[HN Gopher] Perfetto: Swiss army knife for Linux client tracing
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       Perfetto: Swiss army knife for Linux client tracing
        
       Author : todsacerdoti
       Score  : 70 points
       Date   : 2025-10-31 11:54 UTC (11 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (lalitm.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (lalitm.com)
        
       | knlb wrote:
       | Perfetto is definitely one of my favorite tools to use ever,
       | thank you for working on it!
       | 
       | My personal favorite tool I've built this year is to dynamically
       | generate a trace from a sql query, and allow quickly combining
       | queries. Something like `SELECT timestamp, track, name, ` etc.
       | where column names get transformed to packets automatically.
       | 
       | That way I can overlay multiple py-spy traces and instrumentation
       | into a dynamically implemented generated perfetto trace, loaded
       | into a perfetto iframe using the ping/pong mechanism at
       | https://perfetto.dev/docs/visualization/deep-linking-to-perf....
        
         | lalitmaganti wrote:
         | Thanks for the nice words! Your tool sounds super neat!
         | 
         | We're look at integrating some sort of similarish things into
         | Perfetto itself where, for a synthetically generated trace, you
         | can say "run this SQL query and add a debug track for it on
         | trace load". See the discussion on
         | https://github.com/google/perfetto/issues/1342 :)
        
       | imcritic wrote:
       | Something too complex; I fear I won't ever have enough time to
       | try it and figure out how to apply it for it to be of any use for
       | me.
       | 
       | I wish there was a simpler and quicker introduction into the
       | tool's capabilities than an hour long video and a text article
       | saying it's a swiss army knife that does a lot of things. I need
       | 1 or a few glimpses into it, there's no need to cover every
       | capability thoroughly, show just enough to have some general
       | understanding of how it works and how to use it and how to solve
       | some common problems with it.
        
         | lalitmaganti wrote:
         | This talk was meant to be a comprehensive look into the tool
         | for an audience familiar with performance and tracing (but not
         | necessarily Perfetto and how it can be used on Linux).
         | 
         | If you're more looking for a short intro, I'd maybe suggest our
         | docs website, specifically the page
         | https://perfetto.dev/docs/getting-started/start-using-perfet...
         | 
         | For example:
         | 
         | * if you work in the Linux kernel, try
         | https://perfetto.dev/docs/getting-started/start-using-perfet...
         | 
         | * If you're generally curious about performance or tracing try
         | https://perfetto.dev/docs/getting-started/start-using-perfet...
         | 
         | There's also our quick starts which take you through "I just
         | want to see the tool in action". Find the system tracing one at
         | https://perfetto.dev/docs/getting-started/system-tracing
        
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       (page generated 2025-10-31 23:00 UTC)