NAME¶

vfscount.bt - Count VFS calls ("vfs_*"). Uses bpftrace/eBPF.

SYNOPSIS¶

vfscount.bt

DESCRIPTION¶

This counts VFS calls. This can be useful for general workload characterization of these operations.

This works by tracing all kernel functions beginning with "vfs_" using dynamic tracing. This may match more functions than you are interested in measuring: Edit the script to customize which functions to trace.

Since this uses BPF, only the root user can use this tool.

REQUIREMENTS¶

CONFIG_BPF and bpftrace.

EXAMPLES¶

Count all VFS calls until Ctrl-C is hit:

# vfscount.bt

FIELDS¶

1st

Kernel function name (in @[])

2nd

Number of calls while tracing

OVERHEAD¶

This traces kernel vfs functions and maintains in-kernel counts, which are asynchronously copied to user-space. While the rate of VFS operations can be very high (>1M/sec), this is a relatively efficient way to trace these events, and so the overhead is expected to be small for normal workloads. Measure in a test environment, and if overheads are an issue, edit the script to reduce the types of vfs functions traced (currently all beginning with "vfs_").

SOURCE¶

This is from bpftrace.

https://github.com/iovisor/bpftrace

Also look in the bpftrace distribution for a companion _examples.txt file containing example usage, output, and commentary for this tool.

This is a bpftrace version of the bcc tool of the same name. The bcc tool may provide more options and customizations.

https://github.com/iovisor/bcc

OS¶

Linux

STABILITY¶

Unstable - in development.

AUTHOR¶

Brendan Gregg

SEE ALSO¶

vfsstat.bt(8)