Introducing RTLA: The New Real‑Time Linux Analysis Tool in Kernel 5.17

RTLA (real‑time Linux analysis tool) has been added to the Linux 5.17 kernel source tree. Developed by Red Hat kernel engineer Daniel Bristot de Oliveira, RTLA uses the Linux kernel’s tracing facilities to collect data and provides an intuitive interface for viewing and processing the traced information.

The tool’s commands can read OS noise (osnoise) and IRQ/thread timer latency (timerlat) from the kernel, making it easier for users and developers to gather performance and tracing data, which helps fine‑tune systems and algorithms. It is especially useful for kernel developers who are not familiar with PREEMPT_RT debugging but need to evaluate performance.

# rtla timerlat top -P f:95 -T 150 -t trace_output.txt

This command produces a latency summary for a high‑priority task (‑P f:95) and, when latency exceeds 150 µs (‑T 150), saves a trace with debugging information to trace_output.txt. The trace file is a valuable aid for Linux‑rt developers to pinpoint the origin of performance issues.

According to Daniel, RTLA is just the beginning; Linux 5.17 will bring additional real‑time analysis tools, such as a real‑time Linux scheduler analysis utility and other tools for evaluating Linux real‑time features and scheduler properties.