  inserted
           requests starts.

       M -- front or back merge One of the above

       M -- front or back merge One of the above.

       G -- get request To send any type of request to a block device, a struct request container
           must be allocated first.

       S -- sleep No available request structures were available, so the issuer has to  wait  for
           one to be freed.

       P -- plug When i/o is queued to a previously empty block device queue, Linux will plug the
           queue in anticipation of future ios being added before this data is needed.

       U -- unplug Some request data already queued in the device, start sending requests to  the
           driver.  This may happen automatically if a timeout period has passed (see next entry)
           or if a number of requests have been added to the queue.

       T -- unplug due to timer If nobody requests the i/o that was  queued  after  plugging  the
           queue, Linux will automatically unplug it after a defined period has passed.

       X  --  split  On  raid  or  device mapper setups, an incoming i/o may straddle a device or
           internal zone and needs to be chopped up into smaller pieces  for  service.  This  may
           indicate a performance problem due to a bad setup of that raid/dm device, but may also
           just be part of normal boundary conditions. dm is notably bad at this and  will  clone
           lots of i/o.

       A  --  remap  For  stacked devices, incoming i/o is remapped to device below it in the i/o
           stack. The remap action details what exactly is being remapped to what.

OUTPUT DESCRIPTION AND FORMATTING

       The output from blkparse can be tailored for  specific  use  --  in  particular,  to  ease
       parsing of output, and/or limit output fields to those the user wants to see. The data for
       fields which can be output include:

       a   Action, a (small) string (1 or 2 characters) -- see table below for more details

       c   CPU id

       C   Command

       d   RWBS field, a (small) string (1-3 characters)  -- see section below for more details

       D   7-character string containing the major  and  minor  numbers  of  the  event's  device
           (separated by a comma).

       e   Error value

       m   Minor number of event's device.

       M   Major number of event's device.

       n   Number of blocks

       N   Number of bytes

       p   Process ID

       P   Display packet data -- series of hexadecimal values

       s   Sequence numbers

       S   Sector number

       t   Time stamp (nanoseconds)

       T   Time stamp (seconds)

       u   Elapsed value in microseconds (-t command line option)

       U   Payload unsigned integer

       Note  that  the  user  can  optionally specify field display width, and optionally a left-
       aligned specifier. These precede field specifiers, with a '%' character, followed  by  the
       optional  left-alignment  specifier  (-) followed by the width (a decimal number) and then
       the field.

       Thus, to specify the command in a 12-character field that is left aligned:

           -f "%-12C"

ACTION IDENTIFIERS

       The following table shows the various actions which may be output:

       A      IO was remapped to a different device

       B      IO bounced

       C      IO completion

       D      IO issued to driver

       F      IO front merged with request on queue

       G      Get request

       I      IO inserted onto request queue

       M      IO back merged with request on queue

       P      Plug request

       Q      IO handled by request queue code

       S      Sleep request

       T      Unplug due to timeout

       U      Unplug request

       X      Split

RWBS DESCRIPTION

       This is a small string containing at least one character ('R' for read, 'W' for write,  or
       'D'  for block discard operation), and optionally either a 'B' (for barrier operations) or
       'S' (for synchronous operations).

DEFAULT OUTPUT

       The standard header (or initial fields displayed) include:

           "%D %2c %8s %5T.%9t %5p %2a %3d"

       Breaking this down:

       %D     Displays the event's device major/minor as: %3d,%-3d.

       %2c    CPU ID (2-character field).

       %8s    Sequence number

       %5T.%9t
              5-character field for the seconds portion of the time stamp and a 9-character field
              for the nanoseconds in the time stamp.

       %5p    5-character field for the process ID.

       %2a    2-character field for one of the actions.

       %3d    3-character field for the RWBS data.

              Seeing this in action:

                  8,0    3        1     0.000000000   697  G   W 223490 + 8 [kjournald]

              The header is the data in this line up to the 223490 (starting block).  The default
              output for all event types includes this header.

DEFAULT OUTPUT PER ACTION

       C -- complete
           If a payload is present, this is presented between parenthesis following  the  header,
           followed by the error value.

           If  no  payload  is  present,  the  sector and number of blocks are presented (with an
           intervening plus (+) character). If the -t option was specified, then the elapsed time
           is presented. In either case, it is followed by the error value for the completion.

       B -- bounced
       D -- issued
       I -- inserted
       Q -- queued
           If  a  payload  is  present,  the  number  of payload bytes is output, followed by the
           payload in hexadecimal between parenthesis.

           If no payload is present, the sector and number  of  blocks  are  presented  (with  an
           intervening plus (+) character). If the -t option was specified, then the elapsed time
           is presented (in  parenthesis).  In  either  case,  it  is  followed  by  the  command
           associated with the event (surrounded by square brackets).

       F -- front merge
       G -- get request
       M -- back merge
       S -- sleep
           The  starting  sector  and  number  of  blocks is output (with an intervening plus (+)
           character), followed by the command associated with the event  (surrounded  by  square
           brackets).

       P -- plug
           The command associated with the event (surrounded by square brackets) is output.

       U -- unplug
       T -- unplug due to timer
           The  command  associated  with  the  event  (surrounded by square brackets) is output,
           followed by the number of requests outstanding.

       X -- split
           The original starting sector followed by the new sector (separated by a slash  (/)  is
           output,  followed  by  the  command  associated  with  the event (surrounded by square
           brackets).

       A -- remap
           Sector and length is output, along with the original device and sector offset.

EXAMPLES

       To trace the i/o on the device /dev/sda and parse the output to human readable  form,  use
       the following command:

           % blktrace -d /dev/sda -o - | blkparse -i -

       (see  blktrace  (8)  for  more  information).  This same behaviour can be achieve with the
       convenience script btrace.  The command

           % btrace /dev/sda

       has exactly the same effect as the previous command. See btrace (8) for more information.

       To trace the i/o on a device and save the output for later processing with  blkparse,  use
       blktrace like this:

           % blktrace /dev/sda /dev/sdb

       This will trace i/o on the devices /dev/sda and /dev/sdb and save the recorded information
       in the files sda and sdb  in  the  current  directory,  for  the  two  different  devices,
       respectively.  This trace information can later be parsed by the blkparse utility:

           % blkparse sda sdb

       which  will  output  the previously recorded tracing information in human readable form to
       stdout.

AUTHORS

       blkparse was written by Jens Axboe, Alan D. Brunelle and Nathan Scott.  This man page  was
       created from the blktrace documentation by Bas Zoetekouw.

REPORTING BUGS

       Report bugs to <linux-btrace@vger.kernel.org>

COPYRIGHT

       Copyright © 2006 Jens Axboe, Alan D. Brunelle and Nathan Scott.
       This  is  free  software.   You  may  redistribute copies of it under the terms of the GNU
       General Public License <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>.  There is NO  WARRANTY,  to
       the extent permitted by law.
       This  manual  page  was  created  for  Debian  by  Bas Zoetekouw.  It was derived from the
       documentation provided by the authors and it may be used, distributed and  modified  under
       the terms of the GNU General Public License, version 2.
       On  Debian  systems,  the  text  of  the  GNU  General  Public  License  can  be  found in
       /usr/share/common-licenses/GPL-2.

SEE ALSO

       btrace (8), blktrace (8), verify_blkparse (1), blkrawverify (1), btt (1)