Manual: trace-cmd-set
TRACE-CMD-SET(1) libtracefs Manual TRACE-CMD-SET(1)
NAME
trace-cmd-set - set a configuration parameter of the Ftrace Linux internal tracer
SYNOPSIS
trace-cmd set [OPTIONS] [command]
DESCRIPTION
The trace-cmd(1) set command will set a configuration parameter of the Ftrace Linux kernel tracer. The specified
command will be run after the ftrace state is set. The configured ftrace state can be restored to default using the
trace-cmd-reset(1) command.
OPTIONS
-p tracer
Specify a tracer. Tracers usually do more than just trace an event. Common tracers are: function, function_graph,
preemptirqsoff, irqsoff, preemptoff and wakeup. A tracer must be supported by the running kernel. To see a list
of available tracers, see trace-cmd-list(1).
-e event
Specify an event to trace. Various static trace points have been added to the Linux kernel. They are grouped by
subsystem where you can enable all events of a given subsystem or specify specific events to be enabled. The
event is of the format "subsystem:event-name". You can also just specify the subsystem without the :event-name or
the event-name without the "subsystem:". Using "-e sched_switch" will enable the "sched_switch" event where as,
"-e sched" will enable all events under the "sched" subsystem.
The 'event' can also contain glob expressions. That is, "*stat*" will
select all events (or subsystems) that have the characters "stat" in their
names.
The keyword 'all' can be used to enable all events.
-T
Enable a stacktrace on each event. For example:
-0 [003] 58549.289091: sched_switch: kworker/0:1:0 [120] R ==> trace-cmd:2603 [120]
-0 [003] 58549.289092: kernel_stack:
=> schedule (ffffffff814b260e)
=> cpu_idle (ffffffff8100a38c)
=> start_secondary (ffffffff814ab828)
--func-stack
Enable a stack trace on all functions. Note this is only applicable for the "function" plugin tracer, and will
only take effect if the -l option is used and succeeds in limiting functions. If the function tracer is not
filtered, and the stack trace is enabled, you can live lock the machine.
-f filter
Specify a filter for the previous event. This must come after a -e. This will filter what events get recorded
based on the content of the event. Filtering is passed to the kernel directly so what filtering is allowed may
depend on what version of the kernel you have. Basically, it will let you use C notation to check if an event
should be processed or not.
==, >=, <=, >, <, &, |, && and ||
The above are usually safe to use to compare fields.
-R trigger
Specify a trigger for the previous event. This must come after a -e. This will add a given trigger to the given
event. To only enable the trigger and not the event itself, then place the event after the -v option.
See Documentation/trace/events.txt in the Linux kernel source for more
information on triggers.
-v
This will negate options specified after it on the command line. It affects:
-e: Causes all specified events to not be traced. This is useful for
selecting a subsystem to be traced but to leave out various events.
For example: "-e sched -v -e "*stat*"" will enable all events in
the sched subsystem except those that have "stat" in their names.
-B: Deletes the specified ftrace instance. There must be no
configuration options related to this instance in the command line.
For example: "-v -B bar -B foo" will delete instance bar and create
a new instance foo.
Note: the -v option was taken from the way grep(1) inverts the following
matches.
-P pid
This will filter only the specified process IDs. Using -P will let you trace only events that are caused by the
process.
-c
Used -P to trace the process' children too (if kernel supports it).
--user
Execute the specified command as given user.
-C clock
Set the trace clock to "clock".
Use trace-cmd(1) list -C to see what clocks are available.
-l function-name
This will limit the function and function_graph tracers to only trace the given function name. More than one -l
may be specified on the command line to trace more than one function. The limited use of glob expressions are
also allowed. These are match* to only filter functions that start with match. *match to only filter functions
that end with match. *match\* to only filter on functions that contain match.
-g function-name
This option is for the function_graph plugin. It will graph the given function. That is, it will only trace the
function and all functions that it calls. You can have more than one -g on the command line.
-n function-name
This has the opposite effect of -l. The function given with the -n option will not be traced. This takes
precedence, that is, if you include the same function for both -n and -l, it will not be traced.
-d
Some tracer plugins enable the function tracer by default. Like the latency tracers. This option prevents the
function tracer from being enabled at start up.
-D
The option -d will try to use the function-trace option to disable the function tracer (if available), otherwise
it defaults to the proc file: /proc/sys/kernel/ftrace_enabled, but will not touch it if the function-trace option
is available. The -D option will disable both the ftrace_enabled proc file as well as the function-trace option
if it exists.
Note, this disable function tracing for all users, which includes users
outside of ftrace tracers (stack_tracer, perf, etc).
-O option
Ftrace has various options that can be enabled or disabled. This allows you to set them. Appending the text no to
an option disables it. For example: "-O nograph-time" will disable the "graph-time" Ftrace option.
-b size
This sets the ring buffer size to size kilobytes. Because the Ftrace ring buffer is per CPU, this size is the
size of each per CPU ring buffer inside the kernel. Using "-b 10000" on a machine with 4 CPUs will make Ftrace
have a total buffer size of 40 Megs.
-B buffer-name
If the kernel supports multiple buffers, this will add a buffer with the given name. If the buffer name already
exists, that buffer is just reset.
After a buffer name is stated, all events added after that will be
associated with that buffer. If no buffer is specified, or an event
is specified before a buffer name, it will be associated with the
main (toplevel) buffer.
trace-cmd set -e sched -B block -e block -B time -e timer sleep 1
The above is will enable all sched events in the main buffer. It will
then create a 'block' buffer instance and enable all block events within
that buffer. A 'time' buffer instance is created and all timer events
will be enabled for that event.
-m size
The max size in kilobytes that a per cpu buffer should be. Note, due to rounding to page size, the number may not
be totally correct. Also, this is performed by switching between two buffers that are half the given size thus
the output may not be of the given size even if much more was written.
Use this to prevent running out of diskspace for long runs.
-M cpumask
Set the cpumask for to trace. It only affects the last buffer instance given. If supplied before any buffer
instance, then it affects the main buffer. The value supplied must be a hex number.
trace-cmd set -p function -M c -B events13 -e all -M 5
If the -M is left out, then the mask stays the same. To enable all
CPUs, pass in a value of '-1'.
-i
By default, if an event is listed that trace-cmd does not find, it will exit with an error. This option will just
ignore events that are listed on the command line but are not found on the system.
-q | --quiet
Suppresses normal output, except for errors.
--max-graph-depth depth
Set the maximum depth the function_graph tracer will trace into a function. A value of one will only show where
userspace enters the kernel but not any functions called in the kernel. The default is zero, which means no
limit.
--cmdlines-size size
Set the number of entries the kernel tracing file "saved_cmdlines" can contain. This file is a circular buffer
which stores the mapping between cmdlines and PIDs. If full, it leads to unresolved cmdlines ("<...>") within the
trace. The kernel default value is 128.
--module module
Filter a module’s name in function tracing. It is equivalent to adding :mod:module after all other functions
being filtered. If no other function filter is listed, then all modules functions will be filtered in the filter.
'--module snd' is equivalent to '-l :mod:snd'
'--module snd -l "*jack*"' is equivalent to '-l "*jack*:mod:snd"'
'--module snd -n "*"' is equivalent to '-n :mod:snd'
--stderr
Have output go to stderr instead of stdout, but the output of the command executed will not be changed. This is
useful if you want to monitor the output of the command being executed, but not see the output from trace-cmd.
--fork
If a command is listed, then trace-cmd will wait for that command to finish, unless the --fork option is
specified. Then it will fork the command and return immediately.
--verbose[=level]
Set the log level. Supported log levels are "none", "critical", "error", "warning", "info", "debug", "all" or
their identifiers "0", "1", "2", "3", "4", "5", "6". Setting the log level to specific value enables all logs
from that and all previous levels. The level will default to "info" if one is not specified.
Example: enable all critical, error and warning logs
trace-cmd set --verbose=warning
EXAMPLES
Enable all events for tracing:
# trace-cmd set -e all
Set the function tracer:
# trace-cmd set -p function
SEE ALSO
trace-cmd(1), trace-cmd-report(1), trace-cmd-start(1), trace-cmd-stop(1), trace-cmd-extract(1), trace-cmd-reset(1),
trace-cmd-split(1), trace-cmd-list(1), trace-cmd-listen(1), trace-cmd-profile(1)
AUTHOR
Written by Tzvetomir Stoyanov (VMware)
RESOURCES
https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/utils/trace-cmd/trace-cmd.git/
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. tz.stoyanov@gmail.com
mailto:tz.stoyanov@gmail.com
libtracefs 01/22/2026 TRACE-CMD-SET(1)