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BLKPARSE(1)							   BLKPARSE(1)

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 var‐
       ious 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 under‐
       standing 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.blk‐
	      trace.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 speci‐
	      fiers 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 out‐
	   put 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 send‐
	   ing	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 strad‐
	   dle 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 partic‐
       ular,  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 opera‐
       tions).

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 fol‐
	   lowing the header, followed by the error value.

	   If  no payload is present, the sector and number of blocks are pre‐
	   sented (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 pre‐
	   sented (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 inter‐
	   vening 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 brack‐
	   ets) is output.

       U -- unplug
       T -- unplug due to timer
	   The command associated with the event (surrounded by square	brack‐
	   ets) 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/hda 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 Pub‐
       lic 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)

blktrace git-20070306202522	March  6, 2007			   BLKPARSE(1)
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