RTLA(1)

✨ rtla — Real-time Linux Analysis tool ✨

okay so bestie, welcome to rtla, the Real-time Linux Analysis tool 💖 this is the page for the meta-tool itself (that's rtla(1), from the General Commands Manual, iykyk) — the individual commands have their own pages, and we will absolutely be linking those, don't even worry.

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🌸 NAME 🌸

rtla — Real-time Linux Analysis tool

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🎀 SYNOPSIS 🎀

rtla COMMAND [OPTIONS]

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

So like, rtla is a meta-tool — meaning it's the main character that holds a whole little squad of commands, and those commands are all about analyzing the real-time properties of Linux. 👑

But here's the thing that makes it not like other tools, and I need you to sit with this for a sec: instead of testing Linux like some mysterious black box 🎁 where you poke it and guess what's inside, rtla leverages kernel tracing capabilities to give you precise information about the properties and the actual root causes of unexpected results. it's giving detective energy 🔍 it's giving "we found out why" energy. no cap.

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👑 COMMANDS 👑

• hwnoise — detect and quantify hardware-related noise. like, the noise coming from the hardware itself, not the software being messy 🖥️✨
• osnoise — gives you information about the operating system noise (osnoise). the OS being loud when it should be quiet, basically 💅
• timerlat — measures the IRQ and thread timer latency ⏱️ how late are things showing up? it will tell you.

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💅 OPTIONS 💅

• -h, --help — display the help text. classic. iconic. always there for you 🫶

For other options, see the man page for the corresponding command — like, each command has its own whole thing going on, okay? go read theirs, they worked hard on it 😭

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🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

rtla-hwnoise(1), rtla-osnoise(1), rtla-timerlat(1)

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⭐ AUTHOR ⭐

Daniel Bristot de Oliveira <bristot@kernel.org> — thank you king, we are obsessed 🫡💜

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💀 SIGINT BEHAVIOR 💀

okay this part is important so pay attention bestie, this is the Ctrl-C lore 📖

• On the first SIGINT, RTLA exits after collecting all outstanding samples up to the point of receiving the signal. so it's like "okay I heard you, let me just finish grabbing everything real quick" 🏃♀️
• When receiving more than one SIGINT, RTLA discards any outstanding samples, and exits while displaying only samples that have already been processed. second Ctrl-C means we are leaving RIGHT NOW 💀
• If SIGINT is received during RTLA cleanup, RTLA exits immediately via the default signal handler. no more polite goodbyes, it's gone 🚪

Note: for the purpose of SIGINT behavior, the expiry of duration specified via the -d/--duration option is treated as equivalent to receiving a SIGINT. For example, a SIGINT received after duration expired but samples have not been processed yet will drop any outstanding samples. so the clock running out does the same thing as you pressing Ctrl-C — same energy, same consequences 🕰️

Also note: when using the timerlat tool in BPF mode, samples are processed in-kernel; RTLA only copies them out to display them to the user. A second SIGINT does not affect in-kernel sample aggregation. so in that mode, the double-tap doesn't do the thing it normally does, okay? different rules for that one 🧚

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🔥 EXIT STATUS 🔥

• 0 — Passed: the test did not hit the stop tracing condition 🎉
• 1 — Error: invalid argument 🙈
• 2 — Failed: the test hit the stop tracing condition 😭
• 129 — Help: either user requested help or incorrect option was specified 🫶

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🍓 REPORTING BUGS 🍓

Report bugs to <linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org> and <linux-trace-devel@vger.kernel.org> — please do tell them, they want to know, they're not gonna be mad, fr fr 🐛💖

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💜 LICENSE 💜

rtla is Free Software licensed under the GNU GPLv2 ✨

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🧚 COPYING 🧚

Copyright (C) 2021 Red Hat, Inc. Free use of this software is granted under the terms of the GNU Public License (GPL).

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and that's the whole page babes 🌸 that was rtla(1) from the General Commands Manual — go forth, analyze your real-time properties, and remember: the kernel is always telling you something, you just gotta trace it 💅👑 bye!!