Bootchart

Bootchart

Bootchart is a performance profiling tool used to measure the boot process of Linux systems. It generates charts that visualize the timing of init scripts, programs, and kernel modules during system startup.
System & Hardware System Diagnostics
boot performance profiling visualization
Bootchart alternatives ➤

Bootchart: Performance Profiling Tool for Linux

Boots a Linux system with profiling tools to analyze the boot process, generating charts that visualize init scripts, programs, and kernel modules execution timing.

What is Bootchart?

Bootchart is an open source application used to measure the boot performance of Linux systems. It enables profiling of the boot process by tracing system calls and process information to create visual charts.

When enabled, Bootchart collects data starting from the kernel initialization all the way until the system is fully booted and idle. This data includes details such as:

  • Start/end times of all processes and drivers
  • Disk reads/writes
  • CPU utilization
  • Memory usage

After the system startup completes, Bootchart generates comprehensive image charts in PNG or SVG format showing a detailed breakdown of the boot tasks and how they progressed over time. The output charts have blocks for the kernel initialization, system services startup, and user mode processes coming online.

Examining these charts helps analyze the boot performance, identify any bottlenecks, and optimize specific aspects of the system boot process. Bootchart is useful for speeding up boot times for Linux distributions and embedded devices.

Bootchart Features

Features

  1. Generates graphical charts of the boot process
  2. Measures the timing of init scripts, programs, and kernel modules during startup
  3. Helps analyze bottlenecks in the boot process
  4. Works on most Linux distributions
  5. Open source and free

Pricing

  • Open Source

Pros

Visual representation makes analysis easier

Lightweight and low overhead

Easy to generate charts

Helps optimize startup time

Free and open source

Cons

Requires reboot to generate new chart

Can only measure boot process, not runtime

Interpreting data requires some expertise

Configuration can be complex for advanced use cases

Official Links

Official Website
https://www.bootchart.org/

The Best Bootchart Alternatives

Top System & Hardware and System Diagnostics and other similar apps like Bootchart

Here are some alternatives to Bootchart:

Systemd icon
systemd
BootVis icon
BootVis
Suggest an alternative ❐

Systemd icon

Systemd

systemd is a system and service manager for Linux operating systems that has become the de-facto standard. It initializes the system at boot time, manages services and daemons, supervises processes, and centralizes the logging system. Some of the key features and goals of systemd include:Fast boot times by parallelizing tasks...
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BootVis icon

BootVis

BootVis is a free and open source Windows boot time optimization utility. It provides detailed insights into the Windows boot process by tracing system activity during boot. BootVis analyzes the boot trace log to give a visual representation of the boot sequence, highlighting processes and drivers that take up the...
BootVis image