tcpretrans.bt - Trace or count TCP retransmits. Uses Linux bpftrace/eBPF
Contents
Description
This traces TCP retransmits, showing address, port, and TCP state information, and sometimes the PID
(although usually not, since retransmits are usually sent by the kernel on timeouts). To keep overhead
very low, only the TCP retransmit functions are traced. This does not trace every packet (like tcpdump(8)
or a packet sniffer). Optionally, it can count retransmits over a user signalled interval to spot
potentially dropping network paths the flows are traversing.
This uses dynamic tracing of the kernel tcp_retransmit_skb() and tcp_send_loss_probe() functions, and
will need to be updated to match kernel changes to these functions.
Since this uses BPF, only the root user can use this tool.
Examples
Trace TCP retransmits:
# tcpretrans.btFIELDS
TIME Time of the call, in HH:MM:SS format.
PID Process ID that was on-CPU. This is less useful than it might sound, as it may usually be 0, for
the kernel, for timer-based retransmits.
LADDR Local IP address.
LPORT Local port.
RADDR Remote IP address.
RPORT Remote port.
STATE TCP session state.
Name
tcpretrans.bt - Trace or count TCP retransmits. Uses Linux bpftrace/eBPF
Os
Linux
Overhead
Should be negligible: TCP retransmit events should be low (<1000/s), and the low overhead this tool adds
to each event should make the cost negligible.
Requirements
CONFIG_BPF and bcc. CONFIG_BPF and bpftrace.
See Also
tcpconnect.bt(8), tcpaccept.bt(8) USER COMMANDS 2018-11-24 tcpretrans.bt(8)
Source
This is from bpftrace
https://github.com/bpftrace/bpftrace
Also look in the bpftrace distribution for a companion _examples.txt file containing example usage,
output, and commentary for this tool.
This is a bpftrace version of the bcc tool of the same name. The bcc tool may provide more options and
customizations.
https://github.com/iovisor/bcc
Stability
Unstable - in development.
Synopsis
tcpretrans.bt
