Interpreting trace data in the System Profiler

Updated: October 28, 2024

When a kernel event trace launched through the IDE finishes, you can open the new log file to see the file's data in the System Profiler editor. This editor is highly interactive and lets you see subsets of event data, which helps you understand component interaction and troubleshoot problems.

To manually open a trace file, choose File > Open File and navigate to and select the file. All kernel event logs generated for a specific target from the IDE are stored in workspace_dir/target_conn_name.

Note: If you run a kernel event trace outside of the IDE, you can still view the results with the System Profiler. You just need to copy the log file to a suitable host location and open it in the IDE.
By default, the Summary pane is shown. This pane reports the system-wide CPU time breakdown and general statistics about the kernel event trace, in the System Activity area. It also shows execution metrics for individual processes and threads, in the Process & Thread Activity area.

Screenshot of Summary pane in System Profiler editor

The editor lets you visualize the trace data in different ways, by selecting a particular pane through the Switch Pane dropdown in the upper right corner (Icon: Switch Pane dropdown). The panes that are most useful depend on which information you're trying to extract and which problems you're trying to solve. In the sections that follow, we describe how to locate specific events and filter the data in the System Profiler editor to perform common cases of analysis and troubleshooting.