BLTK(1)

📦 version 1.1.0, in fedora 43, fedora 44

💖 BLTK — bestie's guide to the battery life tool kit 💖

okay so. this is BLTK(1), from the Battery life tool kit section of the manual. it's a whole toolkit for measuring battery life and performance under different workloads on Linux. i'm gonna walk you through literally everything, no skips, no cap. 🦋

✨ NAME ✨

bltk — the tool kit that measures battery life and performance under different workloads on Linux. that's it, that's the girlboss. 💅

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

bltk [-hVvaNAcCBXswiIRDPGOYZyQzxul] [-t sec] [-r results_dir] [-m {0,1}]
[-U path] [-g setup] [-J pid] [-T time] [-F file] [-W app] [-L title]
[-K comment] [-e app] [-E app] [-p percent] [-d percent] [-o {0,1,2}]
[-q file] [-b percent] [-f command] [-k num]

look at her. all those little flags. she's got range. 😌

💜 DESCRIPTION 💜

so BLTK can be used with various workloads to simulate different types of laptop usage. here are the workloads that are currently implemented, bestie:

  • Idle workload — collect statistics only (mostly used to measure battery life)
  • Developer workload — simulates code development in Linux environment
  • Reader workload — simulates text reading on laptop (mostly used to measure battery life)
  • Playback workload — simulates laptop entertaining usage (produces constant average load on the system)
  • 3d game workload — simulates 3D-gaming on laptop (Unreal Tournament demo is used to create this workload)
  • Office Activity workload — simulates laptop usage for different office activities (based on OpenOffice.org office suit)

When started, test collects platform/OS initial info and if it's OK prompts user to unplug AC adapter. After cable unplugged, workload started. During the workload execution test harness collects various system information (e.g. CPU load, battery drain, display state, CPU frequency, etc...). After battery completely discharged user should plug the AC cable back and boot the system. When it is done the results are available. 🔌

There are several tools for result evaluation. They allow creating report file for test run, to gather results into a table for system comparison, and to draw graphs for different purposes.

📊 Results 📊

after the battery dies and the system booted back, the results are available. They are stored in 'bltk/<wokload_name>.results' directory (or in the directory, specified in -r option). If target directory already exist the tool will add numeric extension to its name (.001, .002 e.t.c.) The results consist of the following files (see below for detailed description):

  • cmd — In this file 'bltk' command with arguments are stored
  • infoi<N>.log (info1.log, info2.log, ...) — Here initial system info is stored. Another two files (info1.log, info2.log) contains system info after AC adapter was unplugged, and on 5% battery capacity remained. They are used to check whether any changes occurred during test execution.
  • stat.log — Statistics generated by bltk harness are stored here. One statistic line generated per 1 minute (or per number of seconds, specified in -t option).
  • system<N> — When -k 1 is used, the system information is stored under this directory. The numbers at the end of directory name have the following meanings:
    • 0 — initial system info
    • 1 — system info after AC adapter was unplugged
    • 2 — system info on 5% battery capacity remained
  • version — this file contains version information
  • workload — the file contains info about workload
  • work_out.log
  • err.log — There are stored any error messages
  • warning.log — Contains warnings
  • work.log — Strings generated by USR1, USR2 signals from workload. String format is the same as in the 'stat.log' file.
  • fail — when test fails
  • score
  • Report
  • Report.table

👑 OPTIONS 👑

  • -h, --help — Help; display a help message and then exits.
  • -V, --version — Version; display version number and then exits.
  • -v, --verbose — Verbose
  • -a, --ac-ignore — ignore ac adapter state check (on/off)
  • -N, --time-stat-ignore — disable time statistics
  • -A, --ac-stat-ignore — disable ac adapter statistics
  • -c, --cpu-stat-ignore — disable cpu load statistics
  • -C, --cpu-add-stat-ignore — disable cpu additional statistics
  • -B, --bat-stat-ignore — disable battery statistics
  • -X, --disp-stat-ignore — Disable display state statistics
  • -H, --hd-stat-ignore — disable hard drive state statistics
  • -t seconds, --report-time seconds — frequency of report line generation in seconds
  • -r results_dir, --results results_dir — name of results directory
  • -s, --stat-ignore — disable all statistics
  • -w, --work-stat-ignore — disable workload statistics
  • -m {0,1}, --stat-memory {0,1} — dump statistics directly on disk or keep in memory, if statistics are kept in memory, it will be dumped on disk at low battery capacity, or at the test end
    • 0 — disk
    • 1 — memory (by default)
  • -i, --idle-test — idle test
  • -I, --idle — idle workload
  • -R, --reader — reader workload
  • -D, --developer — developer workload
  • -P,'--player" — playback workload
  • -G, --game — 3D-gaming workload
  • -O, --office — office productivity workload
  • -U path, --user path — user-specified workload (path to executable)
  • -g routine, --user-init routine" — setup routines for user-specified workload
  • -Y, --discharging — battery discharge mode
  • -Z, --charging — battery charge mode
  • -J pid, --jobs pid — make jobs number
  • -T seconds, --time seconds — workload time
  • -F, --file — workload file
  • -W, --prog — workload program name of player (player workload, default 'mplayer') name of web-browser (reader workload, default 'firefox')
  • -L, --title — title of web-browser document
  • -M, --manufacturer — enable time and cpu load statistics only
  • -S, --show — demo/debug mode, one iteration only
  • -n, --show-num — demo/debug mode, 'show-num' iteration
  • -j, --show-cnt — demo/debug mode, 'show-cnt' sub iteration
  • -T seconds, --show-time seconds — demo/debug mode, debug time
  • -K comment, --comment comment — user comment for report
  • -e application, --init-prog application — run program before test starting
  • -E application, --init-prog-su application — run program as root before test starting
  • -y, --yes — auto 'yes' answer to all questions
  • -Q, --debug — debug workload (see cpu-load and disp-load below)
  • -p percent, --cpu-load percent — debug workload, the time cpu loaded in percent
  • -d percent, --disp-load percent — Debug workload, the time display on in percent
  • -o {0,1,2}, --output {0,1,2} — direct workload output:
    • 0 — file
    • 1 — file and console
    • 2 — /dev/null, other - console
  • -z, --debug-vars — debug option
  • -q file, --debug-vars-file file — debug option - debug variables file
  • -x, --dpms — debug option - try to use display power management
  • -u, --spy — debug option - try to find out unexpected system activity
  • -l, --simul-laptop — debug option, laptop simulation
  • -b percent, --bat-sync percent — debug option, battery critical capacity, default 5%
  • -f command, --user-field command — the output of user-specified command being added to statistics Example: -f "cat /proc/acpi/thermal_zone/TZ01/temperature | awk '{print }'"
  • -k num, --stat-system num — debug option, save system files, default 0
note bestie: -T shows up twice in the list (--time and --show-time) — that's literally what the page says, i'm not fixing it, i'm just reporting it 💀

🌈 EXAMPLES 🌈

  • bltk -I or --idle — idle workload running
  • bltk -R or --reader — reader workload running
  • bltk -D or --developer — developer workload running
  • bltk -O or --office — office workload running
  • bltk -P or --player — player workload running
  • bltk -G or --game — game workload running
  • bltk -i or --idle-test -T 60 -t 1 — idle test running for 60 seconds, stats interval 1 second

🫶 SEE ALSO 🫶

bltk.conf(5), bltk_report(1)

🎀 AUTHOR 🎀

  • Konstantin Karasyov <konstantin.a.karasyov@intel.com>
  • Vladimir Lebedev <vladimir.p.lebedev@intel.com>

okay that's the whole page, bestie, you ate it. 💅✨ this was BLTK, manual page for BLTK, and the version/date stamp on this one is 15 July 2008. iconic, historic, timeless. mwah. 🦋💖👑

📦 where this page comes from