Ubuntu Manpage: lttng-snapshot - Take a snapshot of an LTTng recording session

NAME

       lttng-snapshot - Take a snapshot of an LTTng recording session

SYNOPSIS

       Take a recording session snapshot:

       lttng [GENERAL OPTIONS] snapshot record [--max-size=SIZE]
             [--name=NAME] [--session=SESSION]
             [--ctrl-url=URL --data-url=URL | URL]

       Add a snapshot output to a recording session:

       lttng [GENERAL OPTIONS] snapshot add-output [--max-size=SIZE]
             [--name=NAME] [--session=SESSION]
             (--ctrl-url=URL --data-url=URL | URL)

       Show the snapshot output of a recording session:

       lttng [GENERAL OPTIONS] snapshot list-output [--session=SESSION]

       Remove the snapshot output from a recording session:

       lttng [GENERAL OPTIONS] snapshot del-output [--session=SESSION] 1

DESCRIPTION

The lttng snapshot command can take a snapshot of, add or remove a snapshot output, and
show the snapshot output of:

With the --session=SESSION option
The recording session named SESSION.

Without the --session option
The current recording session (see lttng-concepts(7) to learn more about the current
recording session).

See lttng-concepts(7) to learn more about recording sessions.

A snapshot is a dump of the current sub-buffers of all the channels of the selected
recording session.

When LTTng takes a snapshot, it sends the sub-buffer dump of the selected recording
session to the local file system or over the network to a listening relay daemon (lttng-
relayd(8)). See the “Snapshot output” section below to learn more.

When LTTng takes a snapshot, it does NOT clear the sub-buffers of the selected recording
session. In other words, different snapshots of the selected recording session can contain
the same event records.

You must have created the selected recording session in snapshot mode (see the --snapshot
option of the lttng-create(1) command as well as lttng-concepts(7) to learn more about
recording session modes) to use the snapshot command.

A snapshot-session trigger action can also take a recording session snapshot (see lttng-
add-trigger(1)).

See the “EXAMPLES” section below for usage examples.

If you want, instead, to keep all the trace data, but divide it into archived chunks which
are then, like snapshots, ready to be processed, see the recording session rotation
feature in lttng-concepts(7). Trace chunk archives do NOT overlap like snapshots can.

Note
Before you take a snapshot on a system with a high event throughput, the LTTng project
recommends that you first run the lttng-stop(1) command. Otherwise, the snapshot could
contain “holes”, the result of the tracers overwriting unconsumed trace packets during
the snapshot operation.

After LTTng writes the snapshot trace data, you can restart the recording session with
the lttng-start(1) command.

Snapshot output
When you take a recording session snapshot with the record action, LTTng writes the
snapshot trace files to:

If you specify the URL non-option argument or the --ctrl-url and --data-url options
The output defined by the URL non-option argument or by the arguments of the options.

See lttng-create(1) for the format of URL.

Otherwise
The snapshot output of the selected recording session.

Add a snapshot output to a recording session with the add-output action. As of
LTTng 2.13.7, you may only add one snapshot output to a given recording session.

When you create a snapshot mode recording session with the --snapshot option of the
lttng-create(1) command, and without its --no-output option, the create command
automatically adds a snapshot output named snapshot-1 to the created recording
session:

With its --output, --set-url, --ctrl-url, or --data-url options
Equivalent to using the add-output action with the provided or equivalent URL(s)
immediately after creating the recording session.

Otherwise
A subdirectory, under the $LTTNG_HOME/lttng-traces ($LTTNG_HOME defaults to $HOME)
directory, of which the name contains the recording session name and the
date/time.

Show the current snapshot output of a recording session with the list-output action.

Remove the snapshot output of a recording session with the del-output action.

For both the record and add-output actions:

• Assign a name to a snapshot output with the --name=NAME option.

NAME becomes part of the snapshot trace file names which LTTng sends to this output.

• By default, the snapshot files can be as big as the sum of the sizes of all the
sub-buffers of all the channels of the selected recording session.

Set the maximum total size of all the snapshot trace files LTTng writes with the
--max-size option.

OPTIONS

       See lttng(1) for GENERAL OPTIONS.

   Recording target
       -s SESSION, --session=SESSION
           Take a snapshot of the sub-buffers of the recording session named SESSION instead of
           the current recording session.

   Output
       See the “Snapshot output” section above.

       -C URL, --ctrl-url=URL
           Set the control path URL to URL.

           You must also use the --data-url option.

           See lttng-create(1) for the format of URL.

       -D URL, --data-url=URL
           Set the trace data path URL to URL.

           You must also use the --ctrl-url option.

           See lttng-create(1) for the format of URL.

       -m SIZE, --max-size=SIZE
           Set the maximum total size of all the snapshot trace files LTTng writes when taking a
           snapshot to SIZE bytes.

           The k (KiB), M (MiB), and G (GiB) suffixes are supported.

       -n NAME, --name=NAME
           Assign the name NAME to the snapshot output.

   Program information
       -h, --help
           Show help.

           This option attempts to launch /usr/bin/man to view this manual page. Override the
           manual pager path with the LTTNG_MAN_BIN_PATH environment variable.

       --list-options
           List available command options and quit.

EXIT STATUS

       0
           Success

       1
           Command error

       2
           Undefined command

       3
           Fatal error

       4
           Command warning (something went wrong during the command)

ENVIRONMENT

       LTTNG_ABORT_ON_ERROR
           Set to 1 to abort the process after the first error is encountered.

       LTTNG_HOME
           Path to the LTTng home directory.

           Defaults to $HOME.

           Useful when the Unix user running the commands has a non-writable home directory.

       LTTNG_MAN_BIN_PATH
           Absolute path to the manual pager to use to read the LTTng command-line help (with
           lttng-help(1) or with the --help option) instead of /usr/bin/man.

       LTTNG_SESSION_CONFIG_XSD_PATH
           Path to the directory containing the session.xsd recording session configuration XML
           schema.

       LTTNG_SESSIOND_PATH
           Absolute path to the LTTng session daemon binary (see lttng-sessiond(8)) to spawn from
           the lttng-create(1) command.

           The --sessiond-path general option overrides this environment variable.

FILES

       $LTTNG_HOME/.lttngrc
           Unix user’s LTTng runtime configuration.

           This is where LTTng stores the name of the Unix user’s current recording session
           between executions of lttng(1).  lttng-create(1) and lttng-set-session(1) set the
           current recording session.

       $LTTNG_HOME/lttng-traces
           Default output directory of LTTng traces in local and snapshot modes.

           Override this path with the --output option of the lttng-create(1) command.

       $LTTNG_HOME/.lttng
           Unix user’s LTTng runtime and configuration directory.

       $LTTNG_HOME/.lttng/sessions
           Default directory containing the Unix user’s saved recording session configurations
           (see lttng-save(1) and lttng-load(1)).

       /etc/lttng/sessions
           Directory containing the system-wide saved recording session configurations (see
           lttng-save(1) and lttng-load(1)).

       Note
           $LTTNG_HOME defaults to the value of the HOME environment variable.

EXAMPLES

       Example 1. Take a snapshot of the current recording session, sending the trace files to
       its snapshot output.

               $ lttng snapshot record

       Example 2. Take a snapshot of a specific recording session, giving it a custom name.

           See the --session and --name options.

               $ lttng snapshot record --session=my-session --name=SNAP

       Example 3. Take a snapshot of the current recording session, sending the trace files to a
       custom location.

           See the “Output directory” section of lttng-relayd(8) to understand where the relay
           daemon to connect to (3.96.87.215) writes the received traces.

               $ lttng snapshot record net://3.96.87.215

       Example 4. Replace the snapshot output of a specific recording session with a local file
       system path.

           See the --session option.

               $ lttng snapshot del-output --session=monk 1
               $ lttng snapshot add-output --session=monk \
                                file:///path/to/snapshots

       Example 5. Take a snapshot of the current recording session, making sure its size is not
       over 4 MiB.

           See the --max-size option.

               $ lttng snapshot record --max-size=4M

RESOURCES

       •   LTTng project website <https://lttng.org>

       •   LTTng documentation <https://lttng.org/docs>

       •   LTTng bug tracker <https://bugs.lttng.org>

       •   Git repositories <https://git.lttng.org>

       •   GitHub organization <https://github.com/lttng>

       •   Continuous integration <https://ci.lttng.org/>

       •   Mailing list <https://lists.lttng.org/> for support and development: lttng-
           dev@lists.lttng.org

       •   IRC channel <irc://irc.oftc.net/lttng>: #lttng on irc.oftc.net

COPYRIGHT

       This program is part of the LTTng-tools project.

       LTTng-tools is distributed under the GNU General Public License version 2
       <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/gpl-2.0.en.html>. See the LICENSE
       <https://github.com/lttng/lttng-tools/blob/master/LICENSE> file for details.

THANKS

       Special thanks to Michel Dagenais and the DORSAL laboratory
       <http://www.dorsal.polymtl.ca/> at École Polytechnique de Montréal for the LTTng journey.

       Also thanks to the Ericsson teams working on tracing which helped us greatly with detailed
       bug reports and unusual test cases.