Introduction
------------

Bootchart is a tool for performance analysis and visualization of the
GNU/Linux boot process.  Resource utilization and process information are
collected during the boot process and can later be displayed in a PNG, SVG or
EPS-encoded chart.

The boot process is modified to start the boot logger (/sbin/bootchartd)
instead of /sbin/init.  The boot logger will run in background and collect
information from the proc file system (/proc/[PID]/stat, /proc/stat and
/proc/diskstats).  The statistics are logged to a virtual memory file system
(tmpfs).  Once the boot process completes (denoted by the existence of
specific processes), the log files are packaged to /var/log/bootchart.tgz.

The log package can later be processed using a Java application which builds
the process tree and renders a performance chart.  The chart may then be
analyzed to examine process dependency and overall resource utilization.
A renderer web form is also available on the project web site.


Running
-------

1. Install bootchartd and the bootchart renderer. See INSTALL for details.

2. Modify your boot loader (GRUB/LILO) if necessary.  Alternatively, change
   the kernel command line interactively upon reboot.
   Reboot.

3. Verify that /var/log/bootchart.tgz was created and contains the log files.

4. Render the chart by running:

   $ java -jar bootchart.jar

   Alternatively (if no Java Development Kit is installed to build the JAR
   package), the web renderer may be used.  The web form is available at:
   
   http://www.bootchart.org

   To use the web renderer from a script, run:
   curl --form format=svg --form log=@/var/log/bootchart.tgz \
     http://bootchart.klika.si:8080/bootchart/render > bootchart.svgz

   (optionally replacing the svg/bootchart.svgz pair with png/bootchart.png or
    eps/bootchart.eps.gz)

5. View the generated image and analyze the chart.
   SVG images may be viewed using any of the following programs:
   - rsvg-view (librsvg; GNOME)
   - svgdisplay (ksvg; KDE)
   - Gimp (using the gimp-svg plugin)
   - Inkscape
   - Squiggle (Batik; http://xml.apache.org/batik/)

   To get help for additional options, run:
   
   $ java -jar bootchart -h


http://www.bootchart.org
Ziga Mahkovec  <ziga.mahkovec@klika.si>