How To Install blktrace on CentOS 8

blktrace is Utilities for performing block layer IO tracing in the Linux kernel

Introduction

In this tutorial we learn how to install blktrace on CentOS 8.

What is blktrace

blktrace is a block layer IO tracing mechanism which provides detailed information about request queue operations to user space. This package includes both blktrace, a utility which gathers event traces from the kernel; and blkparse, a utility which formats trace data collected by blktrace. You should install the blktrace package if you need to gather detailed information about IO patterns.

We can use yum or dnf to install blktrace on CentOS 8. In this tutorial we discuss both methods but you only need to choose one of method to install blktrace.

Install blktrace on CentOS 8 Using dnf

Update yum database with dnf using the following command.

sudo dnf makecache --refresh

The output should look something like this:

CentOS Linux 8 - AppStream                                       43 kB/s | 4.3 kB     00:00    
CentOS Linux 8 - BaseOS                                          65 kB/s | 3.9 kB     00:00    
CentOS Linux 8 - ContinuousRelease                               43 kB/s | 3.0 kB     00:00    
CentOS Linux 8 - Extras                                          23 kB/s | 1.5 kB     00:00    
CentOS Linux 8 - FastTrack                                       40 kB/s | 3.0 kB     00:00    
CentOS Linux 8 - HighAvailability                                36 kB/s | 3.9 kB     00:00    
CentOS Linux 8 - Plus                                            24 kB/s | 1.5 kB     00:00    
CentOS Linux 8 - PowerTools                                      50 kB/s | 4.3 kB     00:00    
Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux Modular 8 - x86_64           13 kB/s | 9.2 kB     00:00    
Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux 8 - x86_64                   24 kB/s | 8.5 kB     00:00    
Metadata cache created.

After updating yum database, We can install blktrace using dnf by running the following command:

sudo dnf -y install blktrace

Install blktrace on CentOS 8 Using yum

Update yum database with yum using the following command.

sudo yum makecache --refresh

The output should look something like this:

CentOS Linux 8 - AppStream                                       43 kB/s | 4.3 kB     00:00    
CentOS Linux 8 - BaseOS                                          65 kB/s | 3.9 kB     00:00    
CentOS Linux 8 - ContinuousRelease                               43 kB/s | 3.0 kB     00:00    
CentOS Linux 8 - Extras                                          23 kB/s | 1.5 kB     00:00    
CentOS Linux 8 - FastTrack                                       40 kB/s | 3.0 kB     00:00    
CentOS Linux 8 - HighAvailability                                36 kB/s | 3.9 kB     00:00    
CentOS Linux 8 - Plus                                            24 kB/s | 1.5 kB     00:00    
CentOS Linux 8 - PowerTools                                      50 kB/s | 4.3 kB     00:00    
Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux Modular 8 - x86_64           13 kB/s | 9.2 kB     00:00    
Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux 8 - x86_64                   24 kB/s | 8.5 kB     00:00    
Metadata cache created.

After updating yum database, We can install blktrace using yum by running the following command:

sudo yum -y install blktrace

How To Uninstall blktrace on CentOS 8

To uninstall only the blktrace package we can use the following command:

sudo dnf remove blktrace

blktrace Package Contents on CentOS 8

/usr/bin/blkiomon
/usr/bin/blkparse
/usr/bin/blkrawverify
/usr/bin/blktrace
/usr/bin/bno_plot.py
/usr/bin/btrace
/usr/bin/btrecord
/usr/bin/btreplay
/usr/bin/btt
/usr/bin/verify_blkparse
/usr/lib/.build-id
/usr/lib/.build-id/0c
/usr/lib/.build-id/0c/fa94daca88ef1b101084590253f2ee3a3c6a6a
/usr/lib/.build-id/83
/usr/lib/.build-id/83/dc310718402f4e3b763c4cb20606c006847481
/usr/lib/.build-id/87
/usr/lib/.build-id/87/a36047afcbf63151c9770162f08c7b263cc41b
/usr/lib/.build-id/95
/usr/lib/.build-id/95/8557e7dccc65342287a7b6bdb8de5e5a62e12e
/usr/lib/.build-id/97
/usr/lib/.build-id/97/76e530f03f493db772b16fede7acaf7540b32a
/usr/lib/.build-id/b2
/usr/lib/.build-id/b2/5b3af772a9e7c13bba025c98093ce447ef8849
/usr/lib/.build-id/c2
/usr/lib/.build-id/c2/383e9ebbb122baa02c75d0e018e8701041f2a3
/usr/lib/.build-id/f2
/usr/lib/.build-id/f2/ed0b7800536744d23f122d4cc6537ca8f4f888
/usr/share/doc/blktrace
/usr/share/doc/blktrace/COPYING
/usr/share/doc/blktrace/README
/usr/share/man/man1/blkparse.1.gz
/usr/share/man/man1/blkrawverify.1.gz
/usr/share/man/man1/bno_plot.1.gz
/usr/share/man/man1/btt.1.gz
/usr/share/man/man1/verify_blkparse.1.gz
/usr/share/man/man8/blkiomon.8.gz
/usr/share/man/man8/blktrace.8.gz
/usr/share/man/man8/btrace.8.gz
/usr/share/man/man8/btrecord.8.gz
/usr/share/man/man8/btreplay.8.gz

References

Summary

In this tutorial we learn how to install blktrace on CentOS 8 using yum and dnf.