InitViz

Boot and init process performance visualization tool.

Overview

InitViz visualizes system boot and init process performance by collecting and rendering detailed timing data. It consists of two components:

• bootchartd: Data collector that runs during boot
• initviz: Interactive and batch visualization tool

Quick Start

Profiling Boot

Add to kernel command line (e.g., /boot/grub/grub.cfg):

initcall_debug printk.time=y quiet init=/sbin/bootchartd

After boot, data is saved to /var/log/bootchart.tgz.

Note

The collector monitors /proc/*/stat and stops when it detects a login process (getty, gdm, kdm, xdm, etc.), configurable with EXIT_PROC. After detection, it continues for SETTLE_TIME seconds (default: 2, configurable in /etc/bootchartd.conf) to capture post-login activity.

Viewing Results

Interactive mode:

initviz -i /var/log/bootchart.tgz
...

Generate PNG:

initviz -f png -o bootchart.png /var/log/bootchart.tgz
...

Note

Boot time is calculated as the end time of the last non-bootchart process, excluding the collector's runtime. This accounts for services that start in the background after any of EXIT_PROC appears.

Profiling Running System

bootchartd start
# ... do something ...
bootchartd stop
initviz -i /var/log/bootchart.tgz

Features

• High-resolution timing (nanosecond precision via taskstats)
• Interactive viewer with zoom and pan
• Export to PNG, SVG, or PDF
• Process tree with CPU and I/O wait visualization
• Event annotation support
• Configurable process filtering

Requirements

• Linux kernel with:
  • CONFIG_PROC_EVENTS=y - Process event monitoring (recommended)
  • CONFIG_TASKSTATS=y - Task statistics (required for detailed process data)
  • CONFIG_TASK_DELAY_ACCT=y - Required for cumulative I/O charts
  • CONFIG_TASK_IO_ACCOUNTING=y - I/O accounting (recommended)
• Python 3
• GTK 3 (for interactive mode)
• Cairo (for rendering)

Note on cumulative I/O charts:

The cumulative I/O chart requires CONFIG_TASK_DELAY_ACCT=y and only renders when processes experience measurable I/O delays (blkio_delay_total or swapin_delay_total > 0). Systems with fast storage or efficient I/O may show zero delays, in which case no I/O chart is rendered.

Installation

make
sudo make install

Command Line Options

initviz [options] PATH

Options:
  -i, --interactive         Start in interactive mode
  -f, --format FORMAT       Output format: png, svg, pdf (default: png)
  -o, --output PATH         Output file or directory
  -n, --no-prune            Don't prune process tree
  -q, --quiet               Suppress informational messages
  -t, --boot-time           Display boot time only (text)
  --show-pid                Show process IDs
  --show-all                Show full process details
  --crop-after PROCESS      Crop chart after PROCESS starts
  --annotate PROCESS        Annotate when PROCESS starts
  --annotate-file FILE      Write annotation timestamps to FILE

History

InitViz is a fork of bootchart2 by Riccardo Magliocchetti, which combined the original bootchart shell script by Ziga Mahkovec with pybootchartgui by Anders Norgaard and Henning Niss, and a C-based collector by Scott James Remnant and Michael Meeks.

License

The visualization tool (initviz.py) is licensed under GPLv3+. The collector (bootchartd) is licensed under GPLv2. See COPYING and individual source files for details.