Bootchart is a tool for performance analysis and visualization of the GNU/Linux boot process. Resource utilization and process information are collected during the boot process and can later be displayed in a PNG, SVG or EPS-encoded chart.

The boot process is modified to start the boot logger (/sbin/bootchartd) instead of /sbin/init. The boot logger will run in background and collect information from the proc file system (/proc/[PID]/stat, /proc/stat and /proc/diskstats). The statistics are logged to a virtual memory file system (tmpfs). Once the boot process completes (denoted by the existence of specific processes), the log files are packaged to /var/log/bootchart.tgz.

The log package can later be processed using a Java application which builds the process tree and renders a performance chart. The chart may then be analyzed to examine process dependency and overall resource utilization. A renderer web form is also available on the project web site.

[ Info and image credit goes to: www.bootchart.org ]