Timeline view

QNX Toolkit1.1QNX Toolkit User's GuideDeveloperSetup

The Timeline view shows the chronology of the logged kernel events of a trace.kev file. You can hover over the color bands to display relevant information. You can also configure the colors and thickness settings. Go to Editing colors and thickness for details.

Opening the view

Timeline is one of the dashboard views in the System Profiler.

To open the view:

  1. Click QNX SYSTEM PROFILER, then select a .kev file.
  2. Click DASHBOARDS > Timeline.
    The Timeline view is displayed:

Toolbar actions

You can take the following actions from the toolbar in the Timeline view:

Toolbar action Description
Show / Hide States View execution states of threads and processes over time.
Toggle Events Display event ticks as bars on the timeline.
Toggle CPU States View the behavior of CPU cores over time.
Show IPC Show communication events between threads or processes (interprocess communication lines).
Show / Hide Bookmarks View single event or ranged bookmarks. When bookmarks are enabled they appear in a shaded color on the timeline.
Zoom In Zoom in to reveal fine-grained detail on the timeline.
Zoom Out Zoom out to obtain a higher level overview of system activity.
Home Reset zoom.
Sync/Desync Global Filters Sync the timeline with the owner and event filters in the System Profiler.
Sync/Desync With Other Views Enable two-way sync between the timeline and the other System Profiler views. This aligns all views to the same time window.

About IPC lines

The flow of interprocess communication (e.g., messages, pulses) is represented by a vertical arrow between the two elements. When you hover over a blue arrowhead, a tooltip reveals the specific owners that are involved in the information flow.

By default, when you toggle the feature on, QNX Toolkit displays the IPC trace arrows for all event owners. And, if neither element is on the screen, then only an arrowhead is shown. You can use event filtering to limit what events are displayed as IPC lines. For more information, refer to Filtering traces.

Filtering the view

You can filter the Timeline view using the Filter box.

To filter the view:

  1. In the Timeline view, click the Filter icon at the top left.
  2. Enter the name of a process in the field.

    The view is updated to show timeline information only for the process that you've entered.

Editing colors and thickness

You can use the TIMELINE COLORS option in the QNX menu to edit the colors and thinkness properties for the states and CPUs that display on the Timeline.

To edit the state colors and thickness settings:
  1. Click TIMELINE COLORS:

  2. Click State Colors and Thickness:

    • To change the color, click one of the colors and adjust the color picker accordingly.
    • To change the thickness, click one of the numbers and adjust it accordingly.
To edit the CPU colors and thickness settings:
  • Click TIMELINE COLORS.
  • Click CPU Colors and Thickness:

    • To change the color, click one of the colors and adjust the color picker accordingly.
    • To change the thickness, click one of the numbers and adjust it accordingly.
Note:
To revert the changes, click the Reset to Default button.
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