
DTrace is a performance analysis and troubleshooting tool included by default with various operating systems, including illumos, Solaris, Mac OS X and FreeBSD. A Linux port is in development.
DTrace instruments all software.
Not just user-level software, including applications, databases and webservers, but also the operating system kernel and device drivers. The name is short for Dynamic Tracing: an instrumentation technique pioneered by DTrace which dynamically patches live running instructions with instrumentation code. The DTrace facility also supports Static Tracing: where user-friendly trace points are added to code and compiled-in before deployment.
DTrace provides a language, 'D', for writing DTrace scripts and one-liners. The language is like C and awk, and provides powerful ways to filter and summarize data in-kernel before passing to user-land. This is an important feature that enables DTrace to be used in performance-sensitive production environments, as it can greatly reduce the overhead of gathering and presenting data. ...more
There is also a pony.
DTrace for Beginners
- Tutorial: DTrace by Example
- Using DTrace to Analyze Your Webstack (short video)
- Top 10 DTrace scripts for Mac OS X
- Introducción a DTrace (in Spanish)
More DTrace
- DTrace FAQs
- Advanced DTrace Tips, Tricks and Gotchas
- DTrace: printf debugging for seventh-level wizards
Books
- DTrace Guide - now ported and updated for illumos!
- Dynamic Tracing Guide: the original reference manual, freely available as a 408 page PDF (2008)
- Solaris Performance and Tools: takes Solaris perf analysis further with DTrace, 440 pages (2006)
- DTrace: the DTrace book of scripts and strategy, 1100 pages (2011). Read a sample chapter on Brendan's blog
Blogs
DTrace.org:
- Adam Leventhal
- Bill Pijewski
- Brendan Gregg
- Bryan Cantrill
- Dave Pacheco
- Eric Schrock
- Robert Mustacchi
Videos on DTrace
- Bryan Cantrill's Google Tech Talk
- Breaking Down MySQL/Percona Query Latency With DTrace
- Little Shop of Performance Horrors
- DTrace BoF at LISA10
- Brendan Gregg on DTrace at the Kernel Conference Australia, 2009
- How to Build Better Applications with Oracle Solaris DTrace
- Observing Your App and Everything Else it Runs on Using DTrace
- DTracing Your Website
- The Problems Solaris Solves: Diagnosing Live Systems with DTrace