TRACE-CMD-SNAPSHOT(1)

🌸 NAME 🌸

trace-cmd-snapshot — bestie, this is the libtracefs manual page, and this command is all about taking, resetting, freeing, or showing a Ftrace kernel snapshot. like, the whole snapshot vibe. 📸💖

🎀 SYNOPSIS 🎀

trace-cmd snapshot [OPTIONS]

💅 DESCRIPTION 💅

okay so trace-cmd(1) snapshot controls or displays the Ftrace Linux kernel snapshot feature — but only if the kernel supports it, so check that first bestie, no cap.

the whole point is that you can "freeze" an instance of a live trace without stopping the trace. so it's like a freeze-frame, but the trace keeps going. iconic. 🧊

like, here's the exact workflow:

            trace-cmd start -p function
            trace-cmd snapshot -s
            trace-cmd snapshot
           [ dumps the content of buffer at 'trace-cmd snapshot -s' ]
            trace-cmd snapshot -s
            trace-cmd snapshot
           [ dumps the new content of the buffer at the last -s operation ]

so you start the trace, take a snapshot with -s, dump the content, then take another snapshot and dump the new content. literally the whole cycle, and it's iconic. ✨

✨ OPTIONS ✨

• -s — takes a snapshot of the currently running buffer. like, right now, snap! 📸
• -r — clears out the buffer. bye bye, data. 🧹
• -f — frees the snapshot buffer. okay this one actually matters, bestie: the buffer takes up memory inside the kernel, and it's best to free it when you're not using it. but don't worry — the first -s operation will allocate it again if it's not already allocated. easy. 💅
• -c cpu — operates on a per cpu snapshot. heads up though: this may not be fully supported by all kernels, so if it doesn't work, that's why. 🙈
• -B buf — if you created a buffer instance, then the -B option will operate on the snapshot within that buffer. so it's like, "use this buffer's snapshot, not the main one." 🎀

🦋 SEE ALSO 🦋

bestie, you should totally check out these other pages too:

• trace-cmd(1)
• trace-cmd-record(1)
• trace-cmd-report(1)
• trace-cmd-start(1)
• trace-cmd-extract(1)
• trace-cmd-reset(1)
• trace-cmd-split(1)
• trace-cmd-list(1)
• trace-cmd-listen(1)

all the trace-cmd content your heart desires. 💖

💖 AUTHOR 💖

written by Steven Rostedt, <rostedt@goodmis.org[1]>. king behavior, honestly. 👑

🌈 RESOURCES 🌈

the repo is right here bestie: https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/utils/trace-cmd/trace-cmd.git/ — go off. 💻

🍓 COPYING 🍓

Copyright (C) 2010 Red Hat, Inc. Free use of this software is granted under the terms of the GNU Public License (GPL). 📜

🧚 NOTES 🧚

1. rostedt@goodmis.org mailto:rostedt@goodmis.org

---

💖 and that's the teaaaa! this page is from libtracefs, dated 03/09/2026, and it's TRACE-CMD-SNAPSHOT(1). slay, periodt, bye bestie! 💖