IBM User Guide for Java V7 on Windows > Troubleshooting and support > Using diagnostic tools > Tracing Java applications and the JVM

Using the trace formatter

The trace formatter is a Java™ program that converts binary trace point data in a trace file to a readable form. The formatter requires the J9TraceFormat.dat file, which contains the formatting templates. The formatter produces a file containing header information about the JVM that produced the binary trace file, a list of threads for which trace points were produced, and the formatted trace points with their timestamp, thread ID, trace point ID and trace point data.

To use the trace formatter on a binary trace file type:

java com.ibm.jvm.TraceFormat <input_file>  [<output_file>] [options]

where <input_file> is the name of the binary trace file to be formatted, and <output_file> is the name of the output file.

If you do not specify an output file, the output file is called <input_file>.fmt.

The size of the heap needed to format the trace is directly proportional to the number of threads present in the trace file. For large numbers of threads the formatter might run out of memory, generating the error OutOfMemoryError. In this case, increase the heap size using the -Xmx option.

Available options

The following options are available with the trace formatter:

-datfile=<file1.dat>[,<file2.dat>]

A comma-separated list of trace formatting data files. By default, the files used are:$JAVA_HOME/lib/J9TraceFormat.dat and $JAVA_HOME/lib/TraceFormat.dat

-format_time=yes|no

Specifies whether to format the time stamps into human readable form. The default is yes.

-help

Displays usage information.

-indent

Indents trace messages at each Entry trace point and outdents trace messages at each Exit trace point. The default is not to indent the messages.

-summary

Prints summary information to the screen without generating an output file.

-threads=<thread id>[,<thread id>]...

Filters the output for the given thread IDs only. thread id is the ID of the thread, which can be specified in decimal or hex (0x) format. Any number of thread IDs can be specified, separated by commas.

-timezone=+|-HH:MM

Specifies the offset from UTC, as positive or negative hours and minutes, to apply when formatting timestamps.

-verbose

Output detailed warning and error messages, and performance statistics.

Parent: Tracing Java applications and the JVM

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