tools/perf/Documentation/perf-trace.txt

perf-trace(1)
=============

NAME
----
perf-trace - Read perf.data (created by perf record) and display trace output

SYNOPSIS
--------
[verse]
'perf trace' [<options>]
'perf trace' [<options>] record <script> [<record-options>] <command>
'perf trace' [<options>] report <script> [script-args]
'perf trace' [<options>] <script> <required-script-args> [<record-options>] <command>
'perf trace' [<options>] <top-script> [script-args]

DESCRIPTION
-----------
This command reads the input file and displays the trace recorded.

There are several variants of perf trace:

  'perf trace' to see a detailed trace of the workload that was
  recorded.

  You can also run a set of pre-canned scripts that aggregate and
  summarize the raw trace data in various ways (the list of scripts is
  available via 'perf trace -l').  The following variants allow you to
  record and run those scripts:

  'perf trace record <script> <command>' to record the events required
  for 'perf trace report'.  <script> is the name displayed in the
  output of 'perf trace --list' i.e. the actual script name minus any
  language extension.  If <command> is not specified, the events are
  recorded using the -a (system-wide) 'perf record' option.

  'perf trace report <script> [args]' to run and display the results
  of <script>.  <script> is the name displayed in the output of 'perf
  trace --list' i.e. the actual script name minus any language
  extension.  The perf.data output from a previous run of 'perf trace
  record <script>' is used and should be present for this command to
  succeed.  [args] refers to the (mainly optional) args expected by
  the script.

  'perf trace <script> <required-script-args> <command>' to both
  record the events required for <script> and to run the <script>
  using 'live-mode' i.e. without writing anything to disk.  <script>
  is the name displayed in the output of 'perf trace --list' i.e. the
  actual script name minus any language extension.  If <command> is
  not specified, the events are recorded using the -a (system-wide)
  'perf record' option.  If <script> has any required args, they
  should be specified before <command>.  This mode doesn't allow for
  optional script args to be specified; if optional script args are
  desired, they can be specified using separate 'perf trace record'
  and 'perf trace report' commands, with the stdout of the record step
  piped to the stdin of the report script, using the '-o -' and '-i -'
  options of the corresponding commands.

  'perf trace <top-script>' to both record the events required for
  <top-script> and to run the <top-script> using 'live-mode'
  i.e. without writing anything to disk.  <top-script> is the name
  displayed in the output of 'perf trace --list' i.e. the actual
  script name minus any language extension; a <top-script> is defined
  as any script name ending with the string 'top'.

  [<record-options>] can be passed to the record steps of 'perf trace
  record' and 'live-mode' variants; this isn't possible however for
  <top-script> 'live-mode' or 'perf trace report' variants.

  See the 'SEE ALSO' section for links to language-specific
  information on how to write and run your own trace scripts.

OPTIONS
-------
<command>...::
	Any command you can specify in a shell.

-D::
--dump-raw-trace=::
        Display verbose dump of the trace data.

-L::
--Latency=::
        Show latency attributes (irqs/preemption disabled, etc).

-l::
--list=::
        Display a list of available trace scripts.

-s ['lang']::
--script=::
        Process trace data with the given script ([lang]:script[.ext]).
	If the string 'lang' is specified in place of a script name, a
        list of supported languages will be displayed instead.

-g::
--gen-script=::
        Generate perf-trace.[ext] starter script for given language,
        using current perf.data.

-a::
        Force system-wide collection.  Scripts run without a <command>
        normally use -a by default, while scripts run with a <command>
        normally don't - this option allows the latter to be run in
        system-wide mode.


SEE ALSO
--------
linkperf:perf-record[1], linkperf:perf-trace-perl[1],
linkperf:perf-trace-python[1]